Wed Dec 6 12:47:24 1995

From majordom  Wed Dec  6 12:47:24 1995
Return-Path: 
Received: by scholar.cc.emory.edu (5.0/SMI-SVR4)
	id AA15443; Wed, 6 Dec 1995 12:47:24 +0500
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 12:45:03 -0500
From: Timster132@aol.com
Message-Id: <951206124502_46364305@emout06.mail.aol.com>
To: SEM_MED@centum.utulsa.edu, tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Subject: Re: Paragraph marks in Codex Vaticanus
Content-Length: 2859
Sender: owner-tc-list@scholar.cc.emory.edu
Precedence: bulk

In a message dated 95-12-04 18:53:10 EST, SEM_MED@centum.utulsa.edu writes:

>I am wondering whether any subscribers to tc-list might have thoughts
>or resources to suggest concerning the Vaticanus paragraph marks so I
>might pursue the possibility of their consistency with the text's
>aural organization.
>
>Thank you for your attention.
>
>Margaret E. Dean
>Graduate Student
>Melbourne College of Divinity

Margaret,

   I don't have a copy of Vaticanus here, but I did get to look at
photocopies of a couple leaves of that manuscript I had handy.
   Looking at the leaf of Luke 7:14-38, the kephala (paragraph markings) are
the letters with a line drawn over them to indicate that they are numbers.
 They look like a simple number system of the chapters: NA, NB, NG (=51, 52,
53).  They are probably later additions to the mss by another hand other than
the copiest.  (Aren't they in a different color ink?  I can't remember and my
copy is only B&W :( 

   In other words, these divisions aren't necessarily the ones the author of
the text was thinking of.  Based upon the biblical writers use of chaistic
structure, alliterations, etc, its pretty clear as they were writing, they
were thinking of their aural audience listening to a reader of their writing,
as was the common practice (Rev. 1:3) (as you well know).
  The early papyri do not have paragraph markings or divisions.
  The editor who put them in Vaticanus may have had aural divisions in mind,
or not.  I have no trouble believing that the editor was astute enough to be
aware of this.  By the time they were added to the mss, there were surely
other reasons for marking paragraphs, such as for lectionary reading.

    You may also want to take a look at another method for chapter division
common in the NT manuscripts (eg, Sinaiticus), called the Eusebian Canon.
 Eusebius divided the gospel texts into "kephalalia" (chapters).  And it is
also an *indexing* system for the gospels and was intended to be used as a
method for providing a synopsis of the Gospels.
   The bottom number is the canon (or index) number. Each canon represents a
relationship of passages in the 4 gospels.   Canon I references material
common to all four.  Canons II - IV indexes materials common to 3 gospels.
 Canons V - IX indexes passages common to 2 gospels.  Canon X indexes (in
four lists) unique passages in each of the gospels.
   You can find Eusebius' letter to Carpian explaining this in the intro
material in the Nestle-Aland Greek NT, 26th ed. on pages [73*]-[74*]. The
Eusebian indexes follow.

   I noticed that the kephala markings in the Vaticanus leaf I examined
matched that of the Eusebian kephala, except that Eusebius had a few more
divisions.

   I hope this wasn't too basic for your needs, and was maybe along the lines
of what you were looking for.     

Tim Staker
Timster132@aol.com

Back