Codex Sinaiticus: A Hulking Pile of a Book

In a recent issue of "Expository Times," Christfried Böttrich of Greifswald University (Germany) published an article on the Codex Sinaiticus.

"Codex Sinaiticus and the use of Manuscripts in the Early Church." Expository Times 128.10 (2017): 469-478

In this article, Böttrich contends that the library at Caesarea (T. C. Skeat), rather than Alexandria (Kirsopp Lake) was the likely source of the production of the manuscript. He gives the following reasons;

"First: there are some lexical indications regarding geographical substitutes. Second: Codex Sinaiticus adopts the Eusebian system in the gospels, and offers a special text division in Acts following a model that can be traced back to Pamphilus. Third: there are two famous colophons after the text of 2 Esdras and Esther claiming a correction of the text in Caesarea at least in the 6th century; such colophons should be viewed with caution because they became inflationary in later times, being copied from one codex to the other, but these two predate such secondary usurpation." (pg. 470) 

Böttrich does not give any new evidence or argument for Caesarea as the likely place of origin. The bulk of the article focuses, rather, on the purpose for producing such a fine codex in the first place. He engages with the well known theory that both Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus were two of the large Biblical codices requested from Eusebius of Caesarea by the new Christian Emperor Constantine. Here is an excerpt of the request,

"Be ready therefore to act urgently on the decision which we have reached. It appeared proper to indicate to your Intelligence that you should order fifty volumes with ornamental leather bindings, easily legible and convenient for portable use, to be copied by skilled calligraphists well trained in the art, copies that is of the Divine Scriptures, the provision and use of which you well know to be necessary for reading in church. Written instructions have been sent by our Clemency to the man who is in charge of the diocese that he see to the supply of all the materials needed to produce them. The preparation of the written volumes with utmost speed shall be the task of your Diligence. You are entitled by the authority of this our letter to the use of two public vehicles for transportation. The fine copies may thus most readily be transported to us for inspection …" (Vit. Const 4.36.2–4; quoted from the article, pgs. 472-473).

Böttrich gives several reasons why Codex Sinaiticus was not one of these codices produced for public reading in a Church worship context. First is that the four column format with its many corrections cluttering the margins does not easily facilitate public reading (pg. 474). Second is the shear size of the book;

"The biggest problem is the weight. All in all, the codex originally must have covered more than 730 parchment sheets, a hulking pile. Who could carry it in daily use? Is it conceivable to manage liturgical readings with such a codex? Regarding the emperor’s guidelines, Codex Sinaiticus would not have been a clever solution." (pg. 474-475)

No one can argue that Sinaiticus is a very large codex and must have weighed a tremendous amount in its original complete form. Its size, however, may not exclude it from having been used in a Church worship context. There is at least one instance from about the same time period that mentions a Church congregation holding several large copies of the Bible. In the capital city of Cirta, Numidia, in North Africa, during the great persecution under Diocletion (ca. 303 CE), there is a detailed account of the confiscation of Bibles. In this account, a subdeacon surrenders to the officials a very large copy of the scriptures [codicem unum pernimium maiorem] and several church readers surrender "five large codices, and two small ones" [codices quinque maiores et minors duos] (Gamble, "Books and Readers," pgs. 145-147). Of course, the overall size of these copies are relative, and they still may be considerably smaller than Codex Sinaiticus. Even so, as this account suggests, it would not be out of place for a Christian congregation to use a larger copy of the Bible in their worship practices.

As Böttrich mentioned, Sinaiticus's four column layout is not unlike a bookroll from the height of the Roman Imperial era (pg. 474). This format, however, does not necessarily imply that Sinaiticus was not meant for public reading. As William Johnson noted, there were many who read out from bookrolls in group settings and were able to navigate its format. Johnson describes a scene in which the physician Galen (last half of the second century) and his rival Martialius publicly read from a bookroll and argued over its text (Johnson, "Reading and Reading Culture," pgs. 88-89). Johnson also recounts a dinner party scene described by Aulus Gellius (last half of the second century) where passages from poets were read out from bookrolls and discussed amongst the learned group (Johnson, pg. 105). Some of the formatting in Sinaticus also suggests that the codex had public reading in view. "Ekthesis" and other reading aids are used throughout the codex, and several places in the codex, the text is formatted into lists in such a way that the reading-out of these lists would emphasize each word in a unique way. Peter Head noted this in his paper "The Gospel of Mark in Codex Sinaiticus," stating that, "These lists would also have been reflected in public reading of the text of Sinaiticus, with each item pronounced carefully and separately, developing emphasis over the course of the lists" (pg. 13). I argue in my paper "Codex Sinaiticus as a Window into early Christian Worship," that these lists were read in a public worship setting in a unique way that facilitated learning or memorizing these words and phrases (pg. 12).

Böttrich's article is a nice summary of the scholarship and theories behind the production of arguably the world's most famous Biblical manuscript. He makes a great assessment that Caesarea is the likely origin of its production and that Sinaiticus is likely not one of the codices manufactured at Emperor Constantine's demand.

Codex Sinaiticus (www.codexsinaiticus.org)

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Bibliography

Böttrich, Christfried."Codex Sinaiticus and the use of Manuscripts in the Early Church." Expository Times 128.10 (2017): 469-478

Gamble, Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995
Head, Peter M. "The Gospel of Mark in Codex Sinaiticus: Textual and Reception-Historical Considerations." TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism , Vol. 13 (2008): 1-38.

Johnson, William A. Readers and Reading Culture in the High Roman Empire: A Study of Elite Communities. Edited by Joseph Farrell and Robin Osborne. Classic Culture and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Mitchell, Timothy. "Codex Sinaiticus as a Window into Early Christian Worship." in Eleutheria 3:1 Fall (2014): 2-19.

Teaching Aids for Ancient Christian Readers

Some of the earliest copies of the New Testament writings were copied in such a way that they aided the reader in their task of deciphering the scriptio continua. Bookrolls from the Roman world (1st -3rd century CE) which contained works of literature had very little by way of assistance for the reader. Take for example P. Lond. Lit. 134 (ca. 200 CE), a copy of  Hyperides, In Philippidem. It has a steady stream of letters uninterrupted by spaces or any type of punctuation.

P. Lond. Lit. 134. (Johnson, "Bookrolls and Scribes," 400)

Those fortunate children in antiquity with access to an education had to be taught methods of deciphering this system of writing. Grammarians (ancient teachers) facilitated this instruction by creating models of ancient works such as Homer's Iliad that incorporated spaces between words and markings differentiating syllables and sense units. One example of a teacher's model is a wooden tablet from Roman Egypt that contains Homer's Iliad (3rd century). The wooden slate uses spaces between words and markings to assist beginning readers in comprehending the text.

AM 13839 (Cribiore, "Gymnastics of the Mind," 135)

Similar phenomena of reading aid can be detected in some early copies of New Testament writings. For example, spaces between words can clearly be seen throughout P46 (2nd/3rd century), a collection of Paul's epistles.

The beginning of Galatians in P46

Spaces and limited punctuation can be seen in P66 (2nd/3rd century), a copy of John's Gospel. 

The beginning of the Gospel of John in P66.

There are some interesting parallels between early New Testament manuscripts such as P46 and P66 and teachers models such as AM 13839. Both types of documents employ clear and legible scripts, give generous space between lines, and use spacing between words and sense units. These features have been highlighted elsewhere on this blog (here, and here). It has already been noted that reading aids seem to reveal that these Christian books were produced for less than capable readers.
Coupled with this, perhaps the presence of reader's aids in copies of New Testament manuscripts also reveal another parallel with teacher's models; that of instruction. Just like teacher's models were used almost exclusively in the context of learning, perhaps these Christian manuscripts were produced so that they could be used primarily within teaching contexts.
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Cribiore, Raffaella. Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Johnson, William A., Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.

Quintilian on Reading

While working my way through Raffaella Cribiore's "Writers, Teachers, and Students of Graeco-Roman Egypt," I came across an interesting comment made by Quintilian (95 CE) concerning the act of reading a text.

"The syllables once learnt, let him begin to construct words with them and sentences with words. You will hardly believe how much reading is delayed by undue haste. If the child attempts more than his powers allow, the inevitable result is hesitation, interruption and repetition, and mistakes which he makes merely lead him to lose confidence in what he already knows. Reading must therefore first be sure, then connected, while it must be kept slow for a considerable time, until practice brings speed unaccompanied by error. For to look to the right, which is regularly taught, and to look ahead depends not so much on precept as on practice; since it is necessary to keep the eyes on what follows while reading out what precedes, with the resulting difficulty that the attention of the mind must be divided, the eyes and voice being differently engaged." (Inst. Or. 1.1.31-34)

It is interesting that Quintilian is describing a very difficult multi-tasking operation in reading. The eyes must always be looking ahead at the text that is about to be read out-loud, in order to decipher the text while the voice is "speaking" the previous sections that had already been deciphered. The labor and effort in practicing this is apparent as Quintilian states that reading "must be kept slow for a considerable time." It seems that most of this difficulty was caused by the format of the bookroll, that is, the scriptio continua and the lack of punctuation and reader's aids.
 

Closeup of a Mosaic Depicting Virgil Holding a Bookroll

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Bibliography

Butler, H. E., trans. The Institutio Oratio of Quintilian. Vol. 1. LCL. Harvard University Press; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920.

Cribiore, Raffaella. Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt. American Studies in Papyrology 36. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996.

Moral Maxims, Education, and Codex Sinaiticus

Recently, I have been reading through Raffaella Cribiore's "Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt," who examines in detail the physical remains of Greek writing instruction on ostraca, papyrus, wooden and wax tablets, and codices. Many of these writing samples and exercises consist of "maxims and sayings of famous men" (pg. 46). These remains reflect the attitudes expressed by the famous rhetorician Quintilian (ca. 95 CE) who wrote,

"It will be found worth while, when the boy begins to write out words in accordance with usual practice, to see that he does not waste his labor in writing out common words of everyday occurrence. . . . I would urge that the lines, which he is set to copy, should not express thoughts of no significance, but convey some sound moral lesson. He will remember such aphorisms even when he is an old man, and the impression made upon his informed mind will contribute to the formation of his character." (Inst. Or. 1.1.34-36)

Quintilian is hardly innovative in urging young students to learn useful maxims and sayings from the greats of Greek and Roman literature, though, he may be one of the few who urge students to incorporate these in writing exercises. The fourth century BCE Greek statesman Aeschines, while quoting from Hesiod, mentioned in passing that "for this is the reason, I think, that in our childhood we commit to memory the sentiments of the poets, that when we are men we may make use of them" (Ctesiph. 135). This practice continued for some time for in the third century CE, Diogenes Laertius, while writing about the fourth century BCE philosopher Diogenes the Cynic, wrote,

"The boys used to get by heart many passages from poets, historians, and the writings of Diogenes himself; and he would practice them in every short cut to a good memory" (VI 31).

This practice of memorizing moral maxims and sayings continued for many centuries and students would learned them through copying them out in school exercises and singing them in songs and chants. Augustine of Hippo mentioned that he used to "commit to memory the wanderings of I know not what Aneas while I forgot my own: and to bewail dead Dido because she killed herself ," and he complained that "one and one makes two, and two and two makes four, was a harsh song to me" (Confess. 1.13).

It is possible that this ancient practice of incorporating moral maxims and sayings into songs and chants was continued in Christian education as well. In a paper published in 2014, I argued that certain scribal features, the use of "lists" in Codex Sinaiticus, preserve an ancient practice of Christian instruction.

"Codex Sinaiticus as a Window into Early Christian Worship." Eleutheria 3:1 Fall (2014): 2-19.

Codex Sinaiticus was copied in the standard scriptio continua with some reading aids such as ekthesis integrated into the layout of the columns. Yet, at select locations in the text, the scribes interrupted the steady stream of letters and placed on a line "only one key word or phrase" which left "a noticeable empty space on the right hand side of the column" ("Codex Sinaiticus," pg. 4). One interesting place where these lists were employed was at "two-ways" or "virtue and vice lists" in the New Testament and in the Epistle of Barnabas. The use of "virtue and vice lists" and "two ways" was a common method in giving moral instruction in both Jewish and Christian literature ("Codex Sinaiticus," pg. 9).

Codex Sinaiticus at Mark 7:21 (codexsinaiticus.org)

It is likely that these paragraph lists were read differently than the surrounding text, either chanted or sung. Perhaps, following in the Graeco-Roman tradition, these areas in the text were formatted in a way that facilitated learning of these moral maxims. It is well known that the "colophons at the end of 2 Esdras and Esther indicate a possible connection with Pamphilus’ famous library at Caesarea in Palestine. Origen was head of a school for catechumens during his days in Alexandria in Egypt and later began a similar school in Caesarea. Pamphilus was Origen’s star pupil and later directed his school in Caesarea. These colophons may connect Sinaiticus with an ancient tradition of early Christian worship and instruction of new converts" (quoted from the article abstract).

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Bibliography

Adams, Charles Darwin, trans. The Speeches of Aeschines. LCL. Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann. 1919.

Butler, H. E., trans. The Institutio Oratio of Quintilian. Vol. 1. LCL. Harvard University Press; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920.

Cribiore, Raffaella. Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt. American Studies in Papyrology 36. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996.

Hicks, R. D., trans. Diogenes Laertius: The Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2. LCL. Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1925.

Watts, William, trans. St. Augustine's Confessions. Vol. 1. LCL. Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1912.

From Scroll to Codex: Early Christian Book Technology

The following excerpt originally appeared in The Appalachian Theology Review, (an email periodical) on June 15, 2015.

      The Roman book was usually made from a papyrus plant that grew along the Nile River in Egypt. The papyrus plant was used throughout the Mediterranean to make sheets of writing material not unlike our modern paper. These sheets were then pasted together into long lengths of paper. A scribe would then write a work of literature in successive vertical columns from left to right. Then, the scribe would roll up the long length of paper with the writing on the inside. Today, this type of book is often referred to as a “scroll” and was the primary format by which cultured Romans wrote down their great works of literature.

The Roman Bookroll (Scroll)

     The style of script used by an ancient scribe was also formatted very differently than modern writing conventions. The letters were in all capitals and there were no spaces between words and there was no punctuation. In English, ITWOULDLOOKSOMETHINGLIKETHIS. Of course, this writing style was very difficult for a reader to comprehend and it took years of study for a Roman gentleman or lady to comprehend the text with ease. The use of this continuous script was not due to ignorance or lack of technological advancement. Ancient Roman tutors employed spacing and punctuation in their school texts in order to teach the more difficult continuous script used in their literary scrolls. Scribes also tended to use spacing between words and punctuation in documentary texts such as correspondence, receipts, contracts, and other non-literature documents.
     Romans also knew of an easier and more efficient way than the scroll to format their books. After long lengths of papyrus paper was manufactured, a scribe would cut out sheets and stack them on top of one another. This stack of papyrus sheets was then folded down the center and then stitched at the folded edge. The scribe could then write on both the outside and the inside faces of each page. This type of book is referred to as a “codex.” If the codex sounds familiar it is because it is the ancient precursor to our modern book.
     An elite Roman did not use the codex for works of literature, rather, they used the codex for informal writing. Taking notes, keeping records, manuals for instruction, school texts, and storing copies of correspondence were some of the uses of the codex.

The codex notebook

     In Roman society, there was a significant amount of cultural baggage that went along with the scroll and its lack of reading aids. The scroll was seen as an emblem of sophistication, education, and culture. Any use of punctuation or spacing between words in their great works of literature would have been viewed as an insult by a refined Roman gentleman or lady. Coupled with this, only a small percentage of Roman society could read at all.

An educated Roman couple

     A modern comparison could be made with the Opera. Its length of performance, the foreign language, and expense of attending make it difficult for the average American to access the Opera. But the difficulty of accessing the Opera adds to the sense of elitism and refinement that it provides. 
     The same was true of the Roman scroll. With its lack of punctuation and spacing, the scroll would have taken years to master and would have been difficult for the average Roman to access. This difficulty was, of course, the point and added to the sense of elitism, education, sophistication, and privilege. Wealthy Roman Villas often displayed paintings of the Lord and Lady of the house holding scrolls and writing implements. Similar images can be found on tombstones and sarcophagi. These images would have given the message that the Lord and Lady were educated and members of the elite strata of Roman society.
     At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century two British scholars, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, over a period of several years, discovered the remains of thousands of ancient papyrus documents that were dumped in huge trash mounds outside of the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. Among these many documents were found the remains of the oldest copies of New Testament books.
   
  Scholars soon noticed that these copies of New Testament books had several distinguishing features that set them apart from contemporary Roman literature. First, it was discovered that every single copy of a New Testament book was bound in the codex format. And second, the scribes who copied the text often used spacing between words, implemented crude forms of punctuation, and employed reading aids. Therefore, in contrast to the elitist Roman scroll, the earliest copies of the New Testament were much more accessible to a broad array of less educated readers.

An early Christian gospel codex

     Because only a small percentage of the Roman population could read, we often see commands in the New Testament to publicly read the scriptures before a Christian congregation. The apostle Paul gave Timothy the command to “devote” himself “to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim 4:13, ESV). Paul instructed the Christians at Colossae; “And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea” (Col 4:16, ESV). When John wrote Revelation, he understood that his prophecy would be read by one person standing before a congregation and so he gave a blessing to "the one who reads ... and those who hear" (1:3, ESV). In Rome at around 140 AD a Christian apologist named Justin Martyr described a Sunday morning Church service;

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. (1 Apol. 67, ANF 1:186)

     The earliest Christians were primarily concerned with the dissemination of the scriptures, teaching, and discipleship. Therefore, at a very early point they adopted certain aspects of Roman book technology, that is, the codex format and reading aids, in order to better facilitate public reading and ease of access for those who had less education and reading ability. An elitist Roman from the upper crust of society would have viewed these early copies of the New Testament with scorn and not as sophisticated works of literature.
     What can we learn from these early Christians and their use of Roman book technology? Even though cultured Romans used books and literature as a way to marginalize a broad section of uneducated society, Christians used certain aspects of Roman book technology to do just the opposite. By using the codex format, spacing, punctuation, and reading aids, the Christians were able to bring the scriptures to the uneducated and marginalized segments of Roman society.

For a more detailed treatment of the bookroll and Christian codex see;

Timothy N. Mitchell, "Christian Papyri and the Ancient Church." Bibliotheca Sacra 173 (April–June 2016): 182–202.

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Bibliography:

Gamble, Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

______________. “Literacy, Liturgy, and the Shaping of the New Testament Canon.” Pages 27-39 in The Earliest Gospels: The Origins and Transmission of the Earliest Christian Gospels - The Contribution of the Chester Beatty Gospel Codex P45. Edited by Charles Horton. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 258. Edited by Mark Goodacre. New York: T & T Clark, 2004.

Haines-Eitzen, Kim. Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Harris, William V. Ancient Literacy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Hurtado, Larry W. The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.

______________. “The Sociology of Early Christian Reading.” Pages 49-62 in The Early Text of the New Testament. Edited by Charles E. Hill and Michael J. Kruger. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Johnson, William A. “The Ancient Book.” Pages 256-281 in The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

________________. Readers and Reading Culture in the High Roman Empire: A Study of Elite Communities. Edited by Joseph Farrell and Robin Osborne. Classic Culture and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Turner, E. G. The Typology of the Early Codex. 1977. Reprint, Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2011.

Early Christian Reading and Moral Instruction

 

 

From the earliest times that Christians gathered together for worship and community, the public reading of their sacred writings was the norm. The reading of what they considered as scripture was discussed and applied morally and ethically to the lives of the Christians gathered together. In the minds of early Christians, the writings they read during their worship gatherings were as much scripture as they were practical. They were applicable in a practical way to their every-day lives.
Pliny the Younger, during his time as governor of Bithynia and Pontus, wrote to Emperor Trajan for advice in regard to Christians that refused to offer worship to the image of the Emperor. In his famous letter Pliny described the worship gathering of Christians at around 112 CE;

They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind. (Ep. Tra. 10.96)[1]

Though Pliny does not mention the reading of any texts or scriptures, I find it interesting that Pliny mentions that Christians "bound themselves by a solemn oath." Besides their "devotion to Jesus" (to borrow a phrase from Dr. Larry Hurtado) there was an emphasis on moral behavior, which Pliny described as taking an "oath."
Just a few decades later in the 140s CE Justin Martyr described the worship gathering of Christians in Rome (and most likely described Christians in Palestine and Asia Minor, the other areas he resided during his Christian life);

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. (1 Apol. 67)[2]

After the reading of the New Testament, the leader who presided over the gathering gave moral instruction out of the reading for that day; the practical application of the scriptures in the lives of the listeners.
At the very end of the second century, around 197 CE, Tertullian of Carthage also described the public reading of scripture during their worship gatherings and the moral instruction gleaned from the day's reading;

We assemble to read our sacred writings, if any peculiarity of the times makes either forewarning or reminiscence needful. However it be in that respect, with the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more steadfast; and no less by inculcations of God’s precepts we confirm good habits. (1 Apol. 39)[3]

Here is another example of how the public reading of scriptures were used to give moral and practical instruction for early Christians gathered in worship. Reading in early Christianity, then, had a view to practicality and moral application. This, of course, would affect how early Christians manufactured their books, that is, they manufactured their copies of the New Testament with a view to practicality. They used the codex format and implemented spaces between words and phrases and other lectionary aids (see earlier post) in order to better facilitate reading. Each of these features of early Christian copies of the New Testament confirm the practical way they viewed their sacred writings.

[UPDATE: see this newer post discussing the New Testament scriptural basis for moral instruction and the practicality of the codex]
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[1] Pliny the Younger, Letters, Books 7-10, (trans. William Melmoth, and W. M. L. Hutchinson; LCL; London: W. Heinemann, 1915), 403-405.

[2] ANF 1:186.

[3] ANF 3:47. 

Reading Aids in Early Christian Manuscripts

As already discussed in the previous post, the public reading of scripture was a needed, intricate part of early Christian worship. The evidence for this can be seen in the many references to public reading in the New Testament and early Christian apologists and theologians such as Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Origen, among many others. But there are also physical traces of this early reading practice that are left imprinted on the contemporary codexes and papyrus fragments from the early centuries of the Church. In our modern books, whether printed or digital, we have the benefit of punctuation, spaces between words, paragraphs and other visual cues that have become standard in our modern printed language. In antiquity, these markers were all but absent in many ancient literary book rolls or scrolls (Hurtado, 178). Christian manuscripts on the other hand show many signs of reading aids that would assist less than talented readers (which would be likely in early Christian circles) to publicly read Biblical texts.

Ekthesis
A very old complete copy of the Greek New Testament, Codex Sinaiticus, shows many signs of reader aids. One such feature is referred to as "ekthesis." A visual marker where the first sentence of a new paragraph or sense unit extends out into the left margin (Hurtado, 179). Codex Sinaiticus has many examples of this feature and in particular the story of Jesus' transfiguration in Mark 9 show extreme ekthesis (Head, 10). Here verses 9:4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are each marked off with an extreme out-dented "ΚΑΙ" (Head, 10).

Extreme"Ekthesis"

Here in the picture on the left can be seen the Greek "ΚΑΙ.......ΚΑΙ.......ΚΑΙ...etc" of each of these verses in the transfiguration out-dented. Perhaps this extreme "ekthesis" reveals how the early Christians viewed this part of the text? Peter Head noted that "this extreme paragraphing had an impact on the public reading of Mark using Sinaiticus, with much more regular and pronounced pauses and potentially the fragmentation of the connected narrative" (Head, 10). Though Dr. Head notes that we cannot know for sure why the scribe chose to use this unusually extreme paragraphing here, it does seem like it affected the way the early Christians would have read this text during gatherings!

Normal "Ekthesis"

Compare the extreme "ekthesis" at left with that more normal used at right. Note the "ΚΑΙ" and the "ΟΔΕ" four lines down, these only protrude into the left margin ever so slightly. Though they still signal the beginning of new paragraphs aiding the reader by giving a visual marker of a break in the flow of the story. Other, even older manuscripts of the New Testament show the use of "ekthesis." P75, a 2/3rd century papyrus codex of Luke and John also show the use of "ekthesis" marking paragraph units and changes in the narrative (Hurtado, 180).

Spaces
A common feature in our modern printed and electronic text, spaces between words and sense units (sentences) were not so common in antiquity. Looking at the pictures above, one can see the use of spaces in marking the end of paragraphs just before the use of the "ekthesis." The use of spaces between words to mark punctuation can also be found in other manuscripts such as Codex W, a 4/5th century copy of the four gospels in Greek. Scholar Henry Sanders noticed the use of spaces to mark punctuation in Codex W and Codex Bezae, a 5th century copy of the New Testament in Greek (Hurtado, 180).

Many have taken to studying these traces of punctuation and paragraphing in these early manuscripts, to give our modern eyes a small picture into how these early Christians viewed, read and studied the New Testament in reading and worship.

Bibliography

Head, Peter. "The Gospel of Mark in Codex Sinaiticus: Textual and Reception-Historical Considerations." TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism. Vol. 13 (2008). http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/vol13/vol13.html

Hurtado, Larry W. The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.