Codex Alexandrinus: transcription (Kurzgefasste Liste) and manuscript available to all

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
Post Reply
User avatar
mlinssen
Posts: 3431
Joined: Tue Aug 06, 2019 11:01 am
Location: The Netherlands
Contact:

Codex Alexandrinus: transcription (Kurzgefasste Liste) and manuscript available to all

Post by mlinssen »

I have been trying to spread the way I am doing research, and to share the enormous amount of research that I have done.
But most importantly I have always stressed that none of this can be studied unless in the original manuscripts and language - which sets an incredibly high bar, of course

So here I present two simple tools, available to all:

Any transcription to any Greek Christian MS

Transcription for Luke from the Project "Kurzgefasste Liste" (KL)

Basically one can find any transcription this way. One can search for a certain section via https://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/liste where you populate "Indexed Biblical Content" and get a set of doc ID's returned that qualify - and do realise that this Project is in progress, and that only a small amount of transcriptions has been realised so far

Now the trick is to use this in order to locate the correct folio. For instance, the wine and the patch for Luke contain the fairly unique και ουδεις βαλλει οινον νεον. Do note that all this consists of diplomatic transcriptions, meaning that there's about 20-30 letters per line available on average.
So when "και ουδεις βαλλει οινον νεον" doesn't return a hit, split it and try again, and always take 4 words:
"ουδεις βαλλει οινον νεον" => no hit? οινον may be broken up across lines, so take
"ουδεις βαλλει" => no hit? then βαλλει must be be broken up across lines, so take
"οινον νεον" => no hit? This is rare, but don't forget that there are variants, and that NA28 is NOT are liable source to find them all

Now if you located the line, check the column and follio: in this case Col 1 Folio 48V. Finish the text below and we'll take it from there, okay?

API

If you're a hotshot, the API is here: https://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/community/vmr/api/

If you're a nerd, there's all kinds of sexyness such as https://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/community/stats/

And so on. Now, to the Manuscripts, of which Alexandrinus is just an example:
Codex Alexandrinus

https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.as ... iii_fs001r

Do note the last few characters, but also do note the top right: every folio has a Recto (r) and a Verso (v) and the pages usually are simply numbered from 1 to end, so if you're a hacker you have already figured out that in this case
https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.as ... viii_f048v
will give us what we need. Column 1, line 22: and there you go

No, you don't: in this case the folio number is what is written on the pages by soem clumsy idiot a few centuries ago; observe the very first start of Alexandrinus, Matthew

Col 1
Matt 25:6
1εξερχεσθε εις απαντησιν
2αυτου 7τοτε ηγερθησαν πα

The BL shows http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.asp ... viii_f002r - with an ugly 26 smack in the middle of the two columns - and that is the folio number that KL returns, so in this case we need to subtract 24, as only the Rectos are numbered.
So Folio 48V equates to viewer folio 24v: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.asp ... viii_f024v

There always is a minor catch or two, don't forget that ALL of this is painstaking handwork from the very bei=ginning, many centuries ago, till now - and the field is frantically trying to find mutual agreements, a common way of working, over hundreds and thousands of loose papers scribbled down by uncontrolled monkies over the course of countless centuries

There is of course also Sinaiticus, Bezae, Vaticanus. Sinaiticus has a great user interface, the transcription of Bezae has been broken for over 8 months and just recently got restored, and Vaticanus offers nothing - yet with KL you can traverse anything in no-time

Go at them, guys and girls. We are living and breathing in a digital universe where everything is available at our fingertips with the speed of light - and it will break down all barriers: Christianity won't survive this century, nor will any other religion, and with a bit of luck 2040-50 will be decisive, with every manuscript available on the fly including verified and validated transcript, translated online for free, and literally, and everything will be free from the dozens of layers of falsifications that have been added over the centuries
Post Reply