REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D., ON THE GREEK PAPYRI. 75 



have conclusively proved that it was this Greek, not in its literary, 

 but in its more colloquial or popular form, that, as a rule, was used 

 by our New Testament writers. As regards Archdeacon Potter's 

 question, it is the case that our new fragments, so far as they go, 

 in the main confirm the text which we find in the Vatican and 

 Sinaitic Codices. Again, to pass to Mr. Moon's question, I 

 must content myself with saying that, during the period under 

 review, papyrus was undoubtedly the principal writing material in 

 use in Egypt for literary and non-literary purposes. Parchment, 

 though already long in use in a rough form for scribbling and other 

 purposes, does not appear to have been generally employed for 

 literary works till about the fourth century. As to what we are to 

 understand by the " large letters " of Gal. vi, 11, it seems to me that 

 they may be very readily explained as the ruder, less practised 

 writing of the man who wrote but little, as compared with the more 

 cultured hand of the scribe who wrote the body of the Epistle. We 

 have no evidence that St. Paul suffered permanently from defective 

 eyesight. Acts ix, 18, seems to point to a complete cure of the 

 blindness caused by the Damascus vision, and the thorn in the 

 flesh from which he afterwards suffered need not, notwithstanding 

 Gal. iv, 15, have had anything to do with the actual state of the 

 Apostle's own eyesight. 



