The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel: And Other Critical Essays (1872)
On the comparative antiquity of the Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts of the Greek Bible (1880)
Ezra Abbot
https://books.google.com/books?id=SpURAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA152
https://books.google.com/books?id=6rlBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA195
We may add that a scribe of the eighth or ninth century has retouched with fresh ink many pages of the Sinaitic MS.; and this had already been done to a considerable extent by a still earlier scribe (Tischendorf, N. T. ex Sin. Cod., p. xxxviii. f.).
p. 152 (also p. 185)
Vaticanus ... (b) The work of the
prima manus is rarely to be seen in the Vatican MS., a scribe of the tenth or eleventh century having retraced all the letters with fresh ink, adding accents and breathings, except in those places where he wished to indicate that something should be omitted (e. g. the accidental repetition of a word or sentence).
p. 222
The way in which the oldest MSS. were generally written, with no spaces between the words except at the end of a long paragraph (where a space about half the width of a capital letter is often left in the Vatican MS.),
no distinction of the beginning of sentences by larger initial letters, with very few points, perhaps none for a whole page, and
no accents or breathings, greatly increased the liability to mistakes in transcription. How easy it is to
p. 225
Vaticanus ... It is fortunate on one account that these mistakes were made, as it is only in such duplicated passages that the beautiful original writing has preserved its primitive form, a later hand having elsewhere retouched the letters and added accents and breathings.
p. 291-292
The collators of .MSS. have not usually noted the breathings. This has been done, however, by Dr. Scrivener, in the case of irregularities, in his
Full Collation of Fifty Manuscripts, added to his edition of the
Codex Angiensis (1859); and an
examination of his collation brings to light important facts. ...
In regard to the use of the
breathings in the later uncials we have little information, except general statements as to their irregularity, and the evidence of this from fac-similes. There is an exception, however, in the case of
Codex F of the Gospels, of which J. Heringa’s careful collation has been published by H. E. Vinke :
Disputatio de Codice Boreeliano, nunc Rheno-Trajectino, etc., Traj. ad Rhen. 1843, 4to. ...
Codex H .. .Codex 33
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p. 185 and p. 152
https://books.google.com/books?id=7odU1Rf97VwC&pg=PP39
Quibus omnibus expositis vix opus erit lit addarn, quem codici Sinaitico in nuraero praestantissimorum
codicum. nostrorum deberi locum pntem. Dignus videtur qui oiunium principatum teneat. Quod etsi non ita intellegi
veto ac si ubique, exceptis vitiis inanifestis, textum sacnim ad normam codicis Sinaitici edi iubeam, tarnen nullus
alius est quo tutiore fundamento textus constituendi uti possimus. Ut igitur iu re exercenda critica primas buic
libro partes defercndas, ita pristinam ex eo textus sacri integritatem non repetendain duco nisi adbibitis simul
diligenter religioseque Vaticano simillimisque summae antiquitatis testibus reliquis. Illud niilii quidem minime
dubium est, tliesaurum Sinaiticum pvovidente Deo ex tenebris protraetum lucique redditum litterarum sacrarum
studiis profuturum esse plurimum destinatumque ad id esse ut, quicumque quae litteris consiguarunt sanctissimi
apostoli aeternae salutis veritatisque divinae caussa maxiroi fadmus, quum salutis turn veritatis certiores
fiereraus.4
there is no doubt that the Sinaiticus was brought out of darkness by the visionary God and restored to the light of the sacred letters that he would benefit greatly from his studies, and that he was destined to that end, so that whoever had attained to the most holy letters To the apostles of eternal salvation and of the truth of the divine truth, we give the greatest cause, since they are more certain of the truth of salvation would have been. 4
* Quae ut mense Sept. anni superior is seripsi, ita
nunc tote pectore confirmo. At non praetereundum est
silentio prodisse nuper libellum Porphvrii Uspenskii, quo,
ut de iniuriis taceam mitii ipsi ac venerabili Sinaitarum
coilegio illatis, codicem Sinaiticum liaereticis ultimae anti-
quitatis Cbristianao rationibus imbulum esse contendit.
Quod quanta illc cum temeritate, quanta cum inscitia con-
tenderit, licet cuivis vem criticam vcl mediocriter docto
pateat, paucis docebo. Primum enim vult, scripturam
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Verse Repetition Duplication
p. 225
There is a more extraordinary case of this kind in the
Sinaitic MS.,
1 Thess. ii. 13, 14, where twenty-five words
are repeated on account of the recurrence of rob (kov, “of
God.” This mistake was, however, corrected by the con-
temporary reviser of the MS. In a few other instances, as
Luke xvii. 16, Eph. vi. 3, a verse has been carelessly repeated
in the Codex Sinaiticus.
