Biblical manuscript#Cataloging
The cataloging of biblical manuscripts is a tool of biblical textual criticism, which attempts to reconstruct the original text of the books of the Bible. These thousands of manuscripts must be compared with each other. While the temporal development of this branch of science different catalog systems emerged with their respective advantages and disadvantages. Newly discovered documents must be included consistently in the catalog system to work internationally consistent fashion. The systems currently used to meet this requirement.
- 2.1 Rahlfs numbers
New Testament
Desiderius Erasmus published in 1516 the first printed edition of the Greek New Testament ( Novum Instrumentum omne ). It was based on different manuscripts, as he had not a single complete work and also each manuscript contained small errors. He shared the manuscripts according to the used notations ( uncial and minuscule ) or the format ( lectionary ), as well as on the content of a ( Gospels Pauline Epistles, Acts and Catholic Epistles and Revelation ). He divided each Unzialbrief, minuscule and Lektioniar to a number for each content group, so that different manuscripts with the same letter or the same number could be described.
From Soden
Hermann von Soden published in the first decade of the 20th century a complex catalog system for the manuscripts. He arranged the manuscripts on the basis of their content and assigned them a Greek prefix to: δ for a complete New Testament, the Gospels and for ε α for the remaining part. However, this grouping was flawed because some of the manuscripts of the group δ the disclosure not be contained and many -ranked into α manuscripts either the Catholic Epistles or the Pauline letters contained, but not both.
After the Greek prefix added von Soden to a number that was associated with the dating of the document. For example, the manuscripts δ1 - δ49 are from the period before the 10th century, during δ150 - δ249 date from the 11th century. This system proved to be problematic when manuscripts were umdatiert or more manuscripts were discovered than allowed by the number of free numbers for a particular century.
Gregory -Aland
Caspar René Gregory published in 1908 with his book The Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, a new catalog system, which has been continued and expanded in 1950 by Kurt Aland, as new manuscript discoveries made this necessary. This system is still used today and is kept up to date by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster. Before Gregory had written the world's leading researchers of the field, in order to find an optimal solution and has been well received. Gregory divided the manuscripts into four groups: papyri, uncials, minuscules and lectionaries. This classification is sometimes arbitrary. The first group is based on the physical material ( papyrus ), which was used in the manuscript. The next two divisions based on the scripture, uncial and minuscule ( lowercase and uppercase letters). The last grouping is based on the content: lectionaries. Almost all the papyrus manuscripts and lectionaries before 1000 are written in uncials. Nevertheless, there is a certain consistency, as most papyri are very old. From the 4th century papyrus parchment began to replace as a writing ( although there are papyri dating from the 8th century). Similarly, the majority of the uncial is before the 11th century dated, the majority of minuscules, however after that.
Old Testament
Rahlfs numbers
Already in the 19th century was stimulated by Paul de Lagarde, to develop a critical edition of the Septuagint. But it was only his student Alfred Rahlfs could start this project together with Rudolf Smend. To this end, the Göttingen Septuagint company was founded in 1908. To refer to the about 2,000 Greek manuscripts led Rahlfs a Rahlfs the numbers that have become accepted as an international standard.