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VOL. IV. RICHMO>
A RT TMHI t
/-v UVJ1
(/4 paper read by Dr. G. F. Nicholassi
The river Nile, in its course of several thouiimI
miles, forms five cataracts. The first of
m\ as you go south up the river, about GUI)
iles above the Delta, Ls at Assuan, known to
Breeks as Syene, a variant of the same name.
This is the point at which the British governil
has constructed an immense dam, for the
i pose of controlling and regulating the overa
of the river. Just below the cataract is
island of Klephantine, so called because it
was tlie point to which ivory (elephant tusks)
was brought for shipment down the river. At
this place some old documents have been
discovered which are of great interest to ?
us. Among other things contained in
theiu we find the names of persons men- H
tioii-d in tin; Bible, who were contempo
iii-.v with Ezra and Nehemiah, one of
in was still living when the documents
iv written. Sanballat, the chief enemy
f Nehemiah and his people, is represent' <1
l?y the "sons of Sanballat, the governor
Samaria," and Jehohanan, mentioned
i Neh. 12, 22 and 22, is appealed to as H
lehohanan, the high priest of JerusaAs
the document is distinctly datI'.v
the year of the Persian monarch
d the day of the Persian and Egyptian
"ith. wc have a contemporary confirma||
of the historical accuracy of Ezra
of Nehemiah.
fhis document is in Aramaic, a derivaof
the Hebrew language. But, in
' ^iiiik as 11 is, vvnat i wish to present
in- present paper is an account of some H
Vi'l< letters found at another town in
-\:le valley, nearer the mouth of the
Oxyrhynchus, said to be named
" a kind of fish (sharp-nosed) ven'I
there, was a flourishing city in
an days, and one of the chief centers B|
early Christianity in Egypt. Hut it H
lined rapidly after the Arabian con
' - "i iii ine seventh century, and its
" ' ii representative is a mere hamlet. Syn
M?ry|?t Exploration Fund has main- at 1
"''d excavation work here l'or some Ass1
and in the ruhhish heaps of the
v'" liave been found large quantities of
I'up.vri, chiefly Greek, ranging in date from
't,lu Ik C. to about 800 A. 1)., and on every
'"'ii'ty of subject. Fortunately these trash
s were allowed to stand, instead of being
' 'luced to ashes, as they would be in one
' "hr cities. About fifteen years ago atb'"lion
was called to this place by the publica,|("i
of the Sayings of our Lord. In turning
,v,'r the leaves some one noticed the word Kanl'lio*.
translated "mote" in our Bible. This
(( h> the immediate publication of this one leaf
' v 'hx. Grenfell and Hunt, two English schol
|j|pa
JD, NEW ORLEANS. ATLANTA, MAY
7 r? r\i r\
li wr ULL?
(Greek Papyri)
en before the University Club o) Southern Presby
ars, who have been especially active in discovering
and deciphering these documents.
It may l>e of interest to glance briefly at the
material of which these documents arc made.
The inner part of the papyrus-plant is taken
and cut into long strips, which are laid down
parallel to each other and over these another
set is placed at right angles to the former.
uHMaTvi^aiv then glued together, and I
when tlif surface is dry, it. is rubbed smooth
and is then ready for writing. These sheets
were about ox 10 inches, and when more space
jT -x-,
.
REV. THOS. S. CLYCE, D. D.
derator of the General Assembly, a Member of ,
od of Texas and President of jAuslin College, loca,
iherman. Dr. Clyce is the third Moderator which i
rmhl\) hn* rhn*~r, frr. 1? t_L^^ ?<_??
^ J? v..l fc/^Ml/U XfJ M CACUIIC UJ I
igest and strongest Sydnods in the Southern Church.
was needed, a number of sheets were fastened
together at the sides, making a role or volume.
The nanvrUH is a durable material velum iwv? ..v_
posed to the dampness or to much handling;
so the dry climate of Egypt and the burial in
the sand have preserved many of these documents,
while elsewhere they have almost disappeared.
A few of these papyri became known in the
eighteenth century, but it was not until 1877
that any large number attracted attention. The
work of discovery and interpretation Is still in
MAM
VESTEPN PfPESBYTEPtAAh
AL PRESBYTER/AN E~~
' HERN PRESBYTER/AA'
29, 1912. NO. 22.
LETTERS
ilerian University, Clarf^esville, Tenn.)
progress. Of those now available, only a comparatively
small number are literary, the Odes
of Bacchylides, Aristotle's Constitution of Athens
parts ol' four plays of Menaudor and the
.Mimes of lleroelas being the most important.
The non-literary texts are much more numerous,
and their variety is as remarkable as their number.
.Many are official or semi-official documents,
.-iieh as wills, contracts, census and property
let urns, etc. Besides these there are a number
of private letters, which often throw a clear
light on the domestic and social relations of the
people. i Mt* introductions and the closing
greetings generally follow a stereotyped
I form, and the essential part of the letter
is usually stated briefly and simply. Hut
the fact that they were not intended to
be read by others than those to whom
tiny were written, gives them an interest
which would not attach to more formal
and elaborate documents.
Hut the personal interest of these letters
is not by any means their only value.
They offer a continuous chain of documents,
extending over a period of more
than a thousand years, many of them
exactly dated by year and month and day,
by which the whole history of book-making
in antiquity can be traced. One result
of this line of study is the assurance that
the books of the New Testament were
probably written originally on papyrus,
and in a role of this material, as we see
it in these newly-discovered papyri, we
have the original form of one of Paul's
Kpistlex, as far as outward form
Icerned. Parts of some of the books of
the New Testament have been found, and
these agree in the main with the great
uncial texts on which the edition of Westcot
t and Ilort is based. Beside these
_j larger results there are indirect aids offered
for the interpretation of the Greek
Bible. In lMti.'l Bishop Lightfoot made
iej this statement in one of his lectures:
'he "You are not to suppose that some New
'he Testament word, which has its only classical
authority in Herodotus, had fallen out
of use in the interval, only that it had not
been used in the books which remain to us; prob
ably it had been part of the common speech all
along. * * * If we could only recover letters that
ordinary people wrote toea eh other without any
thought of being literary, we should have the
greatest possible help for the understanding of
the language of the New Testament generally."
This help is just what is afforded by thctae
papyri. The sacred writers deepened and enriched
the significance of many every day words,
and employed them in altogether new eonnections.
At the same time the best way to get at
]