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Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament
Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament Author:Frederic George Kenyon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE UNCIAL MANUSCRIPTS [Authorities: Gregory, Prolegomena to Tischendorfs Novum Testamentmii Graece (Leipzig, 1884-1894), and Textkritik des Ne... more »uen Testamentes (vol. i. Leipzig, 1900) ; Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament (4th ed., by E. Miller, London, 1894); Thompson, op. fit.; Tischendorf, Notitia editionis codicil Bibliorum Sinaitici (1860), and other works; Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, 1881 ; Nestle, Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the Greek N. T., Eng. Tr. from 2nd ed. (London, 1901); and special works on the individual MSS., mentioned in the course of the chapter.] IN the early years of the fourth century we reach an epoch of the greatest importance in the history of the New Testament Scriptures. Several causes combined to alter completely the circumstances under which they were copied and transmitted ; and it so happens that it is from this very period that the earliest concrete evidence, in the shape of actual substantial copies of the Scriptures, has come down to our times. In the first place, the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, and the consequent recognition of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire, led to a great multiplication of copies of the Scriptures, and also enabled them to be made with due care and with all the resources of ordinary literary production available at that date. Next, the adoption of vellum instead of papyrus as the material employed for the best copies of books rendered possible the combination of all the sacred writings within the compass of a single volume ; while at the same time the increased publicity given to Christianity and the growth of doctrinal controversies led to theprecise definition and demarcation of the canonical books which s...« less