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16 THE EARLIEST EVIDENCE OF AN EMERGING CHRISTIAN MATERIAL AND VISUAL CULTURE: THE CODEX, THE NOMINA SACRA AND THE STAUROGRAM LARRY W. HURTADO The main objective of this essayis to draw attention to some phenomena that are of considerable significancefor a historical analysisof earliest Christianity but are not given the attention they merit. In understanding why greater account is not taken of such phenomena we will identify two unfortunate features of current scholarship: (1) a tendency for scholars who profess a commitment to historical analysisto approach the New Testament and other literary sources for earliest Christianity relying on printed editions of early Christian writings instead of developing a familiarity with the features of the ancient manuscripts, and (2) an unavoidable specialization that hinders scholars from taking into account the full range of relevant evidence for historical questions. The phenomena Iwish to highlight are important because, I contend, they represent the earliestextant evidence ofan emerging Christian material and visualculture that must be placed no later than the early second century CE,and may well be earlier. 1. The Codex "The most momentous development in the history of the book until the invention of printing was the replacement of the roll by the codex " (Roberts and Skeat 1987: 1). One of the great puzzles about early Christianity is its wholesale preferencefor the papyrus codex over the scroll. This preferenceis markedly clear in the earliest Christian manuscript evidence, which takes us 1 One of the few New Testament scholars who is an exception is Trobisch (1996). 272 TEXT ANDARTIFACT back to the mid­second century or perhaps earlier (palaeographers differ by a few decades in their dating of particular relevant manuscripts). This in turn means that the Christian adoption of the codex as the preferred form for books must likely be placed no later than the late first century. In the surviving evidence, we do not see an evolution in Christian preference with incremental stages, but an appropriation ofthe codex that appears to have been as thorough as it was early. Moreover, this seems to have gone against the wider preference for the scroll outside of Christian circles, and it preceded by several centuries the eventual success of the codex over the scroll in wider Roman culture. It was not until the fourth century CE that the codex began to become the dominant form for books. The figures for the earlier centuries are striking. For example, of the non­Christian manuscripts that can be dated prior to 200 CE, more than 98 percent are scrolls; but almost all Christian manuscripts of the same period are codices." This very early preference for the codex contrasts also with the Jewish preference for the scroll. The Qumran texts, for example, are entirely scrolls, as is nearly every other manuscript of clear Jewish provenance prior to 200 CE. Indeed, it appears that the codex was not used for copying the Hebrew Bible until about 700 CE; and even then the codex was restricted for copies intended for non­liturgical use (Tov 1992: 206­207). To be sure, the Christians did not invent the codex. The earliest form of the codex wasa wooden tablet (Greek nivac;) with waxwritingsurface, quickly followed by multiple wooden tablets (mvccKet;) tied together with thongs. By the first century CE,however, the dominant codex form was the notebook of parchment leaves (Latin membrana) used mainly for personal records and memoranda, and even for private study copies of literary works. Roberts and Skeat responded favourably to Lieberman's proposal that these parchment 2 Van Haelst (1976) is a standard reference work that also indicates disagreements over dates of manuscripts. 3 See Skeat (1969); Blanchard (1989); Resnick (1992); Roberts and Skeat (1987); Gamble (1995); Llewelyn (1994); Horsley (1995: 76­83); Trobisch (1996: 106­24). 4 For discussion of early Roman­era uses of scroll and codex, see Roberts and Skeat (1987: 24­37; for the Christian evidence, see 38­44). 5 Roberts and Skeat (1987: 11­23). Thus, theu,eu,ppccva), though there are some small variations here and there (e.g., Xpq). The horizontal stroke that isplaced over these sacred abbreviations seems largely intended to mark off the words, somewhat as italics, boldfacing or underscoring does in printed texts. There is no indication that the words were read out any differently. The nomina sacra were strictly a visual phenomenon, and functioned to register Christian pietyvisually. In sum, the nomina sacra manifest early Christian reverence for what the words represent, and amount to a distinctively Christian...

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