A scribe and his manuscript: an investigation into the scribal habits of papyrus 46 (p. Chester Beatty ii – p. Mich. Inv. 6238)

Ebojo, Edgar Battad (2014). A scribe and his manuscript: an investigation into the scribal habits of papyrus 46 (p. Chester Beatty ii – p. Mich. Inv. 6238). University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis is an investigation into the scribal habits of Papyrus 46, attempting to enrich further the information database about the sociology of ancient book production and to explore how these habits might have affected the transmission of the texts of the New Testament in general and the corpus Paulinum in particular. Given this end, this thesis challenges the traditional methods of locating the “scribal habits” of a particular manuscript, specifically methods that are text-focused. Crucial to developing a viable methodology is articulating how the conceptual category of “scribal habits” is to be understood before we can sufficiently isolate them. Using an integrative approach (i.e., the composite employment of papyrology, codicology, palaeography, and textual criticism), this thesis proposes that “scribal habits” are to be found in everything that a particular scribe recurrently did and did not do in the manuscript, encompassing all the stages of its production and its eventual use. In regard to papyrus 46, this thesis finds the scribe in the same league with other ancient scribes as well as idiosyncratic in the ways he used his codex, copied the text of his exemplar, and employed existing systems and devices practised within the scribal profession. These scribal characteristics emphasise the “human” face of textual transmission of a “divine” book.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):