p. x
further research will ultimately show that it is found in other
documents, but it is in any case rare, and the fact that all the
peculiarities of the Codex Sinaiticus are also found in Pap.
Rylands 28, as well as in Codex Vaticanus, is remarkable : it is
enough to suggest the possibility that these documents come
from the same scriptorium, and, as will be shown later, in the
cast of the two vellum codices there is further evidence to sup-
port this suggestion. Moreover, it is obvious that this evidence
points to Egypt for the provenance of the Codex Sinaiticus,
in so far as there is nothing in it which is unparalleled in
Egyptian documents; but it is desirable to emphasize once
more that this fact ought not to be regarded as conclusive,
so long as we have no evidence as to other local hands. As
the matter stands the identity of script between the papyri and
the Codex Sinaiticus may be due to a common provenance,
but we cannot prove that it may not equally well be due to
the existence of a single type of professional literary script
throughout the Graeco-Roman world in the fourth century.
One may, however, at least claim that so far as palaeography
is concerned the
onus probandi is on those who maintain any
provenance other than Egyptian.
