| Sanders HA, Epistles of Paul, 48-49, 1935 Kenyon FG, C.Beatty Biblical Papyri, Fasc
III,sup, 1936, Table f. 16. v. |
| The ink is dark brown and has faded little. There has been little rubbing of the surface,
so that almost every letter is still legible. The writing is of the book hand and
the letters are carefully formed and well spaced. Sigma has a flattish top, which
generally bends downward somewhat; this distinguishes it from a w in the page numbers,
which is a regular uncial sigma.Epsilon and theta are rather oval than round, but
epsilon usually has the middle stroke somewhat prolonged. Iota is often prolonged
below the line, never above. Omicron, especially when initial, is often small though
it does not degenerate to a mere dot. All of the other letters tend to be broad, yet
without heaviness. In phi the central curve is a pointed oval, so as to give breadth
without the appearance of height. The page numbers are made with a different pen,
They are larger and coarser, but are probably contemporary. So are the infrequent
corrections between the lines written in a smaller, more cursive hand. The reading
marks seem later, but the stichometral notes at the ends of Epistles seem contemporary.
If the manuscripts were written in a scriptorium for pay, these notes would have been
inserted by the business manager when determining the price.;There are no line fillers
at the end of lines, but a similar mark, probably as a paragraph mark, is used at
the end of each epistle. Also the middle stroke of epsilon is sometimes prolonged
as if to do duty as a line filler. Similar prolongations of alpha, kappa, and lambda
are rare. Smaller letters, sometimes a little crowded, occur rarely at line ends,
but there are no ligatures.;There are a few cases of punctuation by a single dot in
high position. Double dots like a colon occur once, near the end of Romans, after
XVI, 27 and before XVI, 1. This may be interpreted as setting off the last chapter
of Romans as a separate letter.;There are many slight spaces left in the text, often
where they serve admirably for punctuation. Some of these spaces are sufficiently
large so that one may be sure that the scribe intended them to mark the ends of of
paragraphs. Others are so narrow that they may be explained as accidental. There are
also reading marks which were inserted by a later hand. These are generally shaped
like an acute accent made with a broad-pointed pen, though rarely they are hardly
more than dots. In the width and heaviness of stroke, these marks are most similar
to the page numbering, but in the MIchigan portion they cannot be by the same hand,
as the ink is always paler. They were probably inserted by some later reader for his
convenience, when readig in church. This view is somewhat supported by the fact that
the reading marks were inserted only in Romans and Hebrews of the preserved parts
of the manuscript. These reading marks are very irregularly placed even in the part
of the manuscript where they are used.;Only one accent occurs, an acute over peras
in Hebr. VI, 16. An angular rough breathing generally in the form of half an H occurs
nine times. The apostrophe is used six times. Diaeresis seems to be emloyed somewhat
irregularly for initial iota and ypsilon; also within a word, the occurrence of diaeresis
for iota and ypsilon is irregular.;In general, words are divided at line ends so that
as many consonants are attached to the following vowels as can be easily pronounced.
Yet sometimes compound words are divided at the point of compounding. |
