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The Church Fathers and The Useful life of Ancient Books

I recently finished reading through George Contact Me

Houston's, Inside Roman Libraries: Book
Collections and Their Management in Name
Antiquity, and was struck by the wonderful
insights that Houston discovered in his
detailed study of Roman libraries. In many
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ways these insights illuminate the world of
Christian book collections and manuscripts
as much as they do Roman libraries.
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This is especially true of Houston's
observations on the useful life of papyrus
book rolls. In the conclusion to Inside
Roman Libraries, Houston wrote;

The identification of such

collections, and of the manuscripts
within them, provides new evidence on an old question: how long did a papyrus roll last?
The evidence from our collections indicates that a usable lifetime of about 100 to 125
years was common and can reasonably be considered the norm; a small but significant
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number of manuscripts were still usable some 300 years after they were first created;
and on rare occasions a manuscript might last, it seems, for half a millennium. (p. 257) ► 2018 (1)

Houston's observations are helpful in understanding some of the references made by various Church ► 2017 (24)
fathers to ancient manuscripts consulted during their studies. ► 2016 (24)
▼ 2015 (12)
Irenaeus's Ancient Copies
Writing at the end of the second century, Irenaeus of Lugdunum, in his Against Heresies, discussed at ► November (1)
length an important variant that was present in some manuscript copies of Revelation in circulation in ► September (3)
his day. Irenaeus wrote that the number of the beast, 666, was "found in all the most approved and
► August (2)
ancient copies" yet some manuscripts contained the number 616 (Hear. 5.30.1). If the average life of a
papyrus book was 100 to 125 years, then it is possible that Irenaeus was referring to manuscripts that ► July (1)
were 75 or more years old. It may be surmised then, that the manuscript copies that contained the 616
► June (1)
variant reading were not as old in Irenaeus's estimation. The Greek phrase used by Irenaeus here
(preserved by Eusebius in Hist. eccl. 5.8) was ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς σπουδαίοις καὶ ἀρχαἰοις ἀντιγράφοις. The ► April (1)
Greek word ἀρχαἰοις (ancient) used to describe the age of the manuscripts of Revelation that read 666 ▼ March (3)
was the same word used by Irenaeus to describe Papias as "a man of the early period," or in the The Library of Caesarea: Exceptional

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at the peak of his career near the beginning of Emperor Trajan's reign at around 100 CE (Hist. eccl. Library Lists and Early Christian Canon
3.39). Thus, in Irenaeus's mind, copies of Revelation that dated to the beginning of the second century
The Church Fathers and The Useful
would have been "ancient." And these copies would have been well within the 100 to 125 year useful life of Ancient ...
life of papyrus manuscripts observed by Houston.

► 2014 (12)
Tertullian and the Autographs
Writing in the early third century, Tertullian in Carthage North Africa wrote; ► 2013 (6)
► 2012 (12)
Come now, you who would indulge a better curiosity, if you would apply it to the
business of your salvation, run over to the apostolic churches, in which the very thrones
of the apostles are still preeminent in their places, in which their own authentic Follow by Email
writings are read, uttering the voice and representing the face of each of them
severally. (Praescr. 36; ANF 3:261; emphasis mine)

This has been a much disputed passage with discussions going at least as far back as Charles Hodge
Translate
at Princeton University in the early 1800s.
The Latin word used by Tertullian here for "authentic writings" is "authenticae litterae." According to the
Seleccionar idioma
Latin dictionary available on Perseus, this word means; "that comes from the author, authentic,
original, genuine . . . the original writing, the original." It seems then that Tertullian was telling his Con la tecnología de Traductor de Google
readers that he thought the original apostolic documents were being read in the apostolic Churches in
the early third century. It is difficult for me to accept that the original writings of, say, Paul were still About Me
existing at Rome or Corinth, but it may have been that very early copies of these writings were still
Timothy N. Mitchell
being read in these Churches. If we consider the useful life of papyrus documents given by Houston,
of 100 to 125 years with an upper limit of 300 years, then it is entirely possible that copies of Paul's A helicopter mechanic by day
letters dating to the later half of the first century were still being read in some Churches. and a New Testament textual
critic by night. PhD Student
at the University of
The Colophon of Pamphilus in Sinaiticus
Birmingham, UK.
In the fourth century manuscript of the Christian Bible, Codex Sinaiticus, there is preserved at the end
View my complete profile
of 2 Esdras and again at the end of Esther a colophon stating (from the end of 2 Esdras);

Collated against an extremely old copy corrected in the hand of the holy martyr Popular Posts This Month
Pamphilus, which copy at the end has a signature in his own hand, reading thus:
Copied from and corrected against the Hexapla of Origen Paul's "Large Letters" at
Galatians 6:11
Antoninus collated
While reading through
I, Pamphilus, corrected. (Parker, Codex Sinaiticus, 81)
Raffaella Cribiore's "
Writing, Teachers, and
According to Milne and Skeat, these corrections,
Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt ," I
and the corresponding colophon, date to the 6th came across a referenc...
or 7th century (Metzger, Text of the New
Testament, 4th ed., 67). The Greek phrase in Ancient Marginal Notes on
the colophon at the end of 2 Esdras reads Variant Readings
"αντεβληθη προϲ παλαιω τατον λιαν Map of Constantinople by
αντιγραφον," the Greek word παλαιω already Sebastian Munster (ca.
means "old" but the adverb "λιαν" was added 1550) At the 2017
Evangelical Theological Society Meeting,
which means "very" or "extremely." Thus this
an exciting series of lecture...
manuscript must have been considered very old
at the time and was valued for its textual Review of; "A Commentary
pedigree. If we consider that Houston noted on the Manuscripts and
examples of papyrus book rolls still in use 300 Text of the New Testament"
and even 500 years after they were fabricated, by Philip Wesley Comfort
then it is feasible that there was a 300 to 400 A Commentary on the
year-old copy of the Greek Bible corrected Manuscripts and Text of the New
Testament. By Philip Wesley Comfort.
against the Hexapla by Pamphilus still present
Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2015, 416 pp.,
at the library of Caesarea. $29.99. ...
Origen's Hexapla, and Pamphilus's copies were
still present in Caesarea in the 5th century when Jerome wrote; New Testament Textual
Transmission in the
Pamphilus the presbyter, patron of Eusebius bishop of Caesarea, was so inflamed with Catalina Foothills
love of sacred literature, that he transcribed the greater part of the works of Origen with On Sunday December 17th
his own hand and these are still preserved in the library at Caesarea. (Jerome, Vir ill. 75; of 2017, I was invited by
NPNF 2:377) Dan Grossenbach to share some of my
research for the "Reason Why?" Class at
The Second/Third Century New Testament Text C...
If Pamphilus's manuscripts were still available for reference in the 6th century, 300 years after they
were copied, it may be representative of other major Christian centers. The Churches of Rome, From Scroll to Codex: Early
Christian Book Technology
Corinth, Antioch, Smyrna, Ephesus, Philippi, and others, may have had very old manuscripts of
The following excerpt
Christian writings available for reference and copying for several hundred years. Perhaps Irenaeus
originally appeared in The
had sent a letter to Ephesus or Smyrna asking them to check their ancient copies of Revelation. Appalachian Theology
Manuscripts of the New Testament such as P66 and P75 give evidence of a high-quality textual Review , (an email periodical) on June 15,
pedigree and careful copying and, due to their extensive repairs, show evidence of a long useful life. 2015. The Roman b...
Because of the apparent longevity of ancient books it is possible that the extant manuscripts of the

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exemplars 100 years older and actually represent the state of the text at around ca. 100 CE and not 5 Most Popular Posts
just at ca 200 CE.
How Long a Book? The
Useful Life of Papyrus and
(For more discussion on explicit references to manuscripts in Church fathers, read here.)
Parchment Books
George Houston, in his
Bibliography work “ Inside Roman
Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History, Books I-V. Translated by Kirsopp Lake. Vol 1. Loeb Libraries ,” surveyed book collections in
Classical Library. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1926. antiquity, analyzed their contents, the date
of composi...
Gamble, Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. Jerome Against Lavish
Bible Manuscripts
Codex Palatinus While
Holmes, Michael W., ed. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek texts and English translations. Grand Rapids:
reading through Hugh
Baker Books, 1999. Houghton's excellent new
work " The Latin New Testament ," I came
Houston, George W. Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity. across an e...
Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2014.
Bursting Church Libraries in
Metzger, Bruce Manning, and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Fourth Century North Africa
Corruption, and Restoration. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. While reading through
Hugh Houghton's new
volume The Latin New
Parker, D. C. Codex Sinaiticus: The Story of the World's Oldest Bible. London: British Library, 2010. Testament: A Guide to its History Early
History, Texts, and Manuscripts (...
Posted by Timothy N. Mitchell at 1:39 PM

Labels: codex sinaiticus, colophon, corrector, manuscripts, new testament textual corruption, Greek Palaeography:
Writing Between the Lines
Pamphilus, useful life of papyrus
Scribes of the Greco-
Roman period often used a
6 comments: very specific style of writing
known commonly as the "book-hand"
which is characte...
Stephen Mitchell March 17, 2015 at 7:51 AM
Greek Palaeography:
Excellent observations, Timothy. Bookhands of the Imperial
Peak
Reply
T he previous post
discussed the type of
Replies writing used for copying Greek literature,
the b ookhand . During the Roman
Timothy Mitchell March 17, 2015 at 8:06 AM imperial e ra, t ...
Thank you! :-)
Followers
Reply
Seguidores (17)

Peter M. Head March 18, 2015 at 12:21 PM

Is there any indication that Pamphilus would have used a papyrus book rather than
parchment?

Reply
Seguir

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Timothy Mitchell March 18, 2015 at 12:53 PM NT Text

"The Apology of Rufinus" Book II, 18, reads; Thomas Freeman
"The blessed Martyr Pamphilus, whose life Eusebius the Bishop of Cæsarea set forth in Union Chapel Baptist Church
some three volumes, wished to rival Demetrius Phalereus and Pisistratus, in his zeal to
establish a library of sacred books: he sought out all through the world representative
works of great minds, which are their true and everlasting monuments; but most of all he
acquired at great expense all the books written by Origen, and gave them to the church
at Cæsarea. This library was afterwards partly destroyed; but Acatius and later on
Euzoius, Bishops of that church, endeavoured to reestablish it in parchment volumes.
The last of these recovered a great many works, and left us an inventory of them, but he
shows that he could not find the Commentary on the hundred and twenty-sixth Psalm
and the Tract on the Hebrew letter Pe, by the fact that he does not mention it."

It appears that Pamphilus did copy his texts in papyrus, and what was damaged was
later replaced by vellum (parchment).

Edward Maunde Thompson, "Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography", pg. 37-38,
mentions this as well.

Reply

Steven Avery February 17, 2017 at 8:52 AM

Codex Sinaiticus Ezra-Esther colophons:

The provenance of Sinaiticus is only goes back to 1844, and includes false assertions as
to how it was obtained in 1844 and later 1859 (these colophons are both in the 1844 32
leaves). Manuscript theft was involved.

And we know that colophons can be added to help give a manuscript authority. My
remembrance is that is considered to be possible with an Alexandrinus note.

Scripts can easily be copied by any good calligrapher. Have you seen a real
palaeographical analysis of the script of the two colophons?

There was also an available exemplar for such a note in Codex Coislinianus (H3).
Tishendorf worked with this ms. around 1842 in France and some leaves were on Mt.
Athos.

These two notes were on a pristine white parchment manuscript, whose condition is
radically different than what would be expected from its purported history.

Is there any real evidence that the notes were not added to the manuscript in the 1840s,
following the H3 exemplar, in order to give more authority?

Thanks!

Steven Avery

Reply

Replies

Timothy N. Mitchell February 19, 2017 at 10:12 AM

To be sure, this is all very interesting, but I do not go along with conspiracy
theories.
Sinaiticus has been poured over by scholars from all over the world for
decades. In recent years especially, with regard to the Sinaiticus.org project.
The authenticity of Sinaiticus is without question and universally accepted.
Those who continue to declare forgery seem only to be those who wish to
advance KJV-onlyism, or some extreme form of Byzantine priority.
I appreciate your reading the blog and your engagement with the post.

Reply

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