"The Making of Ancient Books"

"The Making of Ancient Books" Metzger & Ehrman, pp. 3-51

I. The Materials of Ancient Books

1. Papyrus
There are period descriptions of manufacture of writing material among other products made from the papyrus plant. Sheets tended to be made approximately 15x9 inches, with one side having horizontal fibers and the other vertical fibers.

2. Parchment
Parchment is a finished leather. The term is derived from the alleged place of origin, Pergamum, though doubtless people in other places wrote on leather as well. An advantage of parchment is that it lends itself well to writing on both sides, though one side is more shiny than the other. It is a very durable writing material.

3. Ink Making
Inks in antiquity were frequently made from carbon, such as charcoal, water, and some gum arabic to thicken the ink. Carbon inks don't adhere to parchment very well, so as parchment became more common, oak gall and iron gall ink were developed. In deluxe editions of manuscripts some parts would involve purple, gold, silver, or red ink. The red was most common for indicating new headings. The term "rubric" is derived from the Latin word for the red ink used.

II. The Forms of Ancient Books
The Greco-Roman world tended to use rolls of writing materials. These were fairly cumbersome and finding references within a roll was difficult. In the early Christian period the codex became a favored format. The codex is analogous to today's books, with a number of leaves bound together along one edge.

III. Ancient Scribes and Their Handiwork
Styles of writing can be divided in many ways. A "book-hand" tends to be conservative and regular. "Cursive" (running) scripts are written rapidly and often include contractions and abbreviations. Most literary works are written in book-hand. The types of writing can also be divided into "majuscule" and "minuscule" hands. The majuscule uses capital-type letters, all approximately the same height. In minuscule writing the letters have differing heights and some letters will trail below the rest of the writing. When copying books commercially very frequently a group of scribes would be gathered in a scriptorium where a leader would read the text slowly as the scribes wrote. The work would typically be checked over by someone a bit later. Scribes would typically sit on the floor with their writing materials balanced on a knee. The Metzger and Ehrman book has a number of very clear illustrations of ancient manuscripts, including statements of the original size of the image.

IV. "Helps for Readers" in New Testament Manuscripts

1. Chapter divisions (κεφάλαια)
Different Greek and Latin manuscripts would have different marginal methods of indicating chapter divisions. Note that the chapter divisions were not standardized, but that retention of chapter divisions can help us trace a manuscript's history of copying.

2. Titles of Chapters (τίτλοι)
In some manuscripts chapters would have titles inserted. Often a list of the chapter titles would be used as a summary outline or even a table of contents.

3. Eusebian Canons
Eusebius of Caesarea collated the Gospels and assigned passages numbers. He then prepared tables indicating passages which were parallel in all four Gospels, in three of the four Gospels, and in two Gospels, providing for all the possible combinations.

4. Hypotheses, Bioi, Euthalian Apparatus
The hypothesis is an introduction to a book, similar to the brief book summary found often on the back of a modern-day paperback. A bios is a summary of important information about the life of the author of a text. Euthalius is the name given to the author of a synopsis of the life, writings and chronology of an author of multiple work, as well as an appendix of quotations and other useful information.

5. Superscriptions and Subscriptions
Headings of books, such as the titles, and subscriptions at the end of a book indicating the close of the book as well as sometimes the authorship and identification of the place of composition, place of copying, and the identity of the amanuensis are sometimes included.

6. Punctuation
Early manuscripts have very little punctuation. By the sixth or seventh century punctuation became more common.

7. Glosses, Scholia, Commentaries, Catenae, Onomastica
Gloss - brief definition of difficult word or phrase
Scholia - teacher's interpretive remark
Commentary - scholia applied to an entire work
Catena - collection of comments from older writers
Onomastica - "meaning and etymology of proper names" (p. 43)

8. Artistic Adornment
Especially in Byzantine manuscripts pictures of scenes, events, Christ, and his apostles will be included. Interestingly enough, on p. 44, Metzger and Ehrman observe that since artists did not have any information about what the apostles looked like, "all the early Christian portraits of the Evangelists go back to two main sets of four portraits each: one set was of the four philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and Epicurus and the other set was of the four playwrights Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Menander."

9. Cola and Commata
The terms "colon" and "comma" are Greek terms for a clause and a phrase, respectively. It was not uncommon from the time of Demosthenes and Cicero to transcribe orations in these brief sensible portions. Many bilingual manuscripts appearing in Greek and Latin divide the text into cola and commata. By the way, if any of my Latin or Greek students read this, this practice is PRECISELY what I try to get you to do in your reading and recitation. If it worked for understanding the great orators of the past it might just work for you too :).

10. Neumes
Neumes are a style of musical notation by which a lector or cantor would know the traditional manner in which a text was sung. The observation of these marks in manuscripts is a striking reminder to me that historically literature is chanted or sung, not merely read in a monotone fashion.

11. Lectionary Equipment
This is one of the abiding interests I have. How have Christians chosen what to read in their assemblies? Many manuscripts are lectionaries, a selection of lessons from Scripture. Manuscripts of lectionaries were prepared to present the passages in the order in which they would be used in worship. There's a footnote on p. 47 referring to three sources. I'd love to have more references to historic development of lectionaries.

V. Statistics of Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament
Metzger and Ehrman go over some of the basic statistics of how many manuscripts or partial manuscripts of the New Testament writings exist from antiquity. In comparison with other well-attested works from the ancient world, the New Testament is incredibly well-attested. There is a wealth of manuscript evidence and that evidence is strikingly consistent in its readings of the text.