GREEK PAPYRI—METZGER 
evidence in one critical apparatus 
with that in another. The first step 
in the direction of standardization of 
nomenclature was taken by a Swiss 
scholar, J. J. Wettstein, who, in his 
handsome edition of the Greek Testa- 
ment published in 1751-52, employed 
a system of capital letters to designate 
uncial manuscripts and Arabic nu- 
merals to designate minuscule manu- 
scripts. The system now in general 
use was elaborated by Caspar René 
Gregory, a native Philadelphian who, 
after receiving his theological training 
at Princeton, went to Germany where 
he became the world’s foremost au- 
thority on New Testament paleog- 
raphy. His task of assigning official 
numbers to newly discovered manu- 
scripts was taken over after the first 
World War, during which he lost his 
life fighting in the German army, by 
Ernst von Dobschiitz ’ (see pl. 3), who 
has published various lists of newly 
assigned numbers in Zeitschrift fiir 
die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft.® 
Since the death of von Dobschtitz in 
1934, his successor, Walther Eltester, 
has continued to act as a clearing- 
house and to assign numerals to 
manuscripts, but has not yet published 
any lists. 
The fragments of manuscripts made 
of papyrus are commonly listed sep- 
arately from those made of vellum or 
paper. So far, 54 numbers have been 
assigned by Gregory, von Dobschiitz, 
and Eltester, but actually only 51 
Greek papyri are known. It is cus- 
tomary to refer to papyri by the letter 
“Pp” followed by a small superior 
numeral. In some unaccountable 
way the number P* was given by von 
Dobschiitz to a Coptic fragment 
7 Professor von Dobschiitz’? complete re- 
working of Nestle’s Introduction is remark- 
able for its comprehensive scope and concise 
treatment (Eberhard Nestle’s Einfiihrung in 
das Griechische Neue Testament, 4te Aufl., 
Gottingen, 1923). 
8 Vol. 23, pp. 246-264, 1924; vol. 25, pp. 
299-306, 1926; vol. 26, p. 96, 1927; vol. 27, 
Pp: 1216-222, 1928; vol. 32, pp. 185-206, 
19335 
443 
published by Carl Wessely in 1914.° 
Likewise P*5, which Grenfell and 
Hunt had published as P. Oxy- 
rhynchus 1353, being made of vellum, 
was erroneously listed among the 
papyri by von Dobschiitz but later 
was assigned another number by him 
(0206). In its place, according to 
Kenneth W. Clark’s Catalogue,!! von 
Dobschiitz assigned a papyrus frag- 
ment of the Epistle of James. But in 
a letter dated November 28, 1946, Sir 
Frederic G. Kenyon kindly passed on 
to the present writer the disconcerting 
information which he had just received 
from Eltester in Berlin that this same 
fragment of James was designated 
p*, Finally, P*! is still vacant. 
The vellum manuscripts are divided 
into uncials of which 212 have been 
cataloged,’? and minuscules, of which 
2,429 have been cataloged. ‘The un- 
cial manuscripts which have been 
known for the longest time are com- 
monly designated in a critical appa- 
ratus by capital letters of the Roman 
and Greek alphabets, and by one 
Hebrew letter (aleph). Thus, the two 
oldest vellum manuscripts, codex Vati- 
canus and codex Sinaiticus, both of 
the fourth century, are referred to, 
respectively, as B and aleph; codex 
Ephraemi is C. For uncial manu- 
scripts discovered since the last letter 
of these alphabets had been assigned, 
Arabic numerals are used, preceded 
by a zero. The minuscules, since the 
time of Wettstein, as was mentioned 
above, are referred to by Arabic 
numbers. 
A subsidiary class of Greek manu- 
scripts, both uncial and minuscule 
(though the latter by far predominate 
in quantity), is devoted to lectionaries. 
® Studien zur Palaographie und Papyrus- 
kunde, vol. 15, No. 233b, pp. 102-103, 1914. 
10 Zeitschrift fiir die neutestamentliche 
Wissenschaft, vol. 32, p. 192, 1933. 
11 A descriptive catalogue of Greek New 
Testament manuscripts in America, p. 79. 
Chicago, 1937. 
12 Only one of these, however, is entirely 
complete; it is codex Sinaiticus of the fourth 
century. 
