1311.) 
convenierce, with litle regard to the be- 
nefit of future generations. 
Granite and porphyry, on account of 
_ their extreme hardness, are dithcult to 
work ; but they would well repay the ex- 
pence for bridges and public buildings. 
it was of these stones that the Egyptians, 
and other nations of antiquity, con- 
structed palaces and temples, which have 
eudured the attack of time and the deso- 
lating hand of superstitious barbarians. 
The origin of some of these structures 1s 
prior to the oldest records of man, and 
they will exist when no vestige of the 
architecture of modern times shall re- 
main. Ropert BakEWwELL, 
Warwick Court, Gray’s Inn. 
'-For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the copex BEzx, the CLERMONT MA- 
Nuscript, and the onicinacs of the 
SCRIPTURES of the NEW TESTAMENT. 
CORRESPONDENT having, ina 
A former Number, requested some 
information respecting the Codex Bezx, 
the Clermont Manuscript, and the ori- 
ginals of the Scriptures of the New Testa- 
ment; I beg leave to offer the following 
observations, which probably comprehend 
the several subjects of his inquiries, 
The Codex Bezz is a Greek and Latin 
manuscript of the four Gospels, and of the 
Acts of the Apostles. It is, however, de- 
fective in some parts of the Guspels, and 
also wants some passages of the Acts. 
The Gospels are arranged in. the usual 
order of the Latin manuscripts: Mat- 
thew, John, Luke, Mark. The uncial 
letters, with the want of accents, of 
marks of aspiration, and of intervals be- 
tween the words, prove the high antiquity 
of this manuscript, which, perhaps, is the 
most ancient that is now extant.. Some 
writers have thought that the Greek text 
has been altered from the Latin version, 
burt this opinion seems to rest on no solid 
foundation. ‘Though a very great num- 
ber of readings, peculiar to the Codex 
Bezzx, are found in the Vulgate, yet this 
is no proof that those readinys were acin- 
ally borrowed from a Latin version, and 
translated into Greek, It is, at least, 
equally possible that they might have 
originated from the Greek, as from the 
Latin; and that this was really the case 
seems highly probable, if it be consi- 
ered, that, when Jerom revised the Latin 
‘version, by order of Pope Damasus, he 
corrected it from Greek manuscripts. 
Some have thought, from the coincidence 
discoverable in a very great number of 
Téeadings between the Codex Beze and 
ashe | 
On the Codex Beze, Meet 
407 
the Syriac version, that the former had 
been altered from the latter; but it ap- 
pears bizhly improbable, that the Syriac 
version should have been used in the cor~ 
rection of a manuscript written in a coun- 
try where the Syriac language was wholly 
unknown. The natural inference, there= 
fore, is, that the readings of the Codex 
Bezz are for the most part genuine, and 
of course preferable to those of modern 
manuscripts. This manuscript was 
fuund by Beza, at Lyons, in the monas- 
tery of St. Irenans, in the year 1562, at 
the commencement of the civil war in 
France.* Beza wrote, in the beginning 
of this manuscript, the following account 
with hisown hand: ‘ Est hoc exemplar 
venerande vetustatis ex Grecia, ut 
apparet.ex barbaris quibusdam Gracis 
ad marginem notatis, olim exportatum, 
et in S. Irenzi monasterio Lugdunensi, 
ita, ut hic cernitur, mutilatum, postquam 
ibi in pulvere diu jacuisset, repertum, 
Oriente ibi crvili bello anno domini 1562.” 
That the manuscript came originally from 
Greece is on'y conjecture; but that it was 
discovered in the monastery of St. 
Irevzus in Lyons, in the year 1562, is 
the direct and positive evidence of aman, 
whose veracity is unimpeachable, The 
two following circumstances render it 
highly probable, that the Codex Bez 
was written in the west of Europe: 1. 
The Latin translation was added with no 
other design than to render the original 
intelligible to those who. were not skilled 
in the Greek language, and it was not 
added merely in consequence of the high 
authority of the church, by which it was 
used. . In that case the transcriber would 
have adopted some established text, from 
which he would never have deviated ; but 
the Latin text of the Codex, Beze is 
found in no Latin manuscript, . either 
ancient or modern, This. translation 
would-have been wholly superfluous if the 
manuscript had been written for the use 
of a Greek, to whom a Latin translation 
was unnecessary. 2. The arrangement 
of the Gospels in the Codex Beze was 
never admitted by the Greek church, or . 
in any country subject.to its authority, 
bot was the common arrangement of the 
ancieut Latin manuscripts. From these 
circumstances it seems reasonable to 
conclude, that the Codex Bez was writ- 
ten in the west of Europe, in a country 
in which Latin was better understood 
than Greek, and which was ‘subject to 
* Michaelis’s Iptroduction to the New 
Testament. 
the 
