A Palimpsest Example from the Codex Guelpherbytanus, showing Luke i, 6,7. The black characters show the later manuscript, and the dotted letters the restored ancient writing.

I. CODEX EPHRAEMI. By the persistent efforts of the learned Tischendorf (who afterwards discovered the oldest known manuscript) this result was reached. The writing had defied all the efforts of his predecessors. "There lay," he says, "in one of the libraries of Paris, one of the most important manuscripts then known of the Greek version of the Old Testament, and the whole of the New. This parchment copy, the writing of which was of the date of the fifth century, had been retouched and renewed in the seventh, and had again in the ninth century, and in the twelfth century, been submitted to a twofold process: It had been washed and pumiced to write on it the treaties of an old father of the church of the name of Ephraem. Five centuries later [in the fifteenth] a Swiss theologian of the name of Wetstein had tried to decipher a few traces of the original manuscript; and later still, another theologian, Griesbach of Jena, came to try his skill upon it, although the librarian assured him it was impossible for mortal eye to discover a trace of a writing which had perished for six centuries. In spite of these unsuccessful attempts, the French Government had recourse to powerful reagents to bring out the effaced characters." These efforts failed. But at length, Tischendorf, with the aid of a French chemist, had the good fortune to decipher it completely, and even to distinguish the dates of the different writers who had been engaged on the manuscript.

There are many lacunæ, or chasms in this valuable witness, and the disputed verse, I John v, 7, "There are three that bear record in heaven etc.," is not in the text, but is written on the margin. II. THE CODEX ALEXANDRINUS. The Alexandrian manuscript, deposited in the British Museum, is a still more important witness. It was sent, as a present to King Charles I., from the Patriarch of Constantinople, in the year 1628, through Sir Thomas Rowe, the English Embassador. In a schedule annexed to it is a statement that it was written or copied by Thecla, a noble Egyptian lady, nearly fourteen hundred years ago. It is supposed that it was written between the middle and the end of the fourth century, soon after the Council of Nice. The beginning of the New Testament is wanting in the manuscript; so also is a portion of John from chapter vi, verse 50, to chapter viii, verse 52; and like

KA

ENAPXHHN@A OTOCKAIOXOTOCH

ΠΡΟΣΤOΝOΝ ΚΑΙ ΣΗΝΟΛΟΓΟΣ
OYTOCHNEN&PXHTTPOCTONON
ΠΑΝΤΑ ΔΙΑΥΤΟΥ ΕΓΕΝΕΤΟ ΚΑΙΧΩ
PEICAYTOYEгENETOOYAEEN-
ÖгeroNeNENAYTWZWHHN“

Fac-Simile of the Codex Alexandrinus, Showing the Original of John i, 1-7.

wise a few verses in II Corinthians. Next in importance comes III. THE CODEX VATICANUS. The Vatican manuscript, which lay long neglected and almost unknown in the great library of the Vatican, at Rome, was given to the public a few years ago. Rev. Dr. Brondinel, a former librarian of the Vatican, had a fac-simile accurately copied, from which a reprint has been executed. It is a quarto volume, ten and a half inches long, ten broad, and four and a half thick. It contains 146 leaves of fine thin vellum. It has three columns, with forty-two lines to a page, and is written in uncial, or capital letters. It is not complete. The latter part of the epistle to the Hebrews is wanting, and also Paul's epistles to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, and the book of Revelation. It is generally agreed that this manuscript was also executed in the fifth century, probably earlier than the Alexandrian manuscript. Next comes the most valuable of all these ancient parchments IV. THE CODEX SINAITICUS. This was discovered by Professor Tischendorf, at the foot of Mount Sinai, in a monastery, and is therefore called the Sinai manuscript. It is the most ancient of all known manuscripts.

In April, 1844, Tischendorf embarked at Leghorn for Egypt, hoping to find in the recess of some Greek, Coptic, or Arminian monastery some precious manuscripts which had been slumbering for ages in dust and darkness. He had devoted his life to the critical study of the Scriptures, and had already published a critical edition of the New Testament. On his way to Egypt he visited the convent of St. Catherine, at the foot of Mount Sinai, and, on entering the library, he saw in the middle of the great hall a wide basket full of old parchments. The librarian told him that two heaps of papers like them had already been committed to the flames. He was allowed to take away about a third of the parchments. But he showed such joy in finding among them sheets of the Old Testament, in Greek-the oldest he had ever seen-that they suspected some unknown value attached to them, and refused him any more. So, in 1853, he set out with the intention of making copies of these priceless documents. Not greatly successful, he made a third effort, under the patronage of the Russian government, in 1859. His success this time is best told in his own language:

ΚΑΙ ΕΝ ΟΔΟ ΑΜΑΡΤΩΛΩΝ γκέτη
ΚΑΙ ΕΠΙΚΑΘΕΔΡΑΝΑ ΟΙ ΜΟΝΟΥkekse ke
AAHENTONOMOKYTOE CAHMAAYTY

ILLUSTRATIONS in fac-simile of Codex Vaticanus.

The first specimen is Psalm i, 1, 2 and part of 3, and shows the mode of writing the poetical books in stichois, as it is called.

The Vatican Manuscript is so jealously prized and guarded by the Papal Court, that it has been difficult to get any fac-simile from the New Testament.