[8] 



gint was also written in Greek capitals, without accents and breathings 

 and without divisions between the words, and continued thus until the 

 eighth century, when accents and breathings came into use, which were 

 followed, in the tenth century, by small letters, as we have them now in 

 our Greek Bibles. The very same may be said about the New Testa- 

 ment MSS., all of which are written in continuous Greek capitals. 



The oldest MS. of the New Testament is the Codex Sinaiticus, 

 discovered by Tischendorf at the convent of St. Catherine, on Mount 

 Sinai, in 1859, and supposed to belong to the fourth century. The 

 Codex Vaticanus is also supposed to belong to the fourth century, and 

 was first published at Rome by Vercellone, in 1858. The Codex 

 Alexandrinus, containing both Old and New Testaments, is supposed 

 to belong to the fifth century, and was first published by Woide, in 1786, 

 and afterwards by Cowper, in 1860. Of the Old Testament it contains, 

 besides the canonical and most apocryphal books found in our editions, 

 the third and fourth books of the Maccabees, Epistle of Athanasius to 

 Marcellinus (prefixed to the Psalms), and fourteen hymns, the eleventh 

 in honour of the Virgin. Ecclesiasticus, the Song of the Three Chil- 

 dren, Susannah, and Bell and the Dragon do not appear. Of the New 

 Testament there is, in addition to the received books, the First Epistle 

 of Clement to the Corinthians and part of the Second. The Codex 

 Ephraemi is supposed to belong to the fifth century, and was published 

 by Tischendorf in 1843. The Codex Bezae is a Graeco-Latin MS., said 

 to belong to the sixth century, and first published by Kipling, in 1793, 

 and afterwards by Scrivener, in 1864. All these MSS. are written in 

 continuous capitals, so badly formed, and so jumbled together, as to be 

 almost illegible. 



According to the showing of those most interested in proving the 

 antiquity of sacred writings, the very^earliest MS. cannot lay claim to an 

 earlier date than the fourth century^ 'and, if the authors to whom the 

 Church has attributed the various writings in the Bible wrote the said 

 records, it is clear that the latest originals must date from the first 

 century. But the originals do not anywhere exist, and consequently it is 

 utterly impossible for anybody to know who wrote any one of the books 

 of the Bible, which is, therefore, a compilation of anonymous writings, 

 and, as such, is of no authority whatever. So far from being a divinely- 

 inspired record, it is, as we have seen, a product of the cunning and 

 ingenuity of knaves and fanatics, who deserve credit for only one thing, 

 and that is that they managed to make any sense whatever out of the 

 wretched scribble and scrawl from which they derived their information, 





