For convenience of reference MSS. are desig nated by symbols, either letters of an alphabet or numbers. Thus the five uncials just described are designated by the letters t%; (or S), A, B, C, D, respectively.
In addition to New-Testament MSS., the ser vice-books of the Greek Church, containing les sons for daily reading, are useful witnesses to the New-Testament text. Over 1000 such books, ranging in date from the Fourth to the Four teenth Century, are known.
(2) The Versions.—For textual criticism, the three most important versions are the Syriac, the Latin, and the -Egyptian.
The origin of the Syriac Version is hidden in obscurity. It is altogether likely, judging from the parallel •history of the Latin Version, that the first translations were of a private char acter, the work of different Christian teachers in the early (lays of Syrian Christianity. Tallinn (about A.D. 150-175), a companion of .Justin Martyr after his quarrel with the Roman Church, returned to his native Syria, and there published his Diatessuron. a compilation of the four canonical Gospels into a continuous narra tive. Some have thought that this was the be ginning of the Syriac New Testament. However that may be, it is a remarkable fact that the earliest forms of the Syriac Version were made from a Greek text similar to that prevalent in Rome in the latter half of the Second Century. Such, in general, is the text found in the frag ments diseovered by Will in in Cureton in 1842 (published in 1S58), and in the Syriac pail up. sest discovered in 1892 at Mount Sinai by Mrs. Lewis and her sister. Mrs. Gibson. After a while these earlier forms of text become more conformed to the type of Greek text regnant in the East. This text is represented in the Peshit to, or common Syriac Version, which was cur rent as early as the Fourth Century. The Philoxeniam or Harkleian. Version, a slavishly literal translation, begun in A.n. 508. was revised and comileted in A.D. 616. The Jerusalem, or Palestinian. Version was made about the same time, for the use of the Syrian churches of Palestine.
The Latin Version.—Not until about the end of the Second Century did the need arise for a Latin New Testament. The early Roman Chris
tians used Greek. It was in country districts, probably, especially in Northwest Africa, that the first Latin translations were made. These were private translations for local use. The text was of the Western type, current in Rome and Northern Africa. A little later the same thing took place in Italy. The effect of so many inde pendent versions ''as that in the time of Augus tine (354.430) and Jerome (c.340-420) the Latin text was greatly confused. At the solicita tion of Damasus, Bishop of Rome, Jerome un dertook to revise it. Though he used the best Greek MSS. at his disposal. yet his work was but a revision, not a new translation. It was pub lished about A.D. 384. It slowly hut steadily won its way to supremacy, and so became known as the rulgata, or commonly used version. Through careless copying and mixture with older types of text the Vulgate became corrupted. It was revised by Alcuin in 801, by Lanfranc in 1069 59. and by others in succeeding centuries. In obedience to a decree of the Council of Trent (1546), a revised Vulgate was published in 1559 90 with the sanction of Pope Sixtus V. (the Sixtine Vulgate). This was found so faulty that in 1592, under the auspices of Pope Clem ent V111., the Clementine Vulgate, the stand ard Bible of the Roman Catholic Church, was issued. A critical revision of the Vulgate is now in process of publication in England (Words worth and White's). The Codex Amiatinus, the most important MS. of the \ ulgate, is one of the most magnificent books in the world.
The Egyptian or Coptic rersion.—The early history of this is exceedingly obscure. Several dialects were spoken by the native Egyptian dur ing the early Christian centuries. These dia lects are all represented in the Coptic MSS. of the New Testament. The beginnings of this version seem to have been made as early as A.D. 250. It was designed in the first place to meet the needs of the uncultivated populations of the rural districts. For some unknown reason, the text of the Egyptian Version is more Western than Alexandrian.