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Greek Handwriting 1

1/12/2008 9:26:43 PM
Series: Greek Handwriting
This post is in a series. To see more about the series and other posts in the series, see the bottom of the post or skip to there by clicking here.

These "Greek Handwriting" posts are about letter forms and ligatures found in Greek manuscripts.

Something common in Greek New Testament manuscripts (it is apparently not common in other types of literature) are the nomina sacra. These nomina sacra are contracted forms, two letters for words like Χριστος and Ιησου, with longer forms for ανθρωπος and ουρανος. Some words are contracted more often than others, and some arose after others as well. These contracted forms normally have a horizontal line written directly above the letters. For a very good discussion of the nomina sacra, see Hurtado's The Earliest Christian Artifacts. See also the brief discussion in Metzger's Manuscripts of the Greek Bible, pp. 36-37.

The following is from Romans 1:1 of manuscript 676, a 13th century minuscule. Note the last four letters, underlined in red. There are two nomina sacra here, ιησου and χριστου. As is characteristic on the nomina sacra, there is a horizontal line above each. Click on the image for a better picture.

The text shown reads: Παυλος δουλος ιησου χριστου. Image courtesy of CSNTM. View the full image here.

Series: Greek Handwriting
Series focusing on scribal handwriting in Greek manuscripts. Most manuscripts will be related to the New Testament, though some snippets will be pulled from other pieces of Greek literature.
Want to see more posts in this series?
  1. Greek Handwriting 1 - 1/12/2008
  2. Greek Handwriting 2 - 1/15/2008
  3. Greek Handwriting 3 - 1/23/2008
  4. Greek Handwriting 4 - 2/5/2008
  5. Smarts About The Nomina Sacra - 3/2/2008
  6. Alpha and Lambda In Alexandrinus - 3/3/2008
  7. Ligature in Codex Hierosolymitanus: ει - 3/24/2008
  8. Crazy Kappa Leo - 3/30/2008
  9. Scribe Leo And The Nike Swoosh - 4/4/2008
  10. Another Hierosolymitanus Ligature - 4/21/2008
  11. It Is και Ligature Day - 4/23/2008
  12. Tips For Reading Greek New Testament Minuscule GA 676 - 5/7/2008
  13. Corrections to Uncatalogued Lectionary Fragment (ULF) - 5/12/2008
  14. More Corrections To ULF - 5/13/2008
Comments: 2
Filed Under: Greek Greek Handwriting Textual Criticism

Comments

Chuck Grantham
Monday 3/3/2008 1:08 PM
It might be useful to point out that nomina sacra aren't reproduced in the Greek texts most readily available to many. The UBS and Nestle Aland handbooks don't reproduce them, neither do the freeware bible software texts. Barrett and Comfort's "Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts" does, and Reuben Swanson's "New Testament Greek Manuscripts" series does. Swanson's in fact typically has a page dedicated to nomina sacra forms, as the manuscripts he quotes are often from the dark ages or medieval, when the list of nomina sacra forms had expanded. Interesting books, but not for the Greek challenged or faint of heart. Swanson in particular has rows of Greek text and manuscript notations.
Eric
Monday 3/3/2008 1:24 PM
That's a good point. I'll have to make a note of that in a future post. Of course, my collations include notes on all nomina sacra :).

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