II. We have now to refer to the MSS. of the Greek Testament. Those that have descended to our time are either on vellum or paper. The oldest material was the Egyptian papyrus ; but even so early as the 4th century, the N. T. was written on the skins of animals. This writing ma terial continued in use till the 11th century, when paper began to be employed. Till the ioth cen tury, MSS. were usually written in capital or uncial letters ; then the cursive character came into use. The most ancient copies have no divisions of words, being written in a continued series of lines. Ac cents, spirits, and iota postscribed or subscribed, are also wanting.
The whole of the N. T. is contained in very few MSS. Transcribers generally divided it into three parts ; the first, containing the four Gospels ; the second, the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles ; the third, the Apocalypse of St. John. The greatest number of MSS. are those which have the four Gospels, because they were most frequently read in the churches. Those containing the Acts and Epistles are also numerous. Such as have the book of Revelation alone are extremely few, be cause it was seldom read in public.
Greek codices are not often complete in all their parts. They have many chasms. Again, some contain merely detached portions of the N. T., or sections appointed to be read on certain days in the churches. Such codices are called dva)anbacts or dywribg/Aara in Greek ; in Latin lectionaria. Those containing lessons from the Gospels are called evan gelistaria ; such as were taken from the Acts Irpc*trocrroXot ; those from the epistles, epistolaria or borboroXot.
Several MSS. are accompanied with a Latin translation interlined, or in a parallel column. Such have been called bilingues, or Graco-Latini We shall now advert to the uncial MS. of the Greek Testament, and to those usually quoted in the examination of the controverted passage I John v. 7. The former are marked with the letters of alphabet A, B, C, etc.
A. Codex Alexandrines, presented by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Alexandria, and afterwards of Constantinople, to Charles I., now in the British Museum. It is on thin vellum, and contains the whole Bible ; the Septuagint version of the O. T., bound in three folios ; and the N. T. in one. It has various chasms. A fac-simile of the N. T. portion was published by Dr. Woide, in a folio volume, London 17S6. Mr. Baber of the British Museum executed the O. T. in the same man ner, in four folio volumes, London 1816-28; the fourth volume containing the prolegomena and notes. The N. T. portion was reprinted in 1860 under the editorship of Mr. Cowper. This MS. was written at Alexandria, and belongs to the 5th century.
B. Codex raticanuA 1209, in the Vatican, con taining the O. and N. T. It is defective in several places : in the greater part of Genesis and part of the Psalms ; in Heb. ix. 14 to the end ; the Apocalpyse; and pastoral Epistles. Some of these chasms have been supplied by a more recent hand. The text was at first without breathings or accents, which were subsequently added. Each page has three columns, except in some places of the O. T. It belongs to the middle of the 4th century, having neither the Ammonian sections, the Eusebian canons, nor the Euthalian sections. Three collations of the N. T. part have been made ; one by Bar tolocci ; another for Bentley, by an Italian called Mico ; and a third by Birch. As the collation of Mico did not give the readings, which were a prima mane in corrected passages, but merely the later corrections, Bentley got the Abbe Rulotta to re examine the MS. in these places. The notes of
this re-examination were discovered among Bentley's papers in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, by Tischendorf, accompanied with a partial colla tion of the MS. made by Thomas Bentley. In 1857 Angelo Mai's Greek Bible was published from the MS., 5 vols. 4to. Reprints of the N. T. were edited by Vercellone (1859), Kuenen and Cobet (1859), and at London (1859), of which the first is the best. The editions of the Greek Testament, by Ed. von Muralt (1846 and 1S4S), Philipp Butt mann (186o and 1862), are founded wholly or chiefly on the text of the same MS. But we have not yet a perfectly accurate transcript of all its read ings. Tischendorf's Novum Thstamentum ex cod. Sinaitico notata lectione Vaticana itenique Elzevir., gives the best collation of the readings of the Vati can which we yet possess.
B. Codex Vilikall2l; 2066, olim Basilianus los, in the Vatican Library, a MS. of the Apocalypse which it contains entire. It belongs to the Sth century. From Tischendorf's readings, published in his .11Ionumenta Sacra inedita, p. 407, etc., and Mai's text in his edition of the Greek Bible, an accurate knowledge of its contents may be ob tained (see Tischendorf's prolegomena to the 7th edition, pp. cxcii., cxciii.) N. Codex Sinaiticus, a MS. of the O. and N. T. brought from the convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai by Tischendorf. It consists of 345 leaves and a half, 199 in the O. T. and 147 in the N. T. Besides the N. T., it has Barnabas and Hernias at the end. The O. T. part has consider able chasms, but the N. T. is complete. There are four columns in each page. The character of the letters, the inscriptions and subscriptions to different books, the absence of the Ammonian sec tions and Eusebian canons, the nature of the read ings, and other peculiarities, agree in a remarkable manner with II, or the Vatican. Tischendorf sup poses that it is somewhat older than 13, belonging to the 4th century. Probably it is of the 5th cen tury, though made from a text older than that of B. The copyist, writing perhaps from dictation, has made many blunders. The value of this acqui sition to the critical apparatus of the Bible can hardly be over-estimated. In Tischendorf's Notitia editionis codicil Bibliorum Sinaitiei, etc., 1860, small folio, the indefatigable critic has given nine pages entire from the N. T., eight from the O. T., and one from the epistle of Barnabas and the Shep herd of Hernias (p. 22, et scqq.) He has also fur nished upwards of six hundred readings from all the books of the N. T. (p. 14, et sem.) A fac simile is appended. Tischendorf has likewise printed a brief No/ilia codieis to accompany the seventh edition of his Greek Testament, of the same size. It may be remarked, that the Codex Sinaitiens agrees with B in omitting the last twelve verses of Mark's Gospel ; that it has as ict,avepwOn, not Oros ; that it omits the passage respecting the woman taken in adultery (John vii. 53-viii. ; agrees with B in omitting iv igmerco in Eph. (a prim& mann); wants the doxology in Matt. vi. 13, as do B D Z ; agrees with B in reading EICKNMCfLECP TOU Oros) (Acts xx. 28) ; with B C 13" in having otZevos Xayov rotovuol 7-Lump ilhavrco (Acts xx. 24), and has eEOS with B C L in John i. IS—a reading undoubtedly wrong. The MS. has been published at St. Peters burg in fac-simile (4 vols. fol.) In z863 the N. T. part was published at Leipzig, 4to, with columns the same as the original. Scrivener has also printed its readings in a small vol. 0863), and Hansell has added them to his edition of the N. T. (1864).