4.  The materials for textual criticism are much more abundant in the case of the New Testament than of the Old.  A vast mass of manuscripts has been collected from different and distant regions, dating from the fourth century and onward.  Of these, part are in the original Greek, part in ancient versions, or bilingual, that is, containing the original and a version of it side by side.  In addition to these are the quotations of the early fathers, which are so abundant that a large part of the New Testament text might be collected from them alone.  The question of the history of the text, as gathered from this rich mass of materials, is very interesting, but is foreign to the plan of the present work.  To give even a history of the controversies respecting the proper classification of the manuscripts of the New Testament according to their characteristic readings would require a volume, and the question must be regarded as yet unsettled.  There are, however, some general results, a few of the more important of which are here given from Tregelles (in Horne, vol. 4, chap:  8).

The variations in the form of the sacred text are not due to any general recensions or revisions by ecclesiastical authority, but arose gradually from the causes above considered (No. 3).  These variations exhibit such gradations of text that it is impossible to draw definite lines of classification, without admitting so many exceptions as almost to destroy the application of such a system.

There is a general difference in characteristic readings between the more ancient manuscripts, versions, and citations, and the copies of general circulation in more recent times.  This gives rise to the general line of demarcation between the more ancient and the more recent texts; each of these two classes, however, having, in turn, its own points of difference among the texts belonging to it.

The more ancient manuscripts, versions, and citations which we possess range themselves under what we know from their combined testimony to be the more ancient text.  Among the manuscripts and documents so allied there are such shades of difference and characteristic peculiarities, that the versions and manuscripts might be easily contemplated as ramifying into two subclasses.

    The most ancient documents in general are sufficiently
    dissimilar to enable us to regard their testimony, when
    combined, as cumulative.

5.  Respecting the materials for writing in ancient times—­papyrus and parchment, afterwards paper made from linen or cotton; the form of manuscripts—­the roll with papyrus, and the book-form with leaves when parchment was used; the use of palimpsests; the uncial and cursive styles of writing; and the means of determining the age of manuscripts, see in Chap. 3, No. 2.  The existing manuscripts have been all numbered and catalogued.  The custom since the time of Wetstein has been to mark the uncial manuscripts by capital letters, and the cursives by numbers or small letters.  We append a brief notice of a few of the more celebrated manuscripts.