An introduction to Greek and Latin palaeography / by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson.

  • Edward Maunde Thompson
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: An introduction to Greek and Latin palaeography / by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    97/624 page 77
    special reverence. It was, for example, often written in golden letters : a usage which we find followed in the Greek uncial MSS. on purple vellum. The Tetragram or Tetragi’aminaton, a term denoting the in3’.stic name of God, was written in the Hebrew Bildes as run', that is VHVH, Yahveh with the vowels omitted. It was, and still is, considered irreverent to pronounce the Name; hence, in vocalized texts, this Tetragram was usually furnished with the vowels E, O, A, borrowed, with the necessaiy phonetic modification, from 'JUN, Adonai, Lord ; and accord- ingl}'- it M’as, and is, usuall}' pronounced Adonai. The Hellenist Jews, when translating into Greek, appear, from I’everence, to have sometimes copied down the actual Helirew letters of the Tetragram ; or else they imitated the vowel-less Name bj?’ writing the two consonants, and omitting the vowels, of the Greek 0€OC, thus 0C : a contracted form. And again, on the same lines the}’ wrote KC for KYPIOC. Thus 0C was an equivalent of the Hebrew Yahveh; and KC of Adonai. Each receiving a hoidzontal stroke above it, they appear in the Greek MSS. in the forms 0C, KC. This employment of the horizontal stroke is to be traced to the ancient practice by Greek scribes of distinguishing in this way, from the rest of the text, words or other combinations of letters which were to be regarded as foreign or emphatic matter.^ Thus the Hebrew Tetragram, when copied by the Greek scribes, was provided with the stroke, mn’, and, when imitated in Greek letters, appeared as n in I. And so other Hebrew names transliterated in Greek were marked in the same way, as AlA, ICPAA. From being applied to the contracted forms of 0eo? and Kvptos, the stroke became by usage the recognized mark of contraction, covei’ing the whole contracted word, as ANOC, avdp(jOTTOi.~ The sacred names, the Koinina Sacra, ccTmprising words of a sacred character, thus treated by the Greek scribes were strictly limited to fifteen in number; and it is to be borne in mind that the primary motive of presenting these words in a contracted form was a sense of reverence, as already explained, and not a desire of saving time or space—the usual reason for abbreviation and contraction. They are:— diOS, KVpLOS, ’bjCoC?, XpOTTOS, vloS, TiVivp.a, AavfCb, aravpos, ixi']Tr]p, Traryp, 'Icrpai'jX, (TcaTi'jp, avdpbiTios, ’\epov(Ta\'>']iJL, oipapoi, and their cases. * Parallel uses of the horizontal stroke also occur in Latin MSS. ^ By natural confusion it was sometimes applied even to uncontracted forms, as ^eoc, 0eoN (,Brit. Mus. Cat Gk. Pap. ii. 301). Mj'stic words, including the sacred names, in Egyptian Greek magical papyri are also thus marked.
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