Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 22:36:59 -0500 To: ekrentz@lstcc.edu From: "Carl W. Conrad" < Subject: Re: Orthography rather than scripture Maurice sent this query to me yesterday regarding how numeral 7 was represented in uncial MSS. I've brought fewer reference resources with me to Carolina this summer and can't find the answer in net resources thus far, so I am doing as Maurice suggested, posting it on to the list; the query is more interesting than my response, I'm sorry to say. At 4:02 PM +0100 5/23/99, Maurice A. O'Sullivan wrote: >Carl: >My query arises from Ac 19:14 but has more to do with orthography, so I beg >your indulgence.. > >In the second edition of his " To Advance the Gospel", Joseph Fitzmyers has >an article ti8tled: >"A Certain Sceva, a Jew, a Chief Priest ( Ac. 16:14 )." > >In his preliminary remarks, Fitzmyers raises the issue of how many sons >Sceva had. >Was it seven as in the RSV -- following the Alexandrian text --: >" Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva ......."? >Or was the number not specified, as in all but one of the "Western text" mss? >The latter, he surmises is " almost certainly because of AMFOTERWN in >19:16", --- a word which normally means 'both' but has been translated >'all' in the RSV due to an editorial comment by Metzger about it having >this meaning in sub-standard Greek. > >Then, in a footnote, Fitzmyer notes: >"In the first century Greek 'Beta' { here the reader sees a Greek font >lower case 'beta' [= 2 ] looked very much like { here the reader sees what >looks very like a Greek font 'final sigma' } [= 7 ] ". > >It was only when I checked with Smyth ( s. 347, 348 ) that I realized that >the "alphabetic" system of representing numbers had come early enough for >the Digamma to be taken = 7 -- thus abiding by Phoenician alphabetical order. > >According to Smyth, the alphabetical/numeral system " apparently invented >in the fifth B.C, became dominant in the Hellenistic period, and has lasted >till now". He notes also that later Digamma was replaced by that sign very >similar to 'final sigma' because it was an abbreviation of 'sigma-tau' = >STIGMA I checked this in Edward Maunde Thompson, An Introdution to Greek and Latin Palaeography (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912) 91-92. He notes that there were two systems to express numbers in Greek Uncial MSS: (1) The older system used the initial letters of the names of some numbers to express them, e.g. PIO for 5, D for 10, M for 10,000, etc. (2) The system that Maurice described was in full use by the III century BC. It used "the first nine letters of the alphabet for the units and the rest for the tens and hundreds, disused letters being still retained for numeration, vis. digamma for 6, which in its early form appears as [to look like a final sigma, later develops into a reverse q (stigma, a combination of sigma and tau); koppa for 90, and "a symbol derived from the old letter san, which appears in papyri as [T" or another symbol and in later periods as sampi. Numerals usually had a horizontal stroke above them. Arabic numerals first appear in the tenth century, but do not come into general use until the fourteenth. The same information is given in his A Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography (1893)104-106. (ISBN 0-89005-094-5). It's been reprinted by Ares Publishers Inc. 7020 N. Western Ave. Chicago, IL 60645 > >So that is what underlies Fitzmyer's note about confusing 'Beta' and 'stigma'. > >Now, for my question: as long as mss were in majuscule there was no need >for a 'final sigma' form -- but once minuscule and cursive scripts because >common, with the 'final sigma' form appearing, how did they manage to >maintain 'stigma' = 7 "until now"? > >P.S If you think this query -- and your answer, of course < -- warrants >posting to the list, please feel free to do so. Carl W. Conrad Department of Classics, Washington University Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243 cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/ Helvetica+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Edgar Krentz Professor Emeritus of New Testament Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 1100 East 55th Street Chicago, IL 60615 Telephone: (773) 256-0752; Dean's Office: 773-256-0722FFFF,0000,0000 Office: ekrentz@lstc.edu [preferred for anything professional] Home: emkrentz@mcs.com [Tel: 773-947-8105] GHRASKW AEI POLLA DIDASKOMENOSHelveticaFFFF,0000,0000. "I grow older, learning all the time." + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ++FFFF,0000,0000 Mishawaka++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Edgar Krentz Professor of New Testament Emeritus Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 1100 E. 55th Street Chicago, IL 60615 USA 773-256-0752 e-mail:FFFF,0000,0000 ekrentz@lstc.edu (Office) GHRASKW AEI POLLA DIDASKOMENOS.Mishawaka +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++