CHAPTER VI

. UNCIAL MANUSCRIPTS OF THE ACTS AND CATHOLIC EPISTLES, OF ST.

PAUL’S EPISTLES, AND OF THE APOCALYPSE.

I. Manuscripts of the Acts and Catholic Epistles.

א. COD. SINAITICUS. A. COD. ALEXANDRINUS. B. COD. VATICANUS. C. COD. EPHRAEMI. D. CODEX BEZAE.

E. CODEX LAUDIANUS 35 is one of the most precious treasures preserved in the Bodleian at Oxford. It is a Latin-Greek copy, with two columns on a page, the Latin version holding the post of honour on the left, and is written in very short στίχοι consisting of from one to three words each, the Latin words always standing opposite to the corresponding Greek. This peculiar arrangement points decisively to the West of Europe as its country, notwithstanding the abundance of Alexandrian forms has led some to refer it to Egypt. The very large, bold, thick, rude uncials, without break in the words and without accents, lead us up to the end of the sixth century as its date. The Latin is not of Jerome’s or the Vulgate version, but is made to correspond closely with the Greek, even in its interpolations and rarest various readings. The contrary supposition that the Greek portion of this codex _Latinised_, or had been altered to coincide with the Latin, is inconsistent with the facts of the case. This manuscript contains only the Acts of the Apostles (from ch. xxvi. 29 παυλος to ch. xxviii. 26 λέγον being lost), and exhibits a remarkable modification of the text, of which we shall speak in