Page:Commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, volume 1.djvu/16

viii best of the three. It is also evident that Codex H, as I call the third, resembles Codex M more than Codex C. Unfortunately, a quire of Codex M is wanting at the beginning, equal to six folios of Codex H. This must have included the Preface, so that we get no light on the meaning of a troublesome passage at the foot of f. 5b about the omission of three generations in Matthew's genealogy. The said passage is different, but equally insoluble, in Codex C.

Codex C is numbered 1973 in the Catalogue of the Cambridge University Library, in which Dr Wright thus describes it: 'Paper, about 8½ inches by 6¼, 323 leaves, some of which are stained by water and slightly mutilated, e.g. ff. 64, 145, and 169. 33 quires, signed with letters, mostly of 10 leaves ( had originally 12); leaves are now wanting at the beginning and after ff. 4, 5, 25, 315, and 323; 18 or 19 lines in a page. The writing is a good, regular Nestorian sarṭā. This MS. is dated A.Gr. 1998 = 1687 (water-mark, the three crescents).'

The mutilation of f. 64 only affects the margin; that of ff. 145 and 169 is probably due to iconoclasm, as it affects the ornamented colophons of St Matthew and St Mark.

The first 12 extant leaves are occupied with part of Ishoʿdad's Commentary on the Pentateuch, the Gospel Commentary taking up the remainder of the book.

Codex M is also paper, 12½ inches by 8¾. There are 308 leaves, those at the beginning and end being deeply stained whilst the middle is comparatively clean. This suggests that the book has lain long in a spot to which muddy water had access, and that it has been turned over on some occasion. There are 10 leaves to a quire; the quires are signed with letters, reaching up to. This makes 32 quires extant. Quire has only 8 leaves. There are usually 26 lines on a page, and occasionally one more. As something is wanting at the end, we have no means of finding the date. The book contains, in addition to the Gospel Commentaries, those on the Acts and Catholic Epistles, excluding the Antilegomena, and also the Commentaries on St Paul's Epistles.

Codex S is the one numbered 1998 in the Catalogue of the Cambridge University Library. Dr Wright thus describes it: 'Paper, about 7¼ in. by 5⅜. 225 leaves; 16 to 18 lines in a page. The writing is a neat, regular Nestorian sarṭā of the 16th century. It contains a Poem on the Divine Government of the World, by Isaac Eshbodhnaya, whom Sachau calls Presbyter Isaak Kardaḥa Shabhadnaya, in sections, accompanied by