Augustine's Adoption of the Vulgate Gospels

This paper examines Augustine's text of the Gospel according to John to trace the process by which he adopted Jerome's revision of the Gospels. An important feature is the distinction between ‘primary citations’ taken from a codex and ‘secondary citations’ likely to have been made from memory, which change affiliation at different rates. Augustine's progress from Old Latin to Vulgate text-types is illustrated by the comparison of selected passages with surviving manuscripts. Textual variants in these citations suggest that Augustine's biblical text has been transmitted accurately

Recent developments in New Testament textual criticism

This is a preprint version of an article published in Early Christianity 2.2 (2011). \ud \ud The article provides an overview of recent developments in New Testament Textual Criticism. The four sections cover editions, manuscripts, citational evidence and methodology. Particular attention is paid to the Editio Critica Maior, the development of electronic resources, newly discovered manuscripts, and the Coherence Based Genealogical Method

A Newly Identified Old Latin Gospel Manuscript: Würzburg Universitätsbibliothek M.p.th.f.67

Several Latin manuscripts of the Gospels are described as ‘mixed texts’, which combine Old Latin and Vulgate readings. Würzburg Universitätsbibliothek M.p.th.f.67, a ninth-century gospel book possibly of Breton origin, has been called a ‘mixed text’ although it has not hitherto featured in the list of Old Latin manuscripts published by the Institut Vetus Latina. A full collation of the text of John reveals that in two portions (John 1:1-5:40 and John 12:34-13:10) it may be categorised as Old Latin. Many non-Vulgate readings in these passages are shared with other Old Latin codices (notably Codex Rehdigeranus), while other variants peculiar to this manuscript correspond to citations by Augustine and Jerome. It is also one of the very few Latin witnesses to an additional phrase in John 8:9. Although the Synoptic Gospels have not been collated, they too have a partial Old Latin affiliation, which is particularly extensive in Matthew. As a result of this study, this manuscript has now been given the number Vetus Latina 11A

The Discourse of Prayer in the Major Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles

This article presents a linguistic analysis of the prayers in the five major Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. In the first part, the prayers are described in terms of form and structural elements. The second part offers a comparison with direct speech in the same works and Christian prayers and Greek prayers from other sources. The results suggest that this relatively uncharacterised discourse, closer to colloquial speech than any religious model, offers an authentic example of early Christian prayer

The St Petersburg Insular Gospels: another Old Latin witness

The St Petersburg Insular Gospels (National Library of Russia F.v.I.8, sometimes known as Codex Fossatensis) were copied in England in the eighth century. This manuscript is well known for its decoration, but there has been no previous investigation of its gospel text apart from the collation of test passages by Bonifatius Fischer. A full transcription of the Gospel according to John, compared with the Vulgate and surviving Old Latin witnesses, shows that the manuscript derives from an Old Latin version which was largely corrected towards the Vulgate. Despite further alterations to the manuscript under consideration, numerous readings remain unchanged which can be traced back to the earliest stratum of Old Latin versions of John. Some are paralleled in patristic citations, while others appear to be unique. This is therefore an important witness to the text of the Old Latin Gospels, and has now been entered in the register of the Vetus Latina-Institut with the number VL 9A

'Flattening' in Latin biblical citations

A paper presented at the International Patristics Conference in Oxford, August 2007. It investigates the alterations to biblical citations made by Church Fathers consistent with their quoting from memory, and identifies features typical of "flattening" the scriptural text

Vetus Latina Iohannes database transcription guidelines

Instruction manual for collection of patristic data for the Vetus Latina edition of Joh

Patristic evidence in the new edition of the Vetus Latina Iohannes

Following an introduction to the principles and procedures followed in producing the new Vetus Latina edition of John, the patristic evidence in the first fascicle (John 1:1-4:48) is compared with Old Latin codices. Most readings found in citations are already preserved in gospel manuscripts, but others are without parallel. These require careful investigation before they can be attributed to a version no longer extant. A small proportion appear to be renderings from an otherwise lost source, but others are harmonisations, paraphrases or altered forms typical of quoted material. Latin authors who also used Greek texts, such as Tertullian and Marius Victorinus, seem to stand outside the main tradition. Translations of Greek writings often feature ad hoc renderings of biblical citations. The variety of these independent versions highlights the overall consistency of the Latin tradition of John

The Electronic Scriptorium: Markup for New Testament Manuscripts

The creation of scholarly editions has been transformed by the adoption of digital tools, affecting every stage of the process from approaching primary sources to final publication. One of the most significant is the way in which electronic media overcome some of the constraints of printed texts and permit a fuller and more flexible presentation of the data, as well as facilitating subsequent alteration and future re-use. This is exemplified by the full-text manuscript transcriptions produced by the International Greek New Testament Project and the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in their work towards the first scientific edition of the New Testament, the Editio Critica Maior. The present study offers an overview of the process of transcribing biblical manuscripts and outlines the encoding in Extensible Markup Language (XML) developed as part of the Workspace for Collaborative Editing, a joint Anglo-German project to create a suite of digital tools for the production of the Editio Critica Maior and, in time, for other textual traditions