2. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catharine ; Syr. 30, Codex Palimpsestus Sinaiticus (Burkitt's S). The MS was discovered by Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gib- son, of Cambridge, in 1892, and has been since studied repeatedly bj- Mrs. Lewis and other scholars. The MS consists of 182 leaves of vellum (one leaf was stolen in 1902, but afterwards re- stored ; see Exp. Timc-i, xiii. 405 ; xvii. 396). The upper writing is of the 8th cent., and consists of Lives of Saints. In its original form the MS had 166 leaves, containing the four Gospels in the usual order. Its date is early 5th, perhaps 4th century. Each page contains 2 columns, with from 29 to 21 lines each, and measures 21-9 by 15-8 cm. The Gospels are nearly complete. Of the two MSS this must be regarded as the better representative of the original translation. Complete photographs of it are in Cambridge University Library ; West- minster College, Cambridge ; Rjlands" Library, Manchester : photos of separate pages in Burkitt, vol. ii. pp. 28, 257, and elsewhere.
The Evangelion da-Mepharreshe was so called to distinguish it from Tatian's Diatessaron or Harmony, in which form the Gospels were regularly read in the Syrian Church at first. This Church had its centre at Edessa near the Euphrates, and its language must not be identified with the Aramaic our Lord spoke. The value of the Old Syriac Version consists in the fact that it reproduces the Greek text current in Antioch at the end of the 2nd cent., with a certain amount of contamination from the use of the Diate^t-aroii, which is in origin Italian. It is of the first authority for the constitution of the text of the Greek Gospels. For all problems connected with it the reader is re- ferred to Burkitt's second volume.
(b) of the Pcshitta ('simple') translation: —
2. Earl of Crawford's MS 1, now Rylands' Library, Manchester, of the 6tli cent. (Gwilliam, No. 11).
13. London, British Museum, Addit. ]MSS 14,470, of the 5th or 6th cent. (Gwilliam, No. 17).
15. London, British Museum, Addit. MSS 14,453, of the 5th or 6th cent. (Gwilliam, No. 14).
22. London, British Museum, Addit. :MSS 12,140, of the 6th cent. (Gwilliam, 31).
There are many other codices, complete or incomplete, of equal antiquity, in other libraries. See Gwilliam's list of 42 MSS in the Telraeuangelittm Sattclutn by Pusey and Gwilliam (Oxonii, 1901), which is the best editioii of the Peshitta, and is provided with a literal Latin translation. As to the date of the Peshitta itself, Burkitt's view that it was prepared by Rabbula, bp. of Edessa from 411 to 435 a.d., has gained wide acceptance. He regards it as 'a revision of the Era»gelion da-Mepharreshe, undertaken mainly with the object of conforming the trans- lation more closely to the Greek text as read at Antioch earlj- in the 5th century ' (Evangelion da-Mepharreshe, vol. ii. p. 5).
(c) of the Palestinian or Jerusalem translation : — 1. Rome, A^aticanus Sjt. 19 (formerly 11), of the
year 1030 (Codex A. Lewis-Gibson).
6. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catharine, of the year 1104 (Codex B, Lewis-Gibson).
7. Sinai, Monastery of St. Catharine, of the year 1118 (Codex C, Lewis-Gibson).
Edited by Airs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson in the Palestinian Syriac Lcctionary of the Gospels (London, 1899). This version is perhaps more closely related to the Old Syriac than to the Peshitta, and may be a revision of the former.
(d) of the Philoxenian-Harklean translation ; — 1. Belonging to the S\Tian Protestant College in
Beirut, but lent to tlie Union Theological Semin- ary of New York. Of the 9th cent., and somewhat defective. 22. Florence, Laur. i. 40 ( Assem. 3). Of date 757.
25. Rome, Vat. Syr. 266. Of the 7th century.
26. Rome, Vat. Syr. 267. Of the 8th century.
118
MANUSCRIPTS
MANUSCRIPTS
This, the youngest of the Syrian versions, is a revision by Thomas of Harkel (Heraclea) in the first half of the 7th cent, of an earlier version made at the instance of Philoxenus, Monophjsite bp. of Hierapolis (Mabog) in the early 6th century. The earlier translation was perhaps made from the Peshitta by reference to the ' corrected ' form of the Greek text, and Thomas found in Egypt older Greek MSS, which had escaped the en- thusiasm of the destroyers, who favoured the ' corrected ' text, and inserted some readings from them, adding others in the margin.
III. Egyptian (Coptic) MSS:—
(a) of the Bohairic translation : —
Complete manuscripts are all of late date, none being earlier apparently than the 12th century. On all questions connected with this translation and its MSS, see The Coptic Version of the Sell' Testament in the Northern Dialect [ed. G. Horner), 4 vols. (Oxford, 1898-1905).
1. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Huntington, 17,* Horner's A, printed entire by him as tlie basis of his edition. This MS was written in 1174, and contains the Gospels complete, both in Bohairic and Arabic. It is on paper, contains 457 ( + 5) leaves, and 2 columns to the page, with 20 lines each. It measures 34 5 by 26 cm. The MS has a number of omissions : see the valuable tables of omissions in the chief Bohairic MSS in Horner's edition, vol. i. p. cxxvi tf.
21. Paris, Bibl. Nat., copt. 16, Horner's C. The MS was written in 1196, and contains the Gospels almost complete, both in Bohairic and Arabic. It is on paper, contains 369 ( +2) leaves, and 2 columns to the page, with 26 lines each. It measures 28 '5 by 21 cm. The text is perfect, with the exception of a small lacuna, Jn 16*'''*.