The Chester Beatty Papyri contain some of the earliest surviving texts of the Greek Bible, and in particular of the New Testament. The manuscripts of the Gospels and Acts (
45) and of the Pauline letters (
46) have received extensive analysis. However, the third New Testament manuscript preserving part of the Book of Revelation (Rev 9:10–17:2) has not received the same degree of attention. That surprising lacuna in scholarship is now filled by this comprehensive and masterful study of this third century manuscript of Revelation,
47.
As the subtitle describes, Malik’s study concentrates on three aspects of this manuscript: the codicology, the scribal habits, and the nature of the text carried by the manuscript. Issues of codicology are described extensively in the second chapter (pp. 21–71). Malik compares this manuscript of Revelation with ‘a group of scripts that originated and continued to be attested in bureaucratic, documentary milieu’ (p. 70). Such documents are typically dated from the second to the fourth centuries. Using the technique of comparative palaeography Malik is ‘more inclined to date our papyrus to 250–325 ce’ (p. 58). Chapters three to six discuss the related issues of scribal habits and the form of the text. Chapter three examines the scribal corrections present in the manuscript (pp. 72–101). It is observed that ‘a relatively high proportion of in scribendo corrections suggests at least some concern for accuracy’ (p. 101). Chapter four treats singular readings as a window on scribal behaviour (pp. 102–173). This lengthy chapter delivers much impressive and interesting data. While there is no doubt that this is a well-executed discussion within the parameters of received wisdom on singular readings, it might have been helpful if the analysis had moved beyond the application of simply discussing singular readings. It could have been beneficial if there had been some fuller reflection on the method of analysing singular readings—do they really deliver insight into the behaviour of a particular scribe? Or in the case of an early manuscript like
47, do they simply reflect the behaviours of one or more scribes who stood behind the now lost exemplar(s) of this manuscript. Given the lack of textual evidence for Revelation prior to this manuscript (a few scraps only), can singular reading be seen as reflecting the behaviour of the scribe of the manuscript that carries them? Malik see the scribe of
47 as relatively accurate, so maybe this scribe has transmitted rather than produced these readings – in which case they do not reflect the unique practices of this specific scribe. The next two chapters in turn look at scribal re-inking and textual variations (pp. 174–93), and the relationship with the Sahidic version (pp. 194–21).
Malik does a fine job in describing the codicological features of
47, and this will remain the standard treatment of that subject for many decades to come. His analysis of the scribal habits is instructive, but as mentioned above more critical reflection on some of the methods would have been helpful. In regard to discussing the nature of the text, Malik makes the important observation that ‘
47 exhibits closer affinities with the Sahidic than any other “constantly cited” witness of Revelation does” (p. 233). However, beyond this observation he goes little further in relating the form of the text carried by
47 to other early Greek texts of Revelation. There is much more work to be undertaken in this area, and one awaits the application of the Coherence-based genealogical method, with its results published in forthcoming Editio-Critica Maior volumes. However, overall this is a welcomed, well-executed and illuminating study.
Paul FosterSchool of Divinity, University of Edinburgh
