Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Jax
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

Post by Jax »

God! it's getting bad. Any more I see something like BHS and my brain translates it to bass. :D

Those youtube videos are very useful, I can now pronounce Nomina Sacra correctly for instance. The CNTTS Apparatus sure looks useful and I think I will invest in it.

Thanks for the heads up guys!

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Ben C. Smith
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Jax wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:37 am So if I type in 'is' for instance will it show all of the instances of the NS is?
Not quite that simple yet, so far as I can determine. I can certainly find all instances of nomina sacra easily enough, but cannot specify which ones to look for, at least not yet. Still trying to figure the search function out more fully.
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Peter Kirby
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

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Pirating abandonware is illegal but has become the only way to acquire Bibleworks, making it a grey area ethically. If you're not comfortable with torrents, you can message me to figure something out.

The CNNTS data is also available in Logos and Accordance. Having seen the interface for it in both Logos and Bibleworks now, I prefer Bibleworks!
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Jax
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

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If there is anything that I love about this study, it's the convoluted reasoning that goes on.
Hurtado feels that IH must be the original rendering of the NS as Greek gementera I + H = 18 which is the numerical value of the word life in Hebrew. Never mind that, at last count, there were 8 different ways that the name of the Christ was written in the NS. IN, IC, IY, IH, IHN, IHC, IHCY, and IHY. If IH has the meaning that Hurtado gives it then why use anything else?

He then goes on to say that for reasons that we can only speculate about that abbreviation by contraction, ie IC, became the preferred method over suspension for the NS.

I love it.
Last edited by Jax on Sun Apr 11, 2021 8:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Jax wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:49 pm If there is anything that I love about this study, it's the convoluted reasoning that goes on.
Hurtado feels that IH must be the original rendering of the NS as Greek gementera I + H = 18 which is the numerical value of the word life in Hebrew. Never mind that, at last count, there were 8 different ways that the name of the Christ was written in the NS. IN, IC, IY, IH, IHN, IHC, IHCY, and IHU. If IH has the meaning that Hurtado gives it then why use anything else?

I love it.
I agree that his reasoning is a bit strained, but bear in mind that it already makes sense on other grounds that suspensions would have preceded contractions, and there are only a few ways to suspend the name of Jesus, ΙΗ ranking as a very obvious one; ΙΗΣ is really the only other contender on record. I think one would have to suppose, from his perspective, that ΙΗ was the first nomen sacrum, but that then other considerations, such as the ability to preserve enough of a case ending to help the reader, trumped the numerological value of this suspension in favor of contraction.

Honestly, to my eye, virtually all the reasoning which attempts to go "behind the scenes" of the nomina sacra looks convoluted to me.
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Jax
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

Post by Jax »

Ben C. Smith wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:58 pm
Jax wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:49 pm If there is anything that I love about this study, it's the convoluted reasoning that goes on.
Hurtado feels that IH must be the original rendering of the NS as Greek gementera I + H = 18 which is the numerical value of the word life in Hebrew. Never mind that, at last count, there were 8 different ways that the name of the Christ was written in the NS. IN, IC, IY, IH, IHN, IHC, IHCY, and IHU. If IH has the meaning that Hurtado gives it then why use anything else?

I love it.
I agree that his reasoning is a bit strained, but bear in mind that it already makes sense on other grounds that suspensions would have preceded contractions, and there are only a few ways to suspend the name of Jesus, ΙΗ ranking as a very obvious one; ΙΗΣ is really the only other contender on record. I think one would have to suppose, from his perspective, that ΙΗ was the first nomen sacrum, but that then other considerations, such as the ability to preserve enough of a case ending to help the reader, trumped the numerological value of this suspension in favor of contraction.

Honestly, to my eye, virtually all the reasoning which attempts to go "behind the scenes" of the nomina sacra looks convoluted to me.
:cheers: Still love it though.

My father, a scientist, would be horrified. :D
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

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Peter Kirby wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:50 am Pirating abandonware is illegal but has become the only way to acquire Bibleworks, making it a grey area ethically. If you're not comfortable with torrents, you can message me to figure something out.

The CNNTS data is also available in Logos and Accordance. Having seen the interface for it in both Logos and Bibleworks now, I prefer Bibleworks!
In the same pneuma do not ever use z-lib or library genesis for books and articles, but if you do you may want to understand VPNs...
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Jax
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

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Here's a nice resource for viewing early manuscripts. http://earlybible.com/manuscripts/p46.html
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Jax
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

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This is interesting Image

You can see that the scribe has extended the overstroke past the NS just like it would be done if the word was at the end of a sentence.
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Re: Some Observations on the Nomina Sacra of the First Three Centuries

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Jax wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:44 pmYou can see that the scribe has extended the overstroke past the NS just like it would be done if the word was at the end of a sentence.
It happens again at the end of a line a few pages later. Also kind of happens in the middle of a line on the same page:

P46, Romans 10.1-11.png
P46, Romans 10.1-11.png (762.75 KiB) Viewed 2492 times
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