Much Ado

Locked in the vaults of the Hispanic Society in Manhattan is a large (quarto) volume of 432 thin leaves of exquisitely finished vellum with double columns, 22 lines to the page. The learned know it as the Codex Huntingtoniensis Palimpsestus, and are in an uproar about it, because Dr. E. S. Buchanan, eminent scholar, says it is older than any existing manuscript of the New Testament.

All scholars agree that this book was brought from Tarragona, Spain, in 1907; that it was probably written about 1220; that it contains, besides prayers and rubrics, 226 sections from the Gospels and 153 from the epistles, copied from the Latin Vulgate. They differ as to whether or not it is a palimpsest. (Palimpsest means "copied again.")

Professors Saunders of Michigan, Onis of Columbia, and Loew of Munich claim it is not a palimpsest. Sir Frederick Kenyon of the British Museum, Dr. Rendel Harris of Manchester, England, and Dr. Kirsopp- lake of Harvard support Dr. Buchanan in saying that it is palimpsest. Dr. Buchanan says: " I had leisure and opportunity to study the palimpsest for months together and carry it with me to the roof of the building to gain the utmost of the bright American light."

By comparing his version with other early versions which differ from the Vulgate (400 A.D.), Dr. Buchanan seeks to prove that he has an earlier text than the Vulgate. His translation is not simple, and is surchared with the words " spirits, spirits of men, saviour of spirits," etc. The Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes lose all their simple beauty. His version furnishes no basis for a belief in the day of judgment, baptism, heaven, or hell. He claims that it gives a higher place to woman than John XII, 1, 2, because Martha sits at the table instead of serving.

Many orthodox scholars, while not substituting ignorance for holiness, seem to take the attitude toward Dr. Buchanan that Voltaire took toward the philosopher Helictius: " I disagree with everything you say, sir, and will defend to the death your right to say it."