An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures

Besides the Alexandrian and Vatican manuscripts which have been already described, the following are the principal manuscripts of the New Testament, of every description, which are more peculiarly worthy of notice.

I. The CODEX COTTONIANUS (Titus C. XV.), preserved in the Cottonian Library in the British Museum, is a most precious fragment of the four Gospels, written in silver letters on a faded purple ground. It is one of the oldest (if not the most antient) manuscript of any part of the New Testament that is extant; and contains,

(1.) Part of Saint Matthew's Gospel, beginning at Chapter XXVI. v. 57. and ending with v. 65. of the same Chapter.

(2.) Part of the same Gospel, beginning at Chapter XXVII. v. 26. and ending with v. 34. of the same Chapter.

(3.) Part of Saint John's Gospel, beginning at Chapter XIV. v. 2. and ending with v. 10. of the same Chapter.

(4.) Part of the same Gospel, beginning at Chapter XV. v. 15. and ending with v. 22. of the same Chapter.

In the accompanying Plate 3. No. 1. we have given a fac-simile of John xiv. 6. from this manuscript, of which the following is a representation in ordinary Greek characters, with the corresponding literal English version.

The words ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (Jesus) ΘΕΟΣ (God), ΚΥΡΙΟΣ (Lord), ΥΙΟΣ (Son) and EOTHP (Saviour), are written in letters of gold; the three first with contractions similar to those in the Codex Alexandrinus, and Codex Beza. This precious fragment is acknowledged to have been executed at the end of the fourth, or at the latest in the beginning of the fifth century.

II. The CODEX BEZE, also called the CODEX CANTABRIGIENSIS, is a Greek and Latin manuscript, containing the four gospels and the acts of the apostles. It is deposited in the public library of the university of Cambridge, to which it was presented by the celebrated Theodore Beza, in the year 1581. Of this manuscript, which is written on vellum, in quarto, without accents or marks of aspiration, or spaces between the words, the accompanying fac-simile will convey an idea. It represents the first three verses of the fifth chapter of Saint Matthew's Gospel, which are copied from Dr. Kip

1 See pp. 66-73. of this volume for an account of the Alexandrian Manuscript, and pp. 74-77. for that of the Vatican.

lings fac-simile edition of the Codex Beza, published at Cambridge in 1793, of which an account is given in p. 89. infra. We have placed the Latin under the Greek, in order to bring the whole within the compass of an octavo page. The following is a literal English version of this fac-simile.

Matt. V. 1-3. ANDSEEINGTHEMULTITUDESHEWENTUPINTOAMOUNTAIN

ANDWHENHEWASSETDOWN-CAMETOHIM

HISDISCIPLES ANDOPENINGHISMOUTH

HETAUGHTTHEMSAYING

BLESSEDARETHEPOORINSPT:FORTHEIRSIS

THEKINGDOMOFHEAVEN.

Sixty-six leaves of this manuscript are much torn and mutilated, and ten of them have been supplied by a later transcriber.

In the Latin it has

ix. 2.; Matt. xxvii. —x. 14.; xxii. 10—

The Codex Bezæ is noted with the letter D. by Wetstein and Griesbach. In the Greek it is defective, from the beginning to Matt. i. 20., and in the Latin to Matt. i. 12. likewise the following chasms, viz. Matt. vi. 20. 1-12.; John i. 16.—ii. 26.; Acts viii. 29. 20.; and from xxii. 29. to the end. The Gospels are arranged in the usual order of the Latin manuscripts, Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. It has a considerable number of corrections, some of which have been noticed by Dr. Griesbach; and some of the pages, containing Matt. iii. 8-16. John xviii. 13.—xx. 13. and Mark xv. to the end, are written by a later hand, which Wetstein refers to the tenth century, but Griesbach to the twelfth. The Latin version is that which was in use before the time of Jerome, and is usually called the Old Italic or Ante-Hieronymian version. In the margin of the Greek part of the manuscript there are inserted the Ammonian sections, evidently by a later hand; and the words agxn, reλos, nas λsys, was one, are occasionally interspersed, indicating the beginning and end of the Avayvwoμara, or lessons read in the church. The subjects discussed in the Gospels are sometimes written in the margin, sometimes at the top of the page. But all these notations are manifestly the work of several persons and of different ages. The date of this manuscript has been much contested. Those critics who give it the least antiquity, assign it to the sixth or seventh century. Wetstein supposed it to be of the fifth century. Michaelis was of opinion, that of all the manuscripts now extant, this is the most antient. Dr. Kipling, the editor of the Cambridge fac-simile, thought it much older than the Alexandrian manuscript, and that it must have been written in the second century. On comparing it with Greek inscriptions of different ages, Bishop Marsh is of opinion that it cannot have been written later than the sixth century, and that it may

+ Contracted for SPIRIT. The Greek is DNI, for ПINEYMATI; and the Latin SPU, for SPIRitu,

PLATE IV.

Tac Simile of the Codov Beze a US of the Four Gospels and tets of the Apostles. preserved in the University Library at Cambridge