Mon Jun 10 20:25:50 1996

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Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 20:21:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maurice Robinson 
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Subject: Re: Manuscript fragments....
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On Mon, 10 Jun 1996, Nichael Lynn Cramer wrote:

> Wouldn't a major consideration be simply their difference in age (in
> general).  Most Uncials date from before the 9th century; most (all?)
> miniscules after.

This alone does not answer the situation, since the scaled graph referred
to in my response to Waltz clearly shows a massive "balooning" of total
number of MSS instantly within the 9th and 10th centuries, versus a mere
trickle from the 4th - 9th centuries (and I should perhaps point out that
I refer to a chart which I prepared some years ago that is scaled
_accurately_, and does not give a distorted view of matters as in the
misleading chart that appears as part of Daniel Wallace's article within
the Holmes/Ehrman volume). 
 
> Also, there may be a "false resonance" here.  Presumably the total number
> of manuscripts produced in any century grew from the first century until
> the introduction of printing.  Viewed in this way it would make sense that
> there are more younger(=Miniscule) better preserved manuscripts than
> older(=Uncial) manuscripts.

I would agree with the premise expressed here, except for two factors: 

(1) the same graph shows a continuing growth from the 9th - 13th centuries, 
but a decline in extant MSS from the 14th - 16th centuries.  Certain 
historical occurrences as well as a saturation of MSS to available 
churches may serve to explain this particular phenomenon; 

(2) this assumption still does not account adequately for the total number
of extant MSS dropping from a very large number in the 10th - 9th
centuries to a mere trickle in the 8th - 4th centuries.  A massive and
systematic destruction of the uncial exemplars must have taken place to
produce such a lopsided preservation of documents. 

_________________________________________________________________________
Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Assoc. Prof./Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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