MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLE are written as opposed to printed copies of the whole Bible or a part thereof. All these manu scripts, whether of the original text or of an ancient version, so long as they were done be fore the invention of the art of printing, are important in the science of the textual criticism of /Holy Writ. This article will contain a brief introduction on Bible manuscripts in general, followed by a summary account of the chief Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian and Coptic manuscripts of the Bible. Manuscripts of the Arabic, Ethiopic, Slavic and other early versions of Scripture do not witness to the ear liest type of New Testament text; they are amply treated in technical dictionaries of the Bible.
I. Bible Manuscripts in There are three classes of Bible manuscripts papy rus, vellum and palimpsest to which attention should be called.
1. Papyrus Manuscripts. While Babylo nian scribes were impressing upon endurable clay the cuneiform, or wedge-shaped, ideo graphic records of the style, Egyptian reed writing with ink upon papyrus developed almost at the same pace. The name of this primitive paper is that of the plant which provided its raw material. The papyrus, rairvpor, probably an Egyptian was a rush of thick triangular stalk.
Its main root, Theophrastus tells us, was about 15 feet long and as thick as a man's wrist. Likely the bullrush, gamir the wicker out of which was plaited the ark that contained the in fant Moses, was the Nile papyrus. The outer coat of this Egyptian water-plant was peeled off, the pith was cut into strips and these were glued together transversely to form the first known writing paper. Sheets of papyrus were very fragile, became brittle in air, crumbled with use, could not resist the disintegrating force of moisture and were quite impracticable for book-form. Hence all papyrus manuscripts have been lost to us, save such as were buried in the exceedingly dry soil of Upper and Mid dle Egypt. For many years, the ignorant filldhfn wantonly destroyed these precious rec ords of the past. Now scientific excavators are preventing this ruthlessness, and constantly add ing to the world's various collections of papyrus manuscripts. The most ancient papyrus docu ment is a record of the reign of the Egyptian King Assa, a.c. 3580-3536; and the earliest lit erary papyrus work extant is the Prisse papyrus of Paris, written in the 5th dynasty, c. a.c.t.100 During the first three centuries of Christianity papyrus was the ordinary writing paper of the Roman Empire. It was used by the Arabs until
the 8th century, when modern paper was in vented. The sacred writers or their scribes most likely used ink and rolls of fragile papyrus for the autographa of the New Testament (2 Corinthians iii, 8; 2 John, xii). These preckos documents seem to have perished during the early 2d century. No trace of them is found is the writings of either the Apostolic or Apolo getk Fathers, unless we except Tertullian's words, *the authentic letters of the Apostles themselves,* which are now generally set aside as rhetorical.
Deissmann,
Studies' (1901),
2. Vellum Manuscripts. Pliny Naturalis' xiii, 1) is witness to the use of vel lum for documentary purpose before the time of Christ. Saint Paul (2 Timothy iv, 13) em ployed both rafiri3a&, and parch ment, ileief3Pavar. In the 3d century, vellum be gan, outside of Egypt, to supersede papyrus; and in the early 4th century, the codex or parchment book-form gained complete victory over the papyrus-roll. To this century belong the earli est extant Bible manuscripts of any thing but fragmentary size 3. Palimpsests. Some of our most import ant vellum manuscripts are palimpsests ( Lat. palimosestum, eaAgnPnesk ((scraped i.e., manuscripts that were scraped a second time with pumice-stone and written upon anew). The reckless charge of wholesale de struction of Biblical manuscripts by the monas tic scribes of palimpsest works has not been substantiated. Wattenbach ('Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter,) 1896, pp. 299 ff ). a leading au thority on the subject, notes that a Greek synod, A.D. 691, forbade the use of any but ut terly unserviceable Biblical or Patristic manu scripts for palimpsest-writing. According to Wattenbach, more precious manuscripts, in proportion to the existing supply, have been de stroyed by the learned experimenters of our time than much abused monks of old.)) The deciphering of a palimpsest may at times be accomplished by merely soaking it in clear water. The ((learned use some chemical reagent, in order to bring back the original writing. Such chemical reagents are an infusion of nutgalls, Gioberti's tincture and hydrosulphuret of ammonia; all do harm to the manuscripts.