Codex Alexandrinus (Fifth century).--Like the Codex Sinaiticus, it originally

contained the complete Scriptures, but has suffered some losses in the course of time. It

is the glory of the British Museum Manuscript Section, and for a long time was the

only ancient manuscript accessible to scholars. In 1707-1720 was published the

Old Testament, and in 1786 the New Testament. A photographic reproduction was

made in 1879-1883.

We now turn our attention to the next set of evidences, the ancient versions, in which

all the tongues spoken at Pentecost have contributed their quota. While the Vatican and

Sinaitic manuscripts take us back as far as about A.D.350, we possess translations of the

N.T. that go back before A.D.150, and so give most valuable evidence of the text then in

use. First and foremost come the Syriac versions.

The Old or Curetonian Syriac.--Dr. Cureton, an officer of the British Museum,

translated this manuscript. In his preface he contends that this version gives us the actual

words of the Lord's discourses in the language in which they were originally spoken. We

cannot discuss this question further here.

The Peshitto Syriac.--This standard version of the Ancient Syriac Church was made

not later than the third century (some scholars suggest the second). Peshitto means

"simple" or "common". "It is a smooth, scholarly, accurate version, free and idiomatic,

without being loose, and it is evidently taken from the Greek text of the Syrian family"

(Kenyon).

The Philoxenian Syriac.--In 508, Philoxenus, Bishop of Maburg, in Eastern Syria,

revised the Peshitto throughout, and the latter was again revised by Thomas of Harkel in

The Palestinian Syriac.--This is in a different dialect from that of the Syriac of the

other versions. It is generally reckoned to be the result of a fresh translation from the

Greek, although Dr. Hort considered that part of it rested upon the Peshitto.

From the Syriac versions, we turn to the Coptic.

The Memphitic or Bohairic Version.--This was current in Northern Egypt. The oldest

MS known at present is dated A.D.1173-4.

The Thebic or Sahidic Version was current in Southern Egypt. It exists only in

fragments, but these are very numerous, and if put together would form an almost

complete N.T. and a large portion of the O.T. Many fragments date back to the fifth and

fourth centuries.

There are other Egyptian versions, which we do not mention here. And we can only

give the titles of the remaining Eastern versions. They are the Armenian (5th century),

the Gothic (4th century), the Ethiopic (about the year 600), several Arabic versions,

Georgian, Slavonic and Persian. We must now consider the Western versions.