space between. An inscription states that the MS. was purchased in 938. It is obviously an important codex.
Codex 590, Kennicott, folio. This MS. contains the Prophets and Hagiographa on parchment. The text has the vowel-points, but apparently from a later hand. The margin does not exhibit the Masorah, but variations are noted here and there. Some books have the final Masorah. The separate books have no titles, and they are arranged in the oldest order, Jeremiah and Ezekiel coming before Isaiah, and Ruth before the Psalms. Ac- cording to the subscription, it was written A.D. 1019, or 1018 by another reckoning. The MS. is in the impe- rial library of Vienna.
— , Pinner, small folio. A MS. containing the Pen- tateuch, Prophets, and Hagiographa, on good parch- ment. Every page has three columns, except in Psalms, Job, and Proverbs, where there are but two. The text is furnished with vowels and accents, two points stand- ing after each verse. The letters and accents are like those in No. 3 of Pinner. The Great and Little Maso- rah are in the margins. Being a Karaite MS., it has not been written with great accuracy. Words and verses are sometimes repeated. It is highly ornamented with gold and silver colors. The Codex states that it was written in Egypt in the year 1010.
The most important and oldest Hebrew MSS. collated by Kennicott. Bruns, De Rossi, Pinner, and others, are described in Davidson's Biblical Ci%ticism, i, 346 sq. ; and his Text of the Old Testament considered, etc., p. 98 sq. See also tlie thiid section of Tychsen's Tentamen de rariis Codicun Ilehraicorum Vet. Test. MSS. generibus, etc. (Rostock, 1772, 8vo), in which the learned writer ex- amines the marks of antiquity assumed by Simon, Jab- lonski,Wolf, Houbigant, Kennicott, and Lilienthal, and shows that the Masorah alone is a certain index for de- termining the age and goodness of Hebrew MSS. See also the same writer's Beurtheilung der Jahrzahlen in den Hehrdisch-Biblischen Handschriften (Rostock, 1786, 8vo), in which the mode of determiniuf the age of MSS. adopted by Kennicott, Bruns, and De r.ossi is rejected ; and Schnurrer's Dissertatio Jnavc/vralis de Codimm He- hrceonim Vet. Test, (etate difpctdter determinanda (Tu- bingen, 1772, 4to), reprinted in his Dissertationes Philo- logico-Cnticce (Gotha and Amsterdam, 1790, 8vo).
Private MSS. written in the Rabbinical character are much more recent than the preceding, none of them be- ing older than 500 years. They are on cotton or linen paper, in a cursive character, without vowel-points or the Masorah, and with many abbreviations.
The MSS. found among the Chinese Jews are partly synagogue rolls, partly private copies, whose text does not differ from tlic Masoretic. The Pentateuch of the ^Malabar Jews, brought from India to England by the late Dr. Buchanan, and described by Mr. Yeates, resem- bles, on the whole, the usual synagogue rolls of the .Jews, except that it is written on red skins. Its text is the Masoretic, with a few unimportant deviations.
Eight exemplars are celebrated among the Jews for their correctness and value. They are now lost, but ex- tracts from them are still preserved. From Jewisli writ- ings, and from the margin of some MSS., where a refer- ence is made to them, we learn that they were liighly prized for their singular accuracy. They formed the basis of subsequent co])ics. They are, 1. The Codex of Hillel (see above) \ 2. The Babylonian Codex ; 3. The Codex of Israel; 4. An Egyptian Codex ; 5. Codex Sinai ; 6. The Pentateuch of Jericho; 7. Codex Sanbuki; 8. The book Taggin.
For a more copious account of Hebrew MSS. we refer to Eichhorn's Einleitunfi (Introduction), vol. ii; Kenni- cott's Dissertatio r/eneralis ; Walton's Prolegomena to the Polyglott, separately edited by Dathe and Wrangham; Tychsen's Tentamen; De Rossi's Varies Lectiones Vet. Test. etc. ; and his Scholia critica in V. T. libros, etc. ; De Wette, Leh?'bvch der Historisch-Kriiischen J-Sinlei- tung; Davidson's Treatise on Biblical Criticism; and his Introd. to the Old Test., in Home. See Old TESXiUiExx.
MANUSCRIPTS
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MANUSCRIPTS
II. Manuscripts of the Greek Testament. — 1. Those that have descended to our time are either on vellum or pa- per. The oldest material was the Egyptian papyrus, but even so early as the 4tli century the N. T. was writ- ten on the skins of animals. This writing material con- tinued in use till the 11th centurj', when paper began to be employed. Till the 10th centtiry, MSS. were usu- ally written in capital or uncial letters; then the cur- sive character came into use. The most ancient copies liave no division of words, being written in a continued series of lines. Accents, spirits, and iota, postscribed or subscribed, are also wanting.
2. Tlie whole of the N. T. is contained in very few MSS. Transcribers generally divided it into three parts; the first, containing the four Gospels; the second, the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles ; the third, the Apocalypse of St. John. The greatest number of INISS. are those which have the four Gospels, because they were most frequently read in the churches. Those con- taining the Acts and Epistles are also numerous. Such as liave the book of Revelation alone are extremely few, because it was seldom read in public.
Greek codices are not often complete in all their parts. They have many chasms. Again, some contain merely detached portions of the N. T., or sections appointed to be read on certain days in the churches. Such codices are called avayvuinnq or avayvuxjpaTa in Greek; in Latin, lectionaria. Those containing lessons from the Gospels are called evam/elistaria ; such as were taken from the Acts, npa^aTzixjroXoi ; those from the epistles, epistokvia or aTrdoroAoi.