CNT-06 THE MOST ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS.
THE MOST ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. The style of writing indicates the age of manuscripts. Recently, certain manuscripts recovered from the ruins of Herculaneum have been unrolled and deciphered with the utmost care, and fifteen folio volumes of them have been published. Now we know that Herculaneum and Pompeii were overwhelmed in the year AD 79, by an eruption of Vesuvius; and hence there can be no dispute in regard to the age of the manuscripts rescued from these ruins. They must be more than 1800 years old. But these manuscripts are written in “uncial” letters, very nearly resembling the letters used in those manuscript copies of the New Testament which have been universally esteemed the most ancient. This style of letters has not been used for many centuries; hence the antiquity of these manuscripts is proved beyond a possibility of dispute.
Among the “uncial” manuscripts, five are generally distinguished from the rest as of primary importance. Of these, the Alexandrian,—known as Codex A, was originally discovered at Alexandria, and was sent to King Charles I., in 1628, seventeen years after King James’ version was printed. It is now in the British Museum. The style of the letters indicates that this manuscript is of great antiquity, and its date is fixed by critics at about AD 450. It is much mutilated,—twenty-four chapters of the first Gospel, two of the fourth, and eight of one of the Epistles being missing.
Codex B, in the Vatican Library at Rome, supposed to have been written between AD 300 and AD 400, is said to be the oldest vellum manuscript known. This was not allowed to be copied till 1868, when an edition was issued in facsimile type, representing it line for line, and letter for letter. The condition of this is much more perfect. A third manuscript is in the National Library at Paris, whither it was brought by Catherine de Medici. This is called a “palimpsest;” from a Greek word which signifies to rub or scrape again,—applied to a parchment from which one writing had been erased to make room for another. This manuscript is known as the “Codex Ephraemi.” Parchment being scarce and valuable, in the twelfth century the original writing was sponged off, and some productions of Ephraem Syrus written in its stead. Notwithstanding this, by the careful application of chemicals the earlier writing has been brought out again, so that the original manuscript has now been deciphered. This manuscript is assigned to the early part of the fifth century. The fourth manuscript is Codex Bezae in the Public Library of the University at Cambridge, England, it having been presented by Theodore Beza in 1581. This is the least valuable, as it is quite incomplete. It belongs to the sixth century. The Codex Aleph, found Feb. 4, 1859, in the Convent of St. Catherine near Mount Sinai, by Tischendorf, and published by him in 1862, is the most valuable of the five, as it contains the New Testament complete. This is judged to have been written between AD 300 and AD 400; and hundreds of corrections which critics had previously made in the text by comparing other manuscripts, have been confirmed by this ancient and independent witness, which had lain for ages in the library of that eastern monastery. To these may be added, as especially valuable, Codex Claromontanus, of the sixth century, which contains the Epistles of Paul. This was used by Beza in 1582, and is deposited in the National Library at Paris.
These manuscripts carry us back very near the apostles’ days; for they might easily have been copied from the originals, or from manuscripts that had been copied from them; and by comparing these with the hundreds of other manuscripts, Lectionaries, quotations, and ancient translations, it is not difficult for learned and studious men to ascertain whether the New Testament Books have been seriously corrupted in being handed down to our own times. Of course any corruptions or mistakes which have occurred during the last 1500 years are excluded at the outset by the fact that we have manuscripts that date back as far as that; and if these manuscripts, old as they are, have errors, they also may, in rare instances, be corrected from later manuscripts which may have been copied from manuscripts older than any which are yet discovered. From the studies and researches of learned, able, and conscientious men who have minutely examined many hundreds of these ancient authorities, have come…