great uncial codices

Only four great codices have survived to the present day: Codex Vaticanus (abbreviated: B), Codex Sinaiticus (א), Codex Alexandrinus (A), and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C).Edward Ardron Hutton and Francis Crawford Burkitt, An atlas of textual criticism: being an attempt to show the mutual relationship of the authorities for the text of the New Testament up to about 1000 A.D., University Press, 1911. Although discovered at different times and places, they share many similarities. They are written in a certain uncial style of calligraphy using only majuscule letters, written in scriptio continua (meaning without regular gaps between words).{{Cite web |url=http://www.libraryindex.com/encyclopedia/pages/cpxktw8k03/paleography-greek-writing-century.html |title=Paleography Greek Writing |access-date=2011-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802044357/https://www.libraryindex.com/encyclopedia/pages/cpxktw8k03/paleography-greek-writing-century.html |archive-date=2017-08-02 |url-status=dead }} Though not entirely absent, there are very few divisions between words in these manuscripts. Words do not necessarily end on the same line on which they start. All these manuscripts were made at great expense of material and labour, written on vellum by professional scribes.B. L. Ullman, Ancient Writing and Its Influence (1932) They seem to have been based on what were thought to be the most accurate texts of their time.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}}

All of the great uncials had the leaves arranged in quarto form.Falconer Madan, [https://archive.org/details/booksinmanuscrip00madaiala Books in Manuscript: a Short Introduction to their Study and Use. With a Chapter on Records], London 1898, p. 73. The size of the leaves is much larger than in papyrus codices:{{cite book |last1= Roberts |first1= C. H. |author-link= Colin H. Roberts |last2= Skeat |first2= T. C. |author-link2= T. C. Skeat |title= The Birth of the Codex |year= 1983 |orig-year= 1954 |publisher=Oxford University Press for The British Academy |isbn= 0197260616}} For online version see [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/courses/735/book/codex-rev1.html here] at U Penn website.{{page needed|date= March 2022}}{{cite book |last= Parker |first= D. C. |author-link= David C. Parker |title= An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts |year= 2008 |page= 71 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn= 978-1139473101}}

• B: Codex Vaticanus – {{convert|27|xx|27|cm|in|1|abbr=on}}; c. 300–350{{cn|date= March 2022}}
• א: Codex Sinaiticus – {{convert|38.1|xx|34.5|cm|in|1|abbr=on}}; c. 325–360{{cn|date= March 2022}}
• A: Codex Alexandrinus – {{convert|12.6|xx|10.4|in|cm|0|abbr=on|order=flip}}; c. 400–440{{cn|date= March 2022}}
• C: Codex Ephraemi – {{convert|33|xx|27|cm|in|1|abbr=on}}; c. 425-450{{cn|date= March 2022}}
• D: In the 19th century, the Codex Bezae (c. ~400), was proposed to be the 5th great uncial, however in contrast to the original four; it has not been universally accepted due its lack of passages, textual variants, and having Western text type compared to the Alexandrian text type (F. H. A. Scrivener, Dean Burgon).{{citation needed|reason=Mentioning Scrivener & Burgon between brackets is not the Wiki way of referencing. Not acceptable (title, page, edition...?).|date= March 2022}}

Codex Vaticanus uses the oldest system of textual division in the Gospels. Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and Ephraemi have the Ammonian Sections with references to the Eusebian Canons. Codex Alexandrinus and Ephraemi Rescriptus use also a division according to the larger sections – κεφάλαια (kephalaia, chapters). Alexandrinus is the earliest manuscript which uses κεφάλαια.Greg Goswell, [http://www.jgrchj.net/volume6/JGRChJ6-7_Goswell.pdf Early Readers of the Gospels: The Kephalaia and Titloi of Codex Alexandrinus], JGRChJ 66 (2009), p. 139. Vaticanus has a more archaic style of writing than the other manuscripts. There is no ornamentation or any larger initial letters in Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, but there is in Alexandrinus. Vaticanus has no introduction to the Book of Psalms, which became a standard after 325 AD, whereas Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus do. The orders of their books differ.Barry Setterfield, [https://www.barrysetterfield.org/Septuagint_History.html#codices The Alexandrian Septuagint History], March 2010.

According to Burgon, the peculiar wording in some passages of the five great uncials (א A B C D) shows that they were the byproduct of heresy–a position strongly contested by Daniel B. Wallace.{{cite book |author=Wallace, Daniel B. |title= Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament |year= 1996 |page= 455 (n. 31) |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn= 0310218950 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlqoTVsk2wcC&pg=PA455 |access-date= 17 March 2022}}

Alexandrinus was the first of the greater manuscripts to be made accessible to scholars.{{Cite book |last= Kenyon |first= Frederick G. |author-link= Frederic G. Kenyon |title= Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts |publisher= British Museum |edition= 4th |place= London |year= 1939 |url= https://archive.org/stream/MN41613ucmf_0#page/n173/mode/2up |page= 132 }} Ephraemi Rescriptus, a palimpsest, was deciphered by Tischendorf in 1840–1841 and published by him in 1843–1845.C. v. Tischendorf, Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus, sive Fragmenta Novi Testamenti, Lipsiae 1843–1845. Codex Ephraemi has been the neglected member of the family of great uncials.Robert W. Lyon, New Testament Studies, V (1958–9), pp. 266–272.

Sinaiticus was discovered by Tischendorf in 1844 during his visit to Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai. The text of the codex was published in 1862.Constantin von Tischendorf: Bibliorum codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus. Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig 1862. Vaticanus has been housed at the Vatican Library at least since the 15th century, but it became widely available after a photographic facsimile of the entire manuscript was made and published by Giuseppe Cozza-Luzi in 1889–1890 (in three volumes).Eberhard Nestle and William Edie, "Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the Greek New Testament", London, Edinburg, Oxford, New York, 1901, p. 60.

It has been speculated that Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus were part of a project ordered by Emperor Constantine the Great to produce 50 copies of the Bible.{{cite book |last1= Metzger |first1= Bruce M. |author-link= Bruce M. Metzger |last2= Ehrman |first2= Bart D. |author-link2= Bart D. Ehrman |title= The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration |edition= 4th |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= New York – Oxford |year= 2005 |pages= 15–16 }}

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• Comparison of codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus

{{Reflist}}

• [http://legacy.owensboro.kctcs.edu/crunyon/e261c/09-NT-Augustine/NT/TH2-uncials.htm Great uncials] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200216191955/http://legacy.owensboro.kctcs.edu/crunyon/e261c/09-NT-Augustine/NT/TH2-uncials.htm |date=2020-02-16 }} at the Owensboro Community and Technical College
• [https://madainproject.com/great_uncial_codices Great Uncial Codices with photographs]