The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

Do I really have to do all of this?
I'd recommend screenshotting all of the omicrons on both sides of the papyrus, then determining how they are formed (where does the stylus touch, where does it lift, etc.) and then comparing that ink trace to the known omicrons. You'll also need to see if there are instances in which the ink has scuffed off of the top fibers, and if so, whether those leave traces of partial letters behind. Ideally, too, you'll need to (at some point) look at the papyrus under magnification. Images alone are not sufficient in this case.
To me this is the scholarly equivalent of physical therapy as it relates to surgery. Why would anyone want to hear my take on this? There are so many underpaid academics out there.
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

I noticed this in Hort. It may be extremely relevant.
( α ) Abbreviations misunderstood . $ 58 πνεύματος L , πατρός Η ; 5 61 πράγμα L , πνεύμα Μ ; 8 17 γνωστικόν L , γνώσιν Μ ; S 37 τη αρρήτω L , τινί άρρ . Η ; 8 65 κατά τον αυτόν L , κατά ταυτόν Μ ; $ 79 φοβούμενος L , φόβος S . I have noticed two examples of the termination ~κος being mistaken for κύριος, Str . ΙΙΙ . 8 89 , P . 475 το ερώντι κυρίω της αιχμαλώτου γεγονότι ουκ επιτρέπει χαρίζεσθαι τη ηδονή , where we should read ερωτικό and Str . IV . S 165 , P . 639 αι αγαθαι πράξεις ως αμείνους το κρείττονι το πνεύματι κυρίω προσάπτονται , αι δε φιλήδονοι και αμαρτητικαί τω ήττονι τω αμαρτητικό περιτίθενται , where we should read πνευματικό corresponding to the following αμαρτητικώ .
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

Hort elsewhere:

https://books.google.com/books?id=zgdKA ... 89&f=false

p . 639 . αι αγαθαι πράξεις ως αμείνους το κρείττονι το πνεύματι κυρίω https://books.google.com/books?id=zgdKA ... AXoECAEQAg
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

I think I found another example - PERHAPS - showing the error was as old as Eusebius:

ως νυμφίο μίτραν αυτή ( ) περιέθηκεν , η δε νύμφη της ανωτάτω του ψόγου θεότητος , ήν ως νύμφην αυτήν κατεκόσμησε το πρέποντα πνεύματι Κυρίω ( ου ) κόσμω 25 αλλά και ως εύφορον και αγαθήν γήν εγεώργησεν αυτήν

https://books.google.com/books?id=nyphA ... 22&f=false
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

Ignore this. πνεύματι κυρίω has nothing to do with the modern Greek abbreviation.
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

The phenomenon nevertheless is interesting in that πνεύματικος is passed on as πν̅ικος i.e. πν̅ι + κος. Not useful for understanding κος in to Theodore but interesting as an example of scribal mistakes.
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

I think I solved the mystery. The abbreviation kou developed as a monastic shorthand apparently. Has anyone heard of Cod(ex) Vat(icanus) Graec(us) 1809? An Austrian scholar Michael Gitlbauer in the 19th century deciphered a new kind of writing that Mai couldn't figure out. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... 1up&seq=43 Apparently there isn't just κου for Κυρίου but που for πνεύματος. Has anyone ever heard of this?
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

Wow there are some crazy images of the manuscript of this writing. https://books.google.de/books?id=miQ-AA ... &q&f=false
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

Look at the crazy handwriting https://books.google.de/books?id=miQ-AA ... &q&f=false I've discovered a lost world of monastic shorthand that dates back centuries. I wonder whether the scribe who wrote into that Voss book had a document with this handwriting in front of him and was just copying it because it was the closest thing available to him. My guess is that a manuscript WITH THIS WRITING exists in the Patriarchate library. It's hidden in plain sight like the Purloined Letter.

The works preserved in Cod Vat Graec 1809 in this crazy writing include (a) the Book of Enoch (b) the Martyrdom of St Cyprian of Antioch (c) Maximos the Confessor.
Last edited by Secret Alias on Wed Dec 30, 2020 6:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Secret Alias
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Re: The Presence (and Absence) of Nomina Sacra in To Theodore

Post by Secret Alias »

The Book of Enoch is written in this crazy script https://books.google.com/books?id=gOsIz ... er&f=false
In 1844 , a Greek tachygraphic ( shorthand ) fragment of 89.41–49 was published in facsimile by A. Mai.12 This was deciphered in 1855 by J. Gildemeister , whose transcription was unfortunately not quite accurate . 13 This deficiency was remedied by Michael Gitlbauer in 1878,14 but editors have continued to rely on Gildemeister's errant transcription . The text of this fragment does not differ greatly from the Ethiopic , but it has provided some better readings https://books.google.com/books?id=W9nYA ... AHoECAAQAg
Here we go:
TACHYGRAPHY.
Greek.
The Greeks appear to have had a system of shorthand at a very early date. A fragment of an inscription found recently on the Acropolis at Athens has been shown by Gomperz ← Ueber ein bisher unbekanntes griech. Schrift-system aus der Mitte des vierten vorchristlichen Jahrhunderts, Wien, 1884. See also P. Mitzschke, Eine griech. Kurzschrift aus dem vierten Jahrhundert, in the Archiv für Stenographie, No. 434. to be a portion of an explanation of a kind of shorthand, composed of arbitrary signs, as old as the fourth Century B.C. A passage in Diogenes Laertius was formerly interpreted to imply that Xenophon wrote shorthand notes (ὑποσημειωσάμενος) of the lectures of Socrates ; but a similar expression elsewhere, which will not bear this meaning, has caused this idea to be abandoned. The first undoubted mention of a Greek shorthand writer occurs in a passage in Galen (περὶ τῶν ἰδίων βιβλίων γράφη) , wherein he refers to a copy made by one who could write swiftly in signs, διὰ σημείων eἰς τάχος γράφειν ; but there is no very ancient specimen of Greek tachygraphy in existence. The occurrence, however, in papyri of certain symbols as marks of contraction or to represent entire words, and particularly the comparatively large number of them found in the papyrus of Aristotle's work on the Constitution of Athens, written about A.D. 100, goes to prove that the value of such symbols was commonly understood at that period, and indicates the existence of a perfected system of shorthand writing. A waxen book of several tablets, acquired not long since by the British Museum (Add. MS. 33,270), and assigned to the 3rd Century, is inscribed with characters which are surmised to be in Greek shorthand, the only words written in ordinary letters being in that language. A system of shorthand was practised by the early Christians for taking down sermons and the proceedings of synods.

But we must descend to the tenth century before we meet with Greek tachygraphic MSS. which have been deciphered. The first is the Paris MS. of Hermogenes, which contains some marginal notes in mixed ordinary and tachygraphical characters, of which Montfaucon ← Palæogr. Græc. p. 351. gives an account with a table of forms. Next, there is a series of MSS. which owe their origin to the monastery of Grotta Ferrata, viz. the Add. MS. 18,231 of the British Museum, written in the year 972, and others of the same period (Pal. Soc. ii. pl. 28, 85, 86), which are full of partially tachygraphic texts and scholia, and also contain passages in shorthand pure and simple. And lastly there is the Vatican MS. 1809, a volume of which forty-seven pages are covered with tachygraphic writing of the eleventh Century, which have been made the subject of special study by Dr. Gitlbauer for the Vienna Academy, Some shorthand passages which occur in a fourteenth Century MS., and a passage from a fifteenth Century MS. in the Vatican, have recently been published. ← T. W. Allen, Fourteenth Century Tachygraphy, in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, xi. 286; Desrousseaux, Sur quelques Manuscrits d'Italie, in the Mélanges of the Ecole Française de Rome, 1886, p. 544.

The shorthand system of these later examples is syllabic, the signs, it is thought, being formed from uncials; and it has been concluded that it represents, if not a new creation of the ninth or tenth Century, at least a modification and not a continuation of the older system —in a word, that two systems of Greek shorthand have existed. For it is found that the forms of contraction and abbreviation in Greek MSS. of the middle ages are derived from two sources, most of them springing from an ancient system, but others clearly being contributed by the later system of shorthand. http://www.katapi.org.uk/G&LPalaeography/Ch6.html
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