04.04. The Uncial MSS

The Uncial MSS

Taking the period covered by his Gospel and the Acts together, Luke travels over the first six decades of the Christian era - years these were of eventful interest indeed. Ere the period connected with his Gospel had closed, it became evident, and was openly confessed, that a great prophet had been raised up, and that God had visited His people (Luke 7:16). So declared the multitude of Nain, when the widow’s son was brought back to life by the commanding voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. But they thought only of that which concerned Israel, and their words had no reference to anything beyond. In the second part of these eventful decades a new thing was witnessed. God had "visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name" (Acts 15:14). So spake James at the first Christian council. Interesting then, how interesting must this history ever be to us ! Yet if the number of uncial MSS. which have preserved its text be any guide to the estimation in which it was formerly held, it must be admitted that it did not meet with that general acceptance which it deserved. For of those containing the whole Gospels or parts of them, we can now reckon up sixty-six. Of those containing the Pauline Epistles, either wholly or portions, only twenty can be cited. But of the uncials which have handed down the Acts, either the whole of the book or but fragments of it, only fifteen in all can be named. Copies therefore of the Acts in the days of uncial writing were evidently in no great request.

Just three uncial MSS. give the Acts entire. These are the Alexandrian in the British Museum, the Vatican at Rome, and the Sinaitic at St. Petersburg. These three are the most ancient MSS. of the New Testament known. Another, the Porphyrian, is later, dating about the ninth century. This uncial contains all the Acts but chapters 1:-ii. 13. Another MS., the Codex Laudianus, we would here notice. Now kept at Oxford, it was once in the possession of Archbishop Laud - hence its name Laudianus - and was by him presented to that University. Written most likely in Western Europe, says Scrivener in his "Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament", p. 159, it may have been brought to England by Archbishop Theodore, and was certainly, it is thought, used by Bede, the celebrated English historian, who died about A.D. 735. It is a bilingual codex, having the Greek text with a Latin translation side by side in parallel columns. It lacks 26: 29 to 28: 26. The other uncial MSS. of the Acts contain but portions, more or less in extent. What is true regarding the uncial MSS. of the Acts is no less true of the cursive MSS. About 638 such MSS. of the Gospels are reckoned up by Scrivener. Of such containing St. Paul’s Epistles, he enumerates as distinct copies 295; whilst for the Acts and Catholic Epistles, which are usually found together, the same authority only gives 252. All this bears out the remark of Chrysostom, quoted by Meyer, that the Book of the Acts was much less known and read than the Gospels. The Canon of the New Testament. A few words on the order of the canon of the New Testament may not be out of place. We have said that the Acts and the Catholic Epistles are usually found together in MSS. This is the case in the three oldest uncials - the Vatican, the Sinaitic, and the Alexandrian. Yet as to this order there was evidently no fixed rule, nor was the place assigned the Acts in the sacred volume always that next to the Gospels. For in the Codex Sinaiticus the thirteen Epistles of Paul precede the Acts and the Catholic Epistles. Again, in the Codex Bezae it is evident that the Catholic Epistles had preceded the history of the Acts. Then in the enumeration of the books of the New Testament, whether by councils or by individual writers, no fixed order obtained. The Gospels, though not always in the same order as we have them, hold the first place. The Apocalypse, if mentioned, for the most part comes last. At times the Acts and Catholic Epistles are mentioned before the Pauline writings ; at times this order is reversed. The council of Carthage (A.D. 397) mentions the sacred books of the New Testament in the following order: the Gospels, the Acts, Paul’s Epistles, the Catholic Epistles (James excepted), and the Revelation.

Amongst writers the same diversity obtains. Eusebius (A.D. 315 - 340) mentions the Acts next after the Gospels, and the Pauline Epistles are noticed before mentioning the Catholic Epistles, the order with which by our English Bible we are made familiar. On the other hand, Athanasius (A.D. 326 - 373) and Cyril (A.D. 349 - 386) give the Catholic Epistles a place next after the Acts and before the Pauline Epistles, just the order in those old uncial MSS. the Alexandrian and the Vatican. But Augustine (A.D. 355 - 430) as well as Innocent of Rome (A.D. 402) agree in quite a different arrangement, naming the Acts after all the Epistles and just before the Revelation.* From this it is plain that there never was an arrangement of the books recognised as of Divine or even of canonical authority, though the Acts was unquestionably reckoned by those writers as part of the New Testament canon. * See Wordsworth’s Canon of the Scriptures, Appendix A.