[B-Greek] Use of Nomina Sacra and other abbreviations in P46

David @ Comcast davidinglis2 at comcast.net
Thu Apr 15 18:50:26 EDT 2004


First, as a newcomer to this list, please let me apologize if these
questions are not suitable for b-greek.  If so, could someone suggest a
better list.

I am analyzing the habits of the scribe of P46, and have come up against
some questions I can't answer re. the use of abbreviations:

Is there a recognized 'growth' or 'development' of the use of different
nomina sacra?  Can we infer anything about dates from which nomina sacra are
used in a particular MS?

The scribe of P46 sometimes omits 'v' at the end of a line, and indicates
this by putting an overbar above the preceding letter, extending it slightly
to the right.  This practice seems slightly bizarre, because I can't see
that the scribe would gain much (if at all) by writing the overbar instead
of the 'v'.  Also, only some 'v's are omitted in this way.  So, can anyone
explain why scribes would do this, and why (assuming there was some
advantage in so doing) only some 'v's would be replaced?

David Inglis
3538 O'Connor Drive
Lafayette, CA, USA




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