RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bible Text
seventh and eighth centuries the present accents were more or less used, but very arbitrarily and irregularly. The uncials gradually changed their earlier simple round or square forms, and from the tenth century yielded to the cursives. The earliest punctuation was by means of a blank space and a simple point. Euthalius, a deacon in Alexandria, in the year 458 published an edition of the Epistles of Paul, and soon after of the Acts and Catholic Epistles, written stichometrically, i.e., in single lines containing only so many words as could be read, consistently with the sense, at a single inspiration. This mode of writing was used long before in copying the poetical books of the Old Testament. It involved, however, a great waste of parchment, so that, in manuscripts of the New Testament, it was superseded after a few centuries by punctuationmarks.
Divisions of the text were early made for various purposes. In the third century Ammonius of Alexandria (q.v.) prepared a Harmony of the Gospels, taking the text of Matthew as the basis. Eusebius of Caesarea, in the early 4. The Am- part 0f ^ne fourth century, availing
sTtion^ himself of the work of Ammonius, divided the text of each Gospel into sections, the length of which, varying greatly (in John xix, 6 there are three, and in twentyfour other instances two, in a single verse), was determined solely by their relation of parallelism or similarity to passages in one or more of the other Gospels, or by their having no parallel. These sections (often erroneously ascribed to Ammonius) were then numbered consecutively in the margin of the Gospel in black ink; Matthew having 355, Mark 233 (not 236), Luke 342, and John 232. They were distributed by Eusebius into ten tables or canons prefixed to the Gospels, and containing the sections corresponding in —
I. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 71. II. Matthew, Mark, Luke, 111.
III. Matthew, Luke, John, 22.
IV. Matthew, Mark, John, 26. V. Matthew, Luke, 82.
VI. Matthew, Mark, 47 VII. Matthew, John, 7. VIII. Luke, Mark, 14. IX. Luke, John, 21.
X. Sections peculiar to Matthew 62, Mark 21, Luke 71, John 97
Under the number of each section in the margin of the several Gospels was written in red ink the number of the canon or table to which it belonged. On turning to its place in this table, the number of the corresponding section or sections in the other Gospels stands with it, so that the parallel passages may readily be found. For example, the first verse of Matt, iv forms the fifteenth Eusebian section; the number two under this refers to the second canon or table, where it appears that section fifteen in Matthew corresponds to six in Mark, and fifteen in Luke; i.e., to Mark i, 12, and Luke iv, 1. In some manuscripts the parallel sections are indicated at the bottom of the page. They thus correspond to our marginal references. Cf . Euse-
bius, Epist. ad Carpianum ; J. Burgon, The Last Twelve Verses ofS. Mark (London, 1871), pp. 295 sqq.
Wholly different in character and purpose from the Eusebian sections, and probably older, is a division of the Gospels into sections called titloi, also kephalaia majora (in Latin manuscripts, breves), found in most manuscripts from the Alexandrine and the Ephraem (A, C) of the fifth century onward. Of these sections Matthew
DivfsT1/ contains 68> Mark 48> Luke 83, John of th^Text 18' ^e numbers by which they are ' designated in the margin of manuscripts refer to the titles describing their contents at the top or bottom of the page, or in a list prefixed to each Gospel, or often in both places. A certain portion at the beginning of each Gospel is not numbered; for example, the first chapter in Matthew corresponds with our chap, ii, 1-15, and is entitled peri ton magon, " Concerning the Magi." There is a similar division in the Acts and Epistles, to which Euthalius (about 458 a.d.), though not its inventor, gave wide currency by his stichometric edition of these books. The Apocalypse was divided by Andrew, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia (about 500 a.d.), into twenty-four logoi, or chapters, and each of these chapters into three kephalaia, or sections, the former number answering to the twenty-four elders spoken of in the book (Rev. iv, 4); the latter suggested by the threefold division of human nature into body, soul, and spirit (comp. I Thess. v, 23), as the author himself declares. In the Vatican manuscript (B), there is a division of the Gospels into much shorter chapters (Matt. 170, Mark 62, Luke 152, John 80), very judiciously made. This has been found in only one other manuscript, the Codex Zacynthius (H). In the Acts and Epistles the Vatican manuscript has a twofold division into chapters, — one very ancient, the other later, but both different from the Euthalian. In the older division, the Pauline Epistles are treated as one book. (For further details see Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Vaticanum, Leipsic, 1867, p. xxx; Scrivener, Introduction, i, London, 1894, pp. 56 sqq.) Other ancient divisions of the New Testament into chapters were more or less widely current, especially in Latin and Syriac manuscripts.
The superscriptions, " Epistle of Paul," " Catholic Epistles," etc. , can not be earlier than the fourth century, since they imply a canonical collection. The subscriptions at the end of the Pauline Epistles in many manuscripts are generally ascribed to Euthalius. At least six of these are untrustworthy (I Cor., Gal., I and II Thess., I Tim., Tit.). For the modern divisions of the Bible into chapters and verses see III below.
An ancient division of the text is the lessons, or lections, from the Gospels on the one hand, and the Acts and Epistles on
6. Divi- the other, read in the public services
sions for of the Church. The history of these
Liturgio- jg 0bscure; an(i they varied much at different periods and in different
al Reading:.
regions. The lessons for the Sundays and chief festivals of the year seem to have been the earliest; next were added lessons for the Sat-
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