THE ORIGINAL PROVENANCE AND DATE OF THE MS.

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...Sinaiticus, in the titles and sections of Codex Vaticanus, in Papyrus Rylands 28, and in Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 852. Probably further research will ultimately show that it is found in other documents, but it is in any case rare. The fact that all the unique features of the Codex Sinaiticus are also found in Papyrus Rylands 28, as well as in Codex Vaticanus, is remarkable. It is enough to suggest the possibility that these documents come from the same scriptorium scriptorium: a room in a monastery or library set aside for writing and copying manuscripts. As will be shown later, in the case of the two vellum codices codices: ancient manuscript books, there is further evidence to support this suggestion.

Moreover, it is obvious that this evidence points to Egypt for the origin of the Codex Sinaiticus, as there is nothing in it that is not also found in Egyptian documents. However, it is desirable to emphasize once more that this fact should not be regarded as conclusive as long as we have no evidence regarding other local handwriting styles. As the matter stands, the identical handwriting between the papyri and the Codex Sinaiticus may be due to a common origin, but we cannot prove that it might not equally be due to the existence of a single type of professional literary script used throughout the Graeco-Roman world in the fourth century. One may, however, at least claim that, as far as the study of ancient writing is concerned, the burden of proof original: onus probandi is on those who claim an origin other than Egyptian.

Besides this purely handwriting-based evidence, attention may be called to two spelling points which stand out among the otherwise quite ordinary spellings of the Codex Sinaiticus. The swapping of ι (i) and ει (ei), or ε (e) and αι (ai), is so universally found in all manuscripts of every time and place that it cannot be considered important.¹

(1) In ten out of the eleven times that the word κράβαττος original: krabattos; a Greek word for a pallet, cot, or bed-mat is found, it is spelled κράβακτος (Acts 5:15 has κράβαττον). This can be seen in Papyrus Tebtunis 406 (from about 266 A.D.) and Papyrus Grenfell ii. 111 (5th–6th century). Professor Moulton has an interesting note on this point in the German edition of his Prolegomena, page 60. "The majority of the good manuscripts," he says, "spell it this way [κράβαττος], but Codex Vaticanus in Mark has κράβατος, and Sinaiticus (א) nearly always spells it κράβακτος. Manuscript E in Acts 5:15 seems to be the best authority for κράβαττος, which is normal in later manuscripts... The papyri vary between κράβαττος...

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¹ It is, however, worth observing that while the scribe known as "A" prefers ι to ει, the scribe "D" prefers ει to ι. This is a purely personal habit and is of no value for defining the date or origin of the manuscript.
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...(as seen in Papyrus British Museum ii. 191 of the reign of Trajan), κράβατος (found in a "probably Ptolemaic" pottery shard inscription original: ostracon), and κράβακτος (Papyrus Tebtunis 406, from 266 A.D.; see also Papyrus Grenfell ii. 111 from the 5th or 6th century). Now, Thumb in Indogermanische Forschungen ii. 85 gives the Modern Greek κρεββάτι (krevvatti) as the normal form, but lists krevatti in Bova and kreváto in Rochudi: "the remaining Italian-Greek forms probably originated from the base form krevátti" original: die übrigen italienisch-griech. Formen sind wahrscheinlich aus der Grundform krevátti hervorgegangen. The Latin grabatus original: grabatus; a cot or bed shows that in the West, a form with only one 'b' prevailed. The double 'b' (bb) arises at a late date in some other district and spreads over the whole area, which the late New Testament manuscripts follow.

The interest of this dialect difference for us lies in the agreement of Sinaiticus (א) with witnesses that are exclusively Egyptian, dating from the centuries before and after its own period. In this regard, it strongly suggests an Egyptian origin for the manuscript, which is sharply distinguished on this point from its usual partner, Codex Vaticanus (B). I would only add that these last words must not be taken to imply that there is anything in the spelling of Vaticanus which points away from Egypt. Professor Moulton only means that the evidence regarding the word for "bed" original: κράβαττος is not characteristically Egyptian in that specific case.

(2) The word Ἰσραηλείτης Israelite occurs nine times in the New Testament; and in eight of those instances, the Codex Sinaiticus spells it Ἰσραηλείτης. This pleasant-sounding dental dental: a consonant sound produced with the tongue against the upper teeth, in this case adding a "t" sound is commonly inserted in the manuscripts of the Old Latin version, both of the African and European types. However, among the Greek Uncials Uncials: manuscripts written entirely in capital letters, it appears to be found only in the Codex Sinaiticus and in the Codex Vaticanus—in the latter, it takes the form Ἰστραηλείτης Istraelites. Westcott and Hort used this fact to support their theory that one or both of these manuscripts originated in the West.

However, as strong as their argument seemed, it has lost its force because of the papyri found in Egypt. The same spelling is found in the Magical Papyri (for example, the great Paris Codex Supplementum Graecum 574). Although Traube says in his Nomina Sacra (p. 106) that "The form Istrahel is probably to be considered a Latinism, as suggested by Rönsch in Collectanea Philologica p. 245" original: Die Form Istrahel ist wohl mit Rönsch... für einen Latinismus zu halten, he goes on to admit that "in Greek, Istrahel is often found in the magical papyri" original: im Griechischen findet sich Ἰστραήλ oft in den Papyri magici. M. de Ricci has also recently found the spelling Istrahel in an unpublished Greek-Egyptian tablet in the Louvre, and also in a Jewish inscription in the Museum at Alexandria.¹ Thus the evidence for this spelling in Egypt is likely just as strong as elsewhere.

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¹ Notes on Egyptian Epigraphy original: Notes d'Épigraphie Égyptienne, extract from the Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Alexandria original: Bulletin de la Société Archéologique d'Alexandrie, No. 11, 1909.