R.I.P. Harold Greenlee

On 21 March, Jacob Harold Greenlee passed away at the age of 96. The following is an obituary written by his son, David Greenlee:

JACOB HAROLD GREENLEE
May 12, 1918 – March 21, 2015

Αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης ἁγιάσαι ὑμᾶς ὁλοτελεῖς, καὶ ὁλόκληρον ὑμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ τὸ σῶμα ἀμέμπτως ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τηρηθείη. πιστὸς ὁ καλῶν ὑμᾶς, ὃς καὶ ποιήσει. 

May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this. (1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24)

Jacob Harold Greenlee was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 12, 1918, the first child of Jacob Andrew and Ethel Edith Jarrett Greenlee. He graduated from Charleston High School in 1935. He holds the degrees of A.B., Asbury College, 1939; B.D., Asbury Theological Seminary, 1943; M.A., University of Kentucky, 1944; Ph.D. in Biblical and Patristic Greek, Harvard University, 1947. He was a Senior Fulbright Fellow, Oxford University, 1950–51, where his work on reading an ancient palimpsest—an erased Greek NT manuscript—led to further palimpsest studies and the publication of a book.

On December 10, 1949, he married Ruth Bernice Olney. He was professor of New Testament Greek at Asbury Theological Seminary, 1944–65, and at Oral Roberts University, 1965–69. He and Ruth have been missionaries of OMS International (now One Mission Society) since 1969, teaching in Bible schools and seminaries throughout the world. Through those years he was also an international translation consultant for Wycliffe Bible Translators, participating in Bible translation workshops in many lands, and contributing to the translation of the New Testament into more than 125 languges. They also served from time to time on the first three Operation Mobilization missionary ships with their son David.

Dr. Greenlee was an ordained United Methodist minister of the West Virginia Conference. He is the author with wife, Ruth, of a book about their ministry travels, and he has published 12 books dealing with the Greek language of the New Testament and more than 160 published articles. He is listed in more than twenty-five biographical volumes.

During his years as professor of New Testament Greek at Asbury Seminary, he wrote two books. His Concise Exegetical Grammar of NT Greek (1953) was on the market for 60 years, translated into six other languages, and is now offered on the Seminary’s First Fruits internet project. His Introduction to NT Textual Criticism (1963) is still on sale after 50 years and has recently been translated into Korean.

During his 21 years at the Shell Point Retirement Community, Fort Myers, Florida, he continued contributing in New Testament Greek studies, co-teaching a Village Church Sunday school class, assisting with the Wednesday morning Men’s Bible Study, and singing in the Shell Point Singers and the Village Church choir for over fifteen years. As a part of the Shell Point Academy, he co-led the Anatomy of a Word class until a month before his death.

Family members include his wife Ruth Bernice; daughters Dotty Morrison (husband Bill Morrison, deceased), Lois Stück (husband Dr. Jim Stück; children Philip, Michael, and David and wife Ellie), and son, Dr. David Harold Greenlee (wife Vreni; children Rebekka, Jonathan, and Sarah); and sisters Rayma Gene (husband Clarence Hutchens, deceased), and Catherine Mae (deceased, husband Reid Feather).

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to One Mission Society (formerly OMS International), P.O. Box A, Greenwood, Indiana 46142-6599 designated for seminary student scholarship funds.

The Art of Isopsephism in the Greco-Roman World

New publication: R. Ast & J. Lougovaya, ‘The Art of Isopsephism in the Greco-Roman World’ in Ägytische Magie und ihre Umwelt (ed. A. Jördens; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2015), 82-98. Available here.

Since Greek letters are used to represent numbers, it is possible to assign numerical values to various words and names (as presumably in Rev 13.18), and to relate words representing equal numerical values to each other. This is isopsephism - assigning equal numerical value. Not only within the NT, but also some of the earliest Christian graffiti seems to feature an interest in this practice, see a much earlier post on a graffito in Smyrna. So this new publication will be of interest to people working on manuscripts, amulets, and numerical aspects of NT exegesis.

For an isopsephistic tool (which calculates the numerical value of whatever Greek words or phrases you enter), go here.

The Greek Manuscripts of Robert Curzon

Up-dated 28.3.15
There are two really good posts over at the BL blog on Greek manuscripts collected by Robert Curzon: Part One, and now Part Two. A couple of years ago I read Curzon’s very entertaining account of his travels and manuscript collecting in his Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant (London: Century, 1986; orig. 1849).
Since Curzon left detailed notes about the acquisition written in the manuscripts themselves, it is possible to connect the particular manuscript with both the narrative account and the monastic setting from which they were “acquired”. Most of the 42 Greek manuscripts have now been digitised by the British Library, and both posts introduce a large number of Greek Bible manuscripts.

M 021 online images

Images of M 021 (a ninth century gospels majuscule) are now online. (HT Paul Anderson)

For Images of NT Majuscules in Paris now:

C 04: Ephraimi Rescriptus (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Gr. 9)

D 06: Claromontanus (Paris, Bibl. Nat. Gr., 107)

H 015: Coislinianus (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Suppl. Gr. 1074; Paris, Bibl. Nat., Coislin 202)

K 017: Cyprius (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Gr. 63)

L 019 (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Gr. 62)

M 021 (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Gr. 48)

063 (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Suppl. Gr. 1155 II)

0102 (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Suppl. Gr. 1155 I)

0303 (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Suppl. Gr. 1155 VII)

0305 (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Cot. 133.2 fol. 3)

The Date of Majuscule 0305 - Suggestions?

Currently the Liste gives a wonderfully ironic date for majuscule 0305 (Matthew 20) of -100 to -1 (here).

The total absence of any discussion piqued my interest, and, thanks to the resources of the BnF I found an online image! The whole frame with multiple fragments contains mainly Coptic stuff, hence its listing under Copt. 133.2.



Our fragment is number 3 at the top right, showing the left hand margin of Mt 20:22-23. Note that the total column width is only about 8 letters.




I am not very good at dating this particular script, but I will kick off by stating that on first sight I would be happy with anything between the 6th and the 9th century, and more likely younger than older. So let’s do a little online, democratic, scholarship here. Suggestions? Parallels?

Surely we can get closer than somewhere in the first century BC.

New article on CBGM

Tommy Wasserman, ‘The Coherence Based Genealogical Method as a Tool for Explaining Textual Changes in the Greek New Testament’ Novum Testamentum 57 (2015) 206-218.

Abstract: This article discusses the advantages of the the Coherence Based Genealogical Method (CBGM), not only as a tool for reconstructing the text of the New Testament, but also for surveying the history of readings and for explaining textual changes. The CBGM promises to detect readings, which have emerged several times independently in the textual tradition. The method is applied to selected examples in 1 John 5:6 and Jude 4, which are relevant to the issue of “orthodox corruption,” as raised by Bart D. Ehrman. The results speak against deliberate textual changes as effects of early Christological controversies in these particular passages. Rather the textual changes reflect other typical behaviour on the part of the scribes throughout the history of transmission.

Congratulations Tommy

Video of the Opening of the Bible Museum in Münster

I found this in an old draft post which I never posted. In addition to the general interest, it contains a very full and frank interview with Kurt Aland which is worth listening to.

Leiden Summer School in Papyrology and Greek Papyri

This summer, courses of Papyrology will be offered as part of the Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics, which will be held from 13 - 24 July 2015 at the Faculty of Humanities of Leiden University. 

The Papyrology Programme consists of two courses: 'Introduction to Papyrology (1200 BCE - 1000 CE)' and 'Reading Greek Papyri’.

For more information on the Leiden Summer School see http://hum.leiden.edu/summerschool/

For more information on the Papyrology Programme see http://hum.leiden.edu/summerschool/programmes-2015/papyrology.html

Reading Greek Papyri

Ciska Hoogendijk (Leiden) and Arthur Verhoogt (Ann Arbor)

Course description
The aim of this course is to give students a working knowledge of ancient Greek handwriting on papyrus and some insight into the editorial practice of papyrology. The two slots form one single course and cannot be chosen separately. In slot 1, students will get acquainted with the various writing styles and periods from the fourth century BCE to the eighth century CE. Special attention will be given to the physical aspect of papyri (margins, sheet joins, etc.) and the distinguishing characteristics of handwriting in the various writing styles (literary and documentary) and periods. In the 2^nd slot, students will bring their knowledge into practice, during which they will get the opportunity to study one or more original papyri from the papyrus collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute.

Level : Knowledge of ancient Greek is required.

Requirements : There will be short daily homework assignments, and, for additional ECTS points, a take-home final exam in the form of the ‘edition’ of a papyrus.

Texts : No textbook is required; course documents will be sent to the students two weeks before the Summer School to print out, or provided in class.

Introductory reading:
G. Cavallo, ‘Greek and Latin Writing in the Papyri’ in: R.S. Bagnall (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology (Oxford 2009), pp. 101- 148
F.A.J. Hoogendijk, ‘Palaeography’ in: Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, Volume 3: P-Z, Index (Leiden-Boston 2014)(also online)
E.G. Turner, Greek Manuscripts of the Ancient World, Second Edition Revised and Enlarged, Edited by P.J. Parsons (BICS 46, London 1987), Introduction, pp. 1-23

Gordon College Selling Rare Bibles

Christianity Today reports that Gordon College is planning to auction some of its Bibles:

More than 90 years ago, Gordon College was given 7,000 rare books and artifacts by the family of Edward Payson Vining, a railroad executive and amateur Shakespearean. The collection included early parchments of the Greek New Testament, the first edition of Martin Luther’s German Bible, and copies of the first Bibles printed in the Americas in a Native American dialect.

Unable to properly care for the large donation (proper facilities and security would cost between $500,000 and $2 million), Gordon has decided to put about 500 books up for auction. Two of the items are first and second editions of a Bible printed in the Massachusett language in the mid-1600s, according to Gordon spokesperson Rick Sweeney.

It doesn’t look like the ‘early parchments of the Greek New Testament’ are necessarily part of the anticipated sale. Checking the Liste suggests that these are minuscules 2752 (Gordon College Library Gr. Ms. 1 - 108 leaves of a XI/XII Gospel manuscript) and 2753 (Gordon College Library Gr. Ms. 2 - six leaves of a XIII Gospel manuscript, containing Matt 27.17-28.20 and some prefatory material to Mark). I couldn’t find out any more information (no bibliography is given in Elliott’s Bibliography (or the available up-dates). If this Christian college has had two Greek New Testament manuscripts for more than 90 years and no one has bothered to publish even a note about them, then it may be best to include them in the sale as well.

The collection also may include a Complutensian Polyglot (I deduce from the reference to “a Ximenes Greek Bible” in this report, which also reports some faculty unease)

London International Palaeography Summer School 2015

Go here for details of this year's London International Palaeography Summer School (June 15-19). Lots of choice, and there are course descriptions and reading lists to check out. E.g. there is a two day course in Greek Palaeography (led by Dr. Laura Franco):

This is an introductory course in Greek Palaeography, consisting of two parts. Part I is a survey of the earlier history of the Greek script covering evidence from early inscriptions, through majuscule and minuscule papyri to manuscripts of the Byzantine period up to the eighth century. Part II concentrates on the Greek minuscule from the ninth to the 15th century and the first printed books. The development of the Greek script will be examined with relation to political events and cultural movements which shaped it through the centuries. Participants will learn how to transcribe a text from a facsimile of a Greek manuscript and examine basic codicological and palaeographical aspects, including the layout of the text, the use of ligatures, nomina sacra, abbreviations and colophons. This course will include practical transcription exercises which can only be undertaken with a knowledge of Greek script and of the Greek language, ancient or modern.  However, students without Greek can be accepted on the understanding that they will remain passive during these exercises.

Conference Announcement and Call for Papers: The Use of the Bible in Contemporary Culture

The Use of the Bible in Contemporary Culture
25th–27th June—University of Chichester

Contemporary western culture contains many references and allusions to the Bible, especially in art, the media, and politics. Such allusions to the words, narratives or motifs of the Bible are often used to inform or reflect public opinion and thereby contribute to current public debate. This conference at the University of Chichester will examine particular examples of these biblical allusions, and the interpretive processes that are involved in their re-appropriation of the Bible.

The conference will focus on three specific areas of interest:

1. The Bible in politics—the contemporary and historical role of the Bible in politics and political debate. 
2. The Bible in the media and the arts—how the media and arts have used the Bible, especially to reflect or shape public opinion. 
3. Hermeneutics —examining both the interpretive strategies involved in cultural echoes of the Bible, and examining what importance (or even authority) the Bible is seen to have in these situations. 

Speakers Include

• Professor James Dunn, Durham University
• Professor James Crossley, University of Sheffield
• Professor Yvonne Sherwood, University of Kent
• Dr Aaron Rosen, King’s College, London
• Nick Spencer, Theos

Call for Papers

Papers are welcome from PhD students and established scholars. Presenters will have a 30-minute period for the presentation of their paper and time for questions and comments. If you wish to propose a paper, please send a title and 300-word abstract to Steve Smith (s.c.smith@chi.ac.uk) by Friday 1st May 2015.

Registration

For registration and further information please see the conference webpage (www.chi.ac.uk/bible). Places are limited: the residential conference fee is £190 (£210 en-suite), with day delegate rates available.

The conference is organised by the University of Chichester in partnership with Bible Society.

Consistency is Highly Overrated

Everyone who has worked a lot with the raw data of a manuscript knows that scribes seem to do many things on a whim, without any discernible rule. Editors of our modern text hate scribes for this and expect that the original that lies behind the manuscript tradition shows more consistency. But this is a dangerous attitude, since any imposed consistency may hide something more subtle in the language of the author - a notion of consistency is based on our understanding of the language rather than an attempt to reflect the manuscript tradition.

An example from the Gospel of Mark. Nine times we find the third person plural ‘they said’, ειπον / ειπαν. In NA26/27 it is spelled consistently ειπαν. In each of the nine cases there is manuscript support for ειπαν but in two cases this support is unusually slim, 11:6 and 16:8. In the latter ειπαν is only read by Bezae, all other witnesses read ειπον (nice to talk about Mark 16:8 without mentioning the ...).



What has happened here? Once we accept the external case for ειπον in 11:6 and 16:8 (and you guess correctly that this will be the reading of the Tyndale House edition), we see that of all nine cases of ‘they said’, these are the only two that are not followed by direct speech. It may be coincidence, it may be not. However, simply the possibility that such observations can be made now, is for me sufficient reason not to attempt too much orthographic consistency; there may be more going on than I understand at this moment.

Radiometric Dating of the Gospel of Judas

Peter Kirby has put together an excellent survey of information on the 14C dating of the Gospel of Judas, here.  The whole issue is complicated, particularly for those without a firm grounding in the application of radiometric dating, but I can summarize the conundrum by saying that a National Geographic publication by Herbert Krosney suggested that the GJudas codex material could be assigned to 280 CE ±60 years, but then represented the results as all falling in the third century.  (Both are statements are problematic, but especially the second.)  This was unfortunate and created a great deal of confusion and speculation.  The Tchacos Codex would then be the earliest Coptic manuscript currently known!

Peter Kirby offers a number of learned insights, but in particular points out an important gross error on the part of Krosney.  Krosney did not understand how radiocarbon results should be “calibrated” against known radiocarbon evidence (tree rings), and instead simply subtracted his BP (“Before Present”) numbers from the year in which the results were produced (2005) to erroneously produce a series of numbers dating to the the third century.

The National Geographic Society granted the Arizona AMS laboratory permission to send me the actual results, and I am publishing an update on the dating of the Tchacos Codex based on the findings.  Again, it’s complicated, and I offer here only a summary.  Krosney made a number of errors, including simple typos.  This is a shame, because generally his two Judas books are well-executed.  In my forthcoming book chapter, I advance the theory of Peter Head, including the actual results from the reports, suggesting that the way in which the results were averaged is not codicologically optimal.  (The lab had six test results, and by averaging results one can reduce the deviation number which consequently reduces the date range from periods of greater than two centuries to periods of less than two centuries.)  Head has argued that instead of excluding one of the results from the leaves and averaging the remaining five, there should be two averages: one average of all three leaves and one average of the three binding elements.

My estimation following Peter Head’s thesis leaves a radiometric result in the late third through the end of the fourth century.  One should be aware that fourth century manuscripts will typically have calibrated dates ranging back into the third century.  The issues is that the amount of 14C carbon in the atmosphere dipped in the fourth century, and thus fourth century manuscripts generally look like third century manuscripts.  Notably, one of the individual calibrations of the papyri leaves offered a date range into the sixth century!

Seeing the Codex Vercellensis in a New Light: Multispectral Imaging and the Old Latin Bible

I’m pleased to be able to post here a report of some important new research from Gregory Heyworth and Roger Easton which will doubtless be of broader interest:

Dating to the first half of the 4th century, the Codex Vercellensis or Codex A is the earliest manuscript of the Gospels in Latin. As such, it is perhaps the closest witness to the text of the Christian Bible in the West in the age of Constantine and the Council of Nicaea. Housed in the Capitulary Library of Vercelli since the time of St. Eusebius of Vercelli under whose auspices it was written, the manuscript now contains 317 folios, many of which are badly damaged by mold and decay to the point of illegibility. In fact, the last edition of Codex A to be made from an original reading of the manuscript was in the mid 18th century when it was considerably more legible than it is today.

          To stabilize the crumbling manuscript, Franz Ehrle, head conservator at the Vatican in the early 20^th century, disbound it and encased each bifolium in thin sheets of gelatin. While effective in preventing further decay, the gelatin also inhibits ultraviolet light which scholars have traditionally used to enhance reading through fluorescence. In an effort return Codex A to the attention of scholars, the curator of the Capitulary Library and Museum of the Dome, Timoty Leonardi, contacted the Lazarus Project for assistance in recovering text from the manuscript.

          In March 2013, a team from the Lazarus Project (http://www.lazarusprojectimaging.com/) traveled to Vercelli to collect spectral images of sample leaves from the codex. In July 2014 they returned to image the entire manuscript, this time with help from the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (http://emel-library.org/).

          Spectral imaging involves two distinct phases. First, imagers photograph the manuscript with a 50-megapixel camera fitted with a specially calibrated quartz lens and a dual filter wheel. 

 Specially designed LED light units illuminate each folio both from above (reflectively) and below (transmissively) in twelve different wavelengths of light between the ultraviolet (365nm) and the infrared (940nm). Fluorescence from the manuscript provoked by ultraviolet and blue light is separated and captured with the help of a dual filter wheel that sits in front of the lens. All told, as many as thirty-three individual images of each page are captured by the computer-driven system, totaling in this case over 20,000 photos in a ten day period and over 4 terabytes of data.

          In the image processing phase, combinations of these bands are computed digitally using a hypersectral software called ENVI that is traditionally used for processing geospatial images from satellites. The goal is to enhance the contrast of the text to the background. The image “cubes” are then further refined using statistical processing known as Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA). In this example, pseudocolor images with different combinations of spectral bands were animated to show how the text looks before and after image processing.

          The key to the effectiveness of a spectral imaging project lies in the interdisciplinarity of the team. Led by Dr. Gregory Heyworth, a medievalist and codicologist trained in textual editing, the Lazarus Project team is comprised of imaging scientists Drs. Keith Knox and Roger Easton, both of whom are known for their pioneering work on the Archimedes Palimpsest among many other major recovery intitiatives. They were joined by Michael Phelps, Executive Director of EMEL, a biblical scholar by training, who directs the Sinai palimpsest project at St. Catherine’s monastery, and by Ken Boydston of MegaVision Corporation, who constructed the camera system and designed the lens, and who is known, among other things, for his work imaging the Dead Sea Scrolls multispectrally. The team was rounded out by a number of undergraduate students from the University of Mississippi and the Rochester Institute of Technology who are learning the interdisciplinary skills of textual science necessary to broaden the awareness of this esoteric field for the next generation.

          The result of the first imaging is shown in the animation video. Much of the text that is unreadable to the unaided eye reveals itself in the spectral images. Processing of images of the entire manuscript is now ongoing. Additional results are expected by the end of summer 2015, to be followed by a new edition by Heyworth under the auspices of the Vetus Latina Institute.

Helpful Website on English Translations of the Bible

I recently came across a website called the Internet Bible Catalog. Notwithstanding that mis-spelling of “catalogue” I found this a useful resource in tracking down both a particular edition of an English translation of the NT, and also earlier and later editions of the same. It is run mostly by and for collectors, rather than scholars (so better on translations than Hebrew and Greek editions). Here is what they say about themselves:

The Internet Bible Catalog is a web-based catalog of printed editions of the Bible. Its primary focus is on English language translations, but it has many entries for Bibles in the original languages and in non-English versions. The Catalog welcomes participation from the larger community of Bible Collectors. Members are encouraged to add and correct entries.
The Internet Bible Catalog is different from printed catalogs in that it includes images of the Bibles. For almost all entries, the title page is included and many entries include covers, jackets, or representative pages. Another unique feature is the inclusion of sample verses; a representative sample of verses from a given version.

For example, have a look at the impressive list of different English translations. 

Greek Lectionaries: An Introduction

I was getting together a handout for a seminar on Monday on the topic of Greek Lectionary manuscripts of the New Testament. But it is an area in which I readily confess my ignorance (and usually don’t even get to in courses I have taught), so I thought I would offer it here for correction and suggestions. Most of the material is from Osburn (2012), with a bit of Jordan (2009). Suggestions of helpful reading (and an ideal online manuscript) would be especially welcome.

Greek Lectionaries: an introduction

Around 40% of all NT manuscripts (over 2,400 listed) (mostly minuscule, with a few earlier majuscule manuscripts of a lectionary type). Relatively neglected – e.g. no critical edition (often commented on, from Westcott & Hort through to Osburn & Karavidopoulos).[1] Generally close to Byzantine text: ‘lectionaries have text-critical value primarily for the later history of the NT textual tradition’ (Osburn, 108).

Different types of lectionary (eklogadion):

Mostly (over two-thirds): euaggelion or euaggelistarion (separate gospel manuscripts become known as tetraeuaggelion)

Others (a quarter): apostolos or praxapostolos (lessons from Acts and epistles: l^a)

Others: apostoloeuangelion (readings from Gospels, Acts and Epistles; #75: l^+a)

Complete Lectionary system has two parts: synaxarion – follows ecclesiastical calendar, from Easter Sunday to Holy Saturday (moving with the date of Easter); and the menologion – follows the civil calendar, from Sept 1 to Aug 31. See Scrivener, Introduction, 80-89 for a plan (or Gregory, Textkritik, 344-386). [Plans can be added to cont. text mss, e.g. 892, BL Add 33277]

Synaxarion –

Easter to Pentecost – readings from John and Acts

Pentecost to Holy Cross day – 16 weeks – readings from Matthew supplemented from Mark; Romans, 1 & 2 Cor, texts from Eph and Hebrews.

Holy Cross day to Lent – readings from Luke (and some Mark)

Lent – Sat & Sun readings from Mark, John, Hebrews; weekday readings OT

Holy Week – numerous longer readings (Gospels, Romans, 1 Corinthians)

After Holy Week – eleven resurrection readings from Sunday morning.

Menologion –

developed in the tenth century by Symeon Metaphrastes (Høgel)

Includes readings for special occasions and celebrations of lives of saints etc., incorporating hagiographical, homiletical and biblical material (with differences for local practice).

On date of origin of system and lectionary text:

Metzger: ‘the lectionary system current today in the Orthodox church had its origin sometime during the fourth century’ (1972, 495-6) [evidence from Chrysostom that he comments on the lesson for the day, e.g. Hom. 7 ad Antioch; Hom. 63.47 in Act)

Aland: none of the pre-eighth century lectionary manuscripts have the later system (e.g. l1604 (IV), l1043 (V), l1276 (VI), l1347 (VI), l1354 (VI) etc.); reading notes added to continuous text manuscripts (arche, telos) only from the eighth century onwards. Junack: general lectionary system comes from late seventh or early eighth century (same time as Byzantine calendar; hence also Byzantine text)

For earlier systems (e.g. Jerusalem based readings) need to compare Syriac, CPA, Armenian and other versional evidence. And the earlier majuscule lectionary manuscripts (mentioned earlier), as well as patristic practice.

History of Study (Jordan, Osburn, Karavidopoulos)

Mill (1707) used 8 gospel lectionaries and 1 apostolos

Wettstein (1751f) – 24 euaggelion, 4 apostolos

Matthaei (1782-1788) – 57 euaggelion, 20 apostolos

Scholz (1830-1836) – 178 euaggelion, 58 apostolos

Not much role/use in Tischendorf, Westcott & Hort, von Soden (deliberately not)

Gregory (1900-1909): counts and describes 1,599 lectionaries

1904/1912: V./B. Antoniades, h9 kainh\ diaqh/kh e0gkri/sei th=j Mega/lhj tou= Xristou=  0Ekklhsi/aj (Constantinople: Ek tou Patriarchikou Typographeiou [Patriarchal Press], 1904, 1912 [corrected]; Athens: Apostoliki Diakonia, 1993 reprint): first continuous comprehensive Greek text of NT in Orthodox world; continuous text based on text of 116 lectionaries (Contantinople, Mount Athos, Athens, Jerusalem); aimed for ‘the best reconstruction of the most ancient text of ecclesiastical tradition and, more specifically, of the Church of Constantinople’. (Karavidopoulos)

Chicago Lectionary Project under Ernest C. Colwell - 1930s-60s (Wikgren)

NA/UBS: Generally cited together: Byz. Lect. or singly by the letter l in italics and their number. But: ‘Nothing approaching a systematic presentation of lectionary readings occurs in any currently printed Greek Testament.’ (Osburn, 100).

Approaching a Lectionary Manuscript

Euaggelion - organized into separate readings, with the day set for each passage written at the start of the periscope or in the upper margin. Sometimes with an indication of which liturgical service is meant.

l339 = British Library, Egerton 2163: good example of complete lectionary (syn. & men.), Byz text (http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Egerton_MS_2163)

Liste –        le = e9bdoma/dej – contains readings for each day of the week (except in Lent, when there are only Sat/Sun readings)

                    lesk = e9bdoma/dej/sabbatokuriakai/ - contains readings for each day between Easter Sunday and Pentecost, Sat/Sun readings to Palm Sunday and daily readings in Holy Week until Holy Saturday.

                    lsk = sabbatokuriakai/ - contains readings for Sat/Sundays only

                    lsel = contains readings for selected days

                    lK = kuriakai/ - contains readings for Sundays

Bibliography

C.R. Gregory, Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1900-09).

C. Höeg & G. Zuntz, ‘Remarks on the Prophetologion’ in Quantulacumque: Studies Presented to Kirsopp Lake (ed R.P. Casey, S. Lake & A.K. Lake; London: Christophers, 1937), 189-226.

C. Høgel, Symeon Metaphrastes. Rewriting and Canonization (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen, 2002).

C.R.D. Jordan, ‘The  Textual Tradition of the Gospel of John in Greek Gospel Lectionaries from the Middle Byzantine Period (8^th-11^th Century)’ (PhD; Birmingham, 2009).

K. Junack, ‘Zu den griechischen Lektionaren und ihrer Überlieferung der katholischen Briefe’ Die alten Übersetzungen des Neuen Testaments, die Kirchenväterzitate und Lektionaire (ed. K. Aland; ANTF 5; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1972), 498-591.

I.D. Karavidopoulos, ‘The Ecumenical Patriarchate’s 1904 New Testament Edition and Future Perspectives’ Sacra Scriptura X (2012), 7-14.

B.M. Metzger, ‘Greek Lectionaries and a Critical Edition of the Greek New Testament’ in Die alten Übersetzungen des Neuen Testaments, die Kirchenväterzitate und Lektionaire (ed. K. Aland; ANTF 5; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1972), 479-497.

C. Osburn, ‘The Greek Lectionaries of the New Testament’ in Ehrman, B.D. & Holmes, M.W. (edd.), The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. Second Edition (NTTSD 42; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2012), 93-113.

D. Patras, ‘The Gospel Lectionary in the Byzantine Church’ StVladThQ 41 (1997), 113-140.

D. W. Riddle, ‘The Use of Lectionaries in Critical Editions and Studies of the New Testament Text’ in Prolegomena to the Study of the Lectionary text of the Gospels. Studies in the Lectionary Text of the Greek New Testament, vol. 1, ed. E. C. Colwell and D. W. Riddle (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1933), 67-77.

F.H.A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament for the use of Biblical Students (London: George Bell & Sons, 1894; 4th edition ed. E. Miller)

B. F. Westcott and F. J. Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek. Introduction and Appendix (London: MacMillan and Co., 1881).

A. P. Wikgren, ‘Chicago Studies in the Greek Lectionary of the New Testament’ in Biblical and Patristic Studies in Memory of Robert Pierce Casey (ed J.N. Birdsall & R.W. Thomson; Freiburg: Herder, 1963), 96-121.

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[1] Westcott & Hort, Introduction, 76-77: ‘an almost unexplored region of textual history...’; Osburn, 93: ‘seriously neglected in the search for the earliest forms of the NT text’.

Vatican Library: Online Images (NT Greek)

I don’t think that it will be possible to post regular up-dates for online images of the Vatican Library. They are aiming to get all 80,000 manuscripts photographed and on-line (1690 so far). Among those 80,000 are around 346 NT Greek manuscripts (the number of results in the online Liste), and (I presume) extensive holdings in LXX manuscripts and other ancient languages. But as a first installment, and a reminder that it may well be worth checking whether a particular manuscript has appeared on-line (if you want a particular manuscript to appear on line you should request it), the general page you want to start at is here.

Several of these include text and commentary (illustrating some of the major types discussed recently by Dan Wallace here).

So far the following are online:

NT 150 (Vatican, Pal. Gr. 189) [11th cent. Gospels] (Mark 1.1 again)

NT 151 (Vatican, Pal. Gr. 220) [10th cent. Gospels with Commentary] (nice style)

NT 388 (Vatican, Ottob. Gr. 212) [13th cent. Gospels] (John 1)

NT 850 (Vatican, Barb. Gr. 504) [12th cent.; John 1-10 with Commentary] (guess where)

NT 1843 (Vatican, Vat. Gr. 1208) [13th cent. Acts, CE, Paul] (James)

NT 1946  (Vatican, Ottob. Gr.31) [11th cent. Paul (lacking Romans) with Commentary] (neat!)

NT 1957 (Vatican, Vat. Gr. 1209) [15th cent.; end of Heb & Rev. [i.e. end of B]] (umlauts!)

NT 2032 (Vatican, Vat.Gr. 1904, II) [11th cent; portions of Rev with Commentary] (scrappy)

NT 2195 (Vatican, Ross. 135-138) [11th cent Gospels] (never forget the Great Commission)

 NT  l 130  (Vatican, Ottob. Gr. 2) [10th cent.; Uncial] (cool hand John)

Scheide Library stays in Princeton

The William Schiede collection, which contains copies of the first six printed editions of the Bible, including a practically complete Gutenberg Bible (1455), as well as a host of other early printed books and manuscripts (including the NT manuscripts: 1357, 1693, lect. 1231; lect. 2305), has been donated to Princeton University (having been housed there since 1959).