The MISSION DISCIPLESHIP presents The Bible: Documentary Evidence. Donald Neal McKay presents a new, contemporary look at the sayings of Jesus Christ as they apply to today's Church, Christian and Christian Disciple.

The documentary evidence for the text of the New Testament is derived entirely from manuscripts. Direct evidence is furnished by Greek manuscripts: they represent to us what was originally written or dictated by the authors of a book - subject only to such errors as may have arisen through transcription.

Indirect evidence is furnished by Versions (see below) and by the quotations of the Early Fathers of the Christian Church. Versions, themselves transmitted to us through manuscripts (Greek, Latin, Syriac etc.) are liable not only to contain errors of transcription but also errors, or at least uncertainties, arising from the translation from one language to another. The two chief causes of much uncertainty is the inability to correctly express Greek distinctions, and periphrastic
freedom of rendering.

On the other hand, through the medium of Versions we are enabled more or less clearly to discern the text of the Greek manuscripts from which they were translated. Such Greek manuscripts must in most cases have been older than all but a few of the extant Greek manuscripts, and in some cases much older. Again, the quotations occurring in the writings of the Early Fathers, themselves transmitted to us through manuscripts, which are rarely of any high antiquity, are liable not only to errors of transcription, but also to errors or uncertainties of quotation, due either to imperfect recollection or to modification of language for the sake of grammar or convenience.

And yet, once more, the quotations reveal to us with greater - or less - distinctness the texts of the Greek manuscripts with which the Early Fathers were familiar, and such manuscripts must have been at least as early as the Early Fathers who used them. Thus each great class of documentary evidence supplies valuable testimony both for the investigation of the history of the text as a whole and for the determination of the true text in detail.

Greek Manuscripts

The Greek manuscripts of the New Testament are usually divided into two classes: the Uncials and the Cursives - Uncials being written in all capital letters, and Cursives a more or less running hand. At the head of the list of Uncials stand four great manuscripts belonging to the fourth and fifth centuries, which contained when complete, both the Old and New Testaments. They are:

Codex Vaticanus, located at Rome (Vatican), containing the whole New Testament except the later chapters of Hebrews, the Pastoral Epistles, Philemon, and Revelation.

Codex Sinaiticus, located at St. Petersburg, Russia, containing the entire New Testament. This manuscript was discovered in 1859 by Friedrich von Tischendorf, German biblical scholar in the convent on Mount Sinai. (Note: I had the joyful experience of viewing pages of this manuscript while in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1984. They were on display at the Hermitage Museum. Believe me, it is an indescribable sensation to see a New Testament source.)

Codex Alexandrinus, located in the British Museum, containing all, except about the first 24 chapters of Matthew's and two leaves of John's Gospel and three of II Corinthians. Preserved at Alexandria from at least the end of the eleventh century. Presented to Charles I in 1628 by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Codex Ephraemi rescriptus, located at Paris, containing nearly three fifths of the whole, part of almost every book being preserved. A 'palimpsest', the original writing having been partially washed out, and Greek translations of works of Ephrem Syrus written over.

Next in interest to the four great Greek Bibles are the bilingual Uncial manuscripts in Greek and Latin, written in parallel pages or columns, or in one instance with the Latin between the lines of the Greek. They are:

Codex Bazae, located at Cambridge University library, containing the greater part of the Gospels and Acts: a fragment of the Latin version of III John shows that the catholic Epistles were originally included. Presented to the University of Cambridge in 1581 by Theodore Beza, who states that it was found at Lyons in the war of 1562.
Written in the sixth century.

Codex Sangallensis, located at St. Gallen, containing the Gospels all but complete. Codex Boernerianus, located at Dresden, containing the Pauline Epistles (Hebrews excepted) with a few gaps. The two portions originally formed a single manuscript, written by an Irish scribe, probably at St. Gallen, in the ninth century. The Greek text of Codex Boernerianus was copied in a somewhat later bilingual Uncial manuscript, Codex Augiensis, preserved and perhaps written at Richenau Abby located in Lake Constance in southern Germany, purchased by Richard Bentley (1662 - 1742), and now belongs to Trinity College, Cambridge.

Codex Laudianus, located at Oxford University , containing the Acts with some gaps. Written about the sixth century., perhaps in Sardinia, where it was preserved in early times; used and cited by Beza in his later commentary on the Acts; and presented to the University of Oxford by Archbishop William Laud (1573 - 1645).

Codex Claromontanus, located at Paris, containing the Pauline Epistles with a few gaps. Written in the sixth century. Formerly in the possession of Theodore Beza, who states that it was found at Clermont near Beauvais, France. After undergoing many corrections, the text was copied in another bilingual Uncial manuscript, Codex Sangermanensis, written in the ninth century, preserved in modern times at St. Germain des Prez, and since the French Revolution
at St. Petersburg, Russia.

These four, or six if we count all components, are figured to have been written in Western Europe. Most of the remaining Uncial manuscripts of any great critical value are very fragmentary. The most important are:

Codex Dublinensis, located at Dublin (Trinity College), containing many palimpsest fragments of Matthew - written in the sixth century.

Codex Zacynthius, located in London (British and Foreign Bible Society), containing many palimpsest fragments of Luke, with a marginal commentary. Written in the eighth century.

Codex Nitriensis, located in the British Museum, containing many palimpsest fragments of Luke.
Written in the sixth century.

Codices Guelferbytani, located at Wolfenbuttel, a town in lower Saxony Germany, apparently originally belonging to the Cloister Bobbio, containing palimpsest fragments of the Gospels. Written in fifth and sixth centuries.

Codex Borgianus, fragments containing nearly 180 verses of Luke and John. Possibly written in the fifth century. This is of special interest not only for the antiquity of the text, but as an Egyptian bilingual manuscript, having the Thebiac version on opposite pages to the Greek.

Codex Porphyrianus, belonging to the Russian Bishop Porfiri, noteworthy as containing, with some gaps, the whole New Testament except the Gospels. A palimpsest, written originally in the ninth century.

Versions

Of Versions, or ancient translations of the whole or parts of the New Testament, made chiefly for the use of countries in which Greek was at least not habitually spoken, there are three principal classes: the Latin, the Syriac, and the Egyptian - Upper, Middle and Coptic.

The Latin manuscripts are usually classified under two heads, 'Old Latin' (sometimes miscalled 'Italic') and the 'Vulgate'. The earliest known form of the Old Latin is the 'African Latin', which can be clearly identified by the quotations of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage towards the middle of the third century, and more obscurely by those of his master, Tertullian. Two manuscripts of the Gospels, both unfortunately very imperfect, are substantially African, though with an admixture of other readings: they are the Codex Palatinus, located at Vienna - with one leaf in Dublin - written in the fourth or fifth century with gold and silver letters on purple vellum; and the Codex Bobiensis, now at Turin, a small manuscript probably of the fifth century - having portions of the first two Gospels only.

The 'European Latin' is a second type of text, found currently in Western Europe, and especially in Northern Italy, in the fourth century. In the Gospels it is represented by a few manuscripts, some of great antiquity: Codex Vercellensis, at Vercelli; Codex Veronensis at Verona; Codex Colbertinus, at Paris; Codex Corbeienis, at Paris; Codex Claromontanus, at Rome; Codex Vindobonenis, at Vienna; Codex Dublinensis, in Dublin. In addition to fragments, there is a single 'European' copy of the Acts: Codex Holmiensis at Stockholm.

A third type of text is the 'Italian Latin', formed by various revision of the 'European' text, made partly to bring it into accord with such Greek manuscripts as chanced to be available, purposely to give the Latinity a smoother and more customary aspect. To this type belongs the Latin text found in many of Augustine's writing. Two manuscripts of the Gospels (beside fragments) have an 'Italian' text: Codex Brixianus at Brescia, Italy and Codex Ionacensis at Munich, Germany.

What is called the 'Vulgate Latin' is a text formed by another revision undertaken by Jerome about 383 AD. Vulgate is the translation of old Greek and Latin into the common Latin spoken at the time of Jerome. In the Gospels, Jerome's changes seem to have been numerous; in the other books of the New Testament they were evidently much scantier and more perfunctory. Aided by the credit justly won by his substantially independent translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew, Jerome's revised text of the New Testament slowly and gradually displaced the chaos of unrevised and imperfectly revised texts which had preceded it; and thus in due time acquired the right to be called the Latin Vulgate.

Before the Old Latin texts had passed out of use, many of their readings were casually adopted by transcribers of the Vulgate, and thus various mixed texts were formed. The scattered particles or portions of Old Latin texts thus preserved are sometimes of considerable interest and value.

The Syriac Versions are, strictly speaking, three in number. The principal is the great popular version commonly called the Peshito, or Simple. External evidence as to its date and history is lacking; but there is no reason to doubt that it is at least as old as the Latin Version. It has long been seen, on the grounds of clear internal evidence, that this present form of the version cannot be a true representation of the Syriac text as it stood originally, but as it stood after undergoing a revision in conformity with Greek manuscripts. We can come to the conclusion, safely, that an Old Syriac must have existed as well as an Old Latin. This surmise has been vindicated because an imperfect Old Syriac copy of the Gospels, assigned to the fifth century, was found by William Cureton among manuscripts brought to the British Museum from Egypt in 1842. The character of the fundamental text confirms the great antiquity of the version in its original form; while many readings suggest that, like the Latin Version, it degenerated by transcription and perhaps also by irregular revision. A similar testimony is borne by the fragments of a Syriac Harmony of the Gospels preserved in an exposition by Ephrem Syrus, which has came to light in an Armenian translation: this Harmony, or a Greek original of it, is none other than the Diatessaron of Tatian, compiled early in the second half of the second century.

The third great group of Versions is the Egyptian. The Coptic or Egyptian Versions proper are three, very unequally preserved. The Memphitic or Boheiric, sometimes loosely designated as the Coptic, contains the whole New Testament, though it does not follow that all the books were translated at the same period, and Revelation was apparently not treated as a canonical book. The greater part of the Egyptian Version cannot well be later than the second century. The manuscripts show much diversity of text; and in Egypt, as elsewhere, corruption was doubtless progressive. The Version of Upper Egypt, the Thebaic or Sahidic, was probably little if at all inferior in antiquity. It, in like manner, contained the whole New Testament, with Revelation as an appendix. No one book is preserved complete, but the number of extant fragments is considerable. Of the third Version, the Basmuric or Fajumic, from Middle Egypt, about 330 verses from John's Gospel and the Pauline Epistles alone survive. Along with the Egyptian Versions-proper, Scriptural researchers also associate the Ethiopic, the Version of ancient Abyssinia, dating from the fourth or fifth century. Though written in a totally different language, it has strong affinities of text with its northern neighbors. The numerous manuscripts containing it vary considerably, and give evidence of mixture and revision.

Besides the three great groups, two solitary Versions are of considerable interest: the one from outlying Asia, the other from outlying Europe. These are the Armenian and the Gothic. The Armenian, which is complete, was made early in the fifth century. In its original form, it was made from Greek manuscript, probably obtained from Cappadocia, the mother church of Armenian Christianity. The Gothic Version, the work of Ulfilas or Wulfila, the great bishop of the Goths, dates from the middle of the fourth century.

Finally, the third class of documentary evidence is supplied by the writings of the Early Church Fathers, which enable us with more or less certainty to discover the readings of the manuscript, or manuscripts, of the new Testament which they employed. The quotations naturally vary in form from verbal transcripts of passages, short or long, through loose citations down to slight allusions. Unfortunately, a large portion of the Ante-Nicene Fathers literature is lost, but we do have access to writings of Irenaeus, of Asia Minor, Rome and Lyons; his disciple, Hippolytus, of Rome; Clement of Rome; Clement of Alexandria; his disciple, Origen, of Alexandria and Palestine. If the reader is interested in further pursuing the writings of the Early Church Fathers, there are two options: A complete set of these writings may be found at www.christianbook.com or CD's of the entire writings may be found at an economical price on www.ebay.com.

I feel with this reading, the disciple of Christ should come away with a clearer understanding of why we now have no single Bible edition; and at the same time, due credit must be given to the biblical scholars and translators down through the centuries from the time of Christ on earth for their unceasing work in giving to us the best translation possible of the New Testament. The massive undertaking of pulling together all of the known manuscripts was daunting. Translating them more daunting still; harmonizing them - truly a miracle. It is clear to see God's hand at work here.

<<Back to the Bibles