RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Stichometry
planation of the matter seems to be as follows: when the earlier uncial form of writing was deserted for one more convenient for purposes of reading and recitation, the text was broken up into short sentences, named, according to their lengths, cola and commata; and in some instances an attempt was made, not only to number these cola, so as to form a colometry similar to stichometry, and sharing the advantages which it offered for reference and book-measuring, but even to accommodate the arrangement of these cola so as to reproduce the original number of verses. Thus the rhetorician Castor (C. Walz, Rhetores Greed, iii. 721, Stuttgart, 1834) discusses the pseudo-oration of Demosthenes against Philip as follows: tovtov tov %6yov oritjo/iev Kara k£>?lov narav- TTjaavTts tic Trjv 'Koabr'qra tuv kuIuv /card tov apSfibv tov £ynrifievov iv toic apxaloic fiifiXioig, uc kfierpqaev avrbf 6 Arjfioadhtjc tov ISiov Tidyov. It seems also that this change of form took place first for those books which were publicly recited, or which had a semi-poetical structure; so that the oldest Bible manuscripts desert the continuous uncial writing in the Psalms, in Job, the Proverbs, Canticles, etc.; and St. Jerome proposed to imitate this peculiarly divided text in the prophets: " What is usually done in the cases of Demosthenes and Cicero, viz., that those writings which are in prose and not in verse are arranged in cola and commata, we also, looking to the convenience of the readers, distinguish a new interpretation by a new kind of writing " (preface to commentary on Isaiah) .
II. New-Testament Stichometry: In turning to the New Testament, and particularly to the epistles, it will appear that the theory already advanced is completely confirmed, and that there is a very powerful critical implement for the restoration of
early New-Testament texts in the tra-
i. Eutha- ditional data. As before, both total
lius. and partial stichometry exists. There
is, however, a good deal of variation between the transmitted data, arising from various causes, such as variation in the text, variation in the unit employed in the measurement, difference in versions measured, and difference in the abbreviations employed. The greatest authority, however, for New-Testament stichometry, is found in the work of Euthalius (q.v.), ed. L. A. Zacagni, Collectanea monumentorum veterum ecclesice Grascm ac Latince (Rome, 1698; MGP, lxxxv.). Euthalius was a deacon of the church of Alexandria, and afterward bishop of Sulci in Sardinia. (For modern discussions with reference to Euthalius, his history and ecclesiastical office, besides the literature under Euthalius, consult Ehrhard, in Centralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen, viii. 9, pp. 385-411; Von Dobschiitz, in the same, x. 2, pp. 49-70. These discussions do not affect the problem of stichometry.) He has frequently but erroneously been credited with the introduction of stichometry to the New Testament, and these verses which he measured have been by many persons identified with the colonwriting previously described. There is very little ground for any such ideas; and it appears that the stichoi mentioned by Euthalius are hexameters of sixteen syllables, a very slight allowance being made for certain common abbreviations. The work of
Euthalius consisted in editing the Acts and Catholic Epistles, with a complete system of prologues, prefaces, and quotations: every book was divided into lections, and to every lection, as well as to the greater part of the prefaces, was appended its numerical extent. The verses were also marked on the margin from fifty to fifty. There is thus a mine of stichometric information sufficient to test any theory in the closest manner. Moreover, the work has this importance, that Euthalius professes to have measured his verses accurately, and to have employed the best manuscripts, viz., those preserved in the Pamphilian Library at Csesarea. It is consequently permissible to set a high value on the measurements made, on the ground of antiquity as well as of accuracy.
It remains to test these results given by Euthalius for the lections of the Acts of the Apostles; and, no account being taken of the abbreviations which might have been found in the text, the
2. Eutha- text of the Acts in Westcott and Hort's lius Tested. New Testament will be divided into sixteen-syllabled rhythms. If allowance were made for abbreviation, the results would have been somewhat less, as a syllable might be subtracted at every occurrence of the words Oebg and Xpiarbc, and two syllables for each occurrence of iTjaoiig and Kvpioc, with perhaps a few other rarely recurring words, as naTijp, ovpavdg. The data for Euthalius are taken from Cod. Escorial, \p. iii. 6, as there are some errors in Zacagni's figures. Allowing for one or two obvious corruptions, such as the dropping of the figure p in lection 6, the agreement is very complete.
The lines of the following table are nearly hexameters, so that the table affords a picture of the arrangement of an early bicolumnar codex:
Lection.
Begins.
Cod. Esc.
Westcott and Hort.
X
1.1
1.15
2.1
3.1
4.32
6.1
8.1 (eyevero)
S
9.1
9.23
11.27
15.1
17.1
19.1
21.15
24.27
27.1
Still more remarkable is the harmony between the measured text of Westcott and Hort and the Euthalian figures, when allowance is made for the abbreviations previously mentioned. In the following table the first column represents the stichometric number supplied by Euthalius and the best manuscripts; the second gives the result of the actual subdivision of the text of Westcott and Hort into sixteen-syllabled verses; and the third expresses the same result with the proper deduction made for four leading abbreviations.
The agreement between the first and third columns is very complete and decisive as a test of the
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