The NT in Manuscript Form
Lecture 16

A Survey of the Important Manuscript Witnesses

Suppose
•	we have a NT mss before us, the first thing to learn about it is its age
•	How old is it?
•	Several hundred mss have the __________written on them and is therefore no problem
•	these aid in determining the ____________and age of others without such information
How are Manuscripts dated?
•	The key to find the answer is in the _______________
•	the first question is: “Are the letters ____________or_____________?”
•	the second question is: “Are the letters written _______________or ____________between?”
•	a third: “how many ________________are on a page?”
More Questions to ask:
•	fourth: “what is the ___________________of the columns?”
•	fifth: “are there any marks of___________________?”
•	sixth: “Do __________________divisions exist?”
•	seventh: “Are the letters _____________or ________________and complex?”
Types of NT Manuscripts
•	the key to determining these types are the Greek __________
•	are they _______________or ___________________or cursives?
•	Group 1 uses uncials or ______________and were _______________in the history of the text
•	Group 2 uses the ___________-or miniscules and did not appear until the _______century and prove to be less valuable because of the late dates copied
The Number of NT Manuscripts
•	is vast = about__________, but not all contain complete copies of all 27 books of the NT
•	Yet, the NT is the best _____________book from the ancient world
•	we find the generally ________categories were produced when making hand copies of the NT
•	this is because the shear size of a hand copied mss was not practical to carry
The Four Categories:
•	A. The _________________
•	B. __________and the General Epistles
•	C. The ________________Epistles
•	D. ________________
•	at times the Gospels formed one volume and the rest a second volume
•	of the 5000 mss we have, only about _______date before the _____century and are not ________________
The Early Copies
•	were written in the professional hand and used the _________letters and without intervening ___________between the words and letters or ____________________marks
•	Thus Paul’s letter to the Romans would appear like the following:
•	PAULASERVANTOFJESUSCHRISTCALLEDTOBEANAPOSTLESEPRARATEDUNTOTHEGOSPELOFGODWHICHHEPROMISEDAFORETHROUGHTHE 

The 375 Uncial Manuscripts
•	only _____are ____________-from the _____________to 4th century
•	________are ______________with portions of the NT on them
•	about ________others are on ____________and these date from the ______to 10th centuries
The Important Uncials
•	generally the more important mss are those that are the oldest and most complete
•	there are 3 that are especially important for the NT
•	These are known as the:
•	1. The ________________
•	2. The ________________and
•	3. The ________________manuscripts
The 3 Manuscripts
•	are___________, faded, and unattractive in many ways
•	date back to AD ________-________
•	and are the greatest document-treasures in Christendom ---
•	the _________________Bibles in the world!
The Vatican Manuscript
•	is a fourth century ________and
•	is widely acknowledged as the most _______________witness of the text of the NT
•	It is located as its name suggests in the ____________Library at __________
•	It has been there since ____________the date in which a catalog listed it. there is no story to tell of its discovery
The Story of its history
•	proves interesting 
The Vatican Manuscript
•	is often referred to as _______________-
•	is a rare gem in that it contains almost _________of the OT and NT
•	the beginning has been lost as far as Genesis 46:28
•	some of the ______________are missing (Psalms 106-138) and likewise some of the ending
•	Hebrews 9:14 to the close, The ________________and Revelation
The General Epistles
•	were included after the book of____________, 
•	which was the general order of the early ____________
•	it has ________pages of fine vellum
•	each page is about 10 inches square and holds three columns of writing that originally was very beautiful
•	this has been marred somewhat by a ____________who tried to trace over the fading ink
The Vatican Manuscript
•	while not complete is considered the most ________copy of the original mss
•	the printed texts of the _____________NT used today depend heavily upon this text
2. The Sinatic Manuscript
•	this mss is of almost equal importance to that of ___________
•	its named is derived from the place of its discovery = St. _______________-Monastery on Mt Sinai by Constatine Tishendorf
•	it goes by the abbreviation codex _________-(1st letter of the Hebrew alphabet)
•	the story of its discovery and possession is fascinating too.
The Sinaitic Manuscript
•	today is in the _________________Museum or British Library
•	at one time contained the entire OT and NT
•	today much of the _________is lost, but all 27 books of the NT are there and
•	the Epistle to ________________and the Sherpherd of Hermas
Its size
•	is larger than Codex B and measures about ________inches square
•	the handwriting is large and clear and imposed on __________columns to the page of outstanding __________
•	it is dated from the middle of the _________century
3. The Alexandrian Manuscript
•	this is a __________century uncial
•	it is derived from _______________and
•	was offered  by Cyril Lucar, a high official of the Greek Church, as a gift to ____________-I of England
•	James I died before it could be given and his successor _____________I was presented the bible it is now in the British Library
The Alexandrian Codex
•	is called the _______________ and includes both OT and NT
•	only 10 leaves or pages are missing from the OT and 
•	25 from__________________, 2 from John and 3 from 2 Corinthians
•	It is considered to have a good text in_________, the Epistles, and Revelation
Its Appearance
•	created as much excitement in its day as the ___________in our time
•	it was the ___________of the ________great uncials to appear and it ushered in a new time of textual research