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Bob Turner and Allen Black – Bible Manuscripts

July 26, 2017 by Matt Carter

Dr. Allen Black and Bob Turner talk about two important New Testament manuscripts. The New Testament was copied by hand for centuries, and today we look at two of the most important of these early manuscripts. These facsimiles and others are found in the HST Library.

Key take-aways:

  • A codex (plural codices or codexes) is a manuscript in book form as opposed to a scroll. It may be that the longer New Testament books were actually written in codex form. The Old Testament was preserved in scrolls.
  • The chapters we use came about in the 1200s and the verses in the 1500s.
  • Uncials were written in all capital letters with no punctuation, space between sentences, or even spaces between words. Minuscules were written in a small, cursive Greek letters.
  • Codex Vaticanus is the oldest copy of the Bible, dating to the 300s. It contains the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament). Both the Old and New Testaments were incomplete, but had the missing portions added back in the 1400s.
  • Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest copy that contains the complete New Testament. You may see Codex Sinaiticus here.

Dr. Allen Black is the dean of HST and Professor of New Testament. He has been at HST since 1983, and teaches the Gospels, Hebrews, 1 Peter, and New Testament Exegesis. Black has served as Adult Education Minister at the Highland Church of Christ for over 35 years.

Bob Turner preaches twice each month at the Church of Christ at White Station in Memphis. He has been with HST since 2009. He publishes a newsletter of curated resources for ministers called Footnotes. Subscribe here.


Harding School of Theology (HST), a seminary in Memphis, TN, has been equipping ministers since 1958. Accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, and offering degree programs at the master’s and doctoral levels, HST equips Christian leaders to higher standards of ministry scholarship and challenges them to a deeper faith in God. Combining academic rigor and interpersonal connections, HST emphasizes student engagement in ministry as they study. HST is associated with Churches of Christ, is part of the Stone-Campbell Movement, and is part of Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: archives, black, library, manuscripts, Sinaiticus, turner, Vaticanus

Where did all those books come from?

October 22, 2015 by Matt Carter

When students walk into our library, one of the first things they see is a table for New Books. Without question, more books get checked out from here than from any other shelf. But you might wonder how they got there. What is the process for adding books to the library? Who decides what to buy?

It might be argued that average libraries build collections, good libraries offer services, and great libraries create community. While the aim of a library is to create community, there must be some sort of content that draws that community together. That is the role of a library collection.

The selection of books is essential to the life of the library and the institution. At HST, Head Librarian Don Meredith oversees collection development. Our specialized collection focuses on works in the fields of study of our students and faculty. We also collect items related to our church heritage.

Meredith builds his orders through a number of strategies, including the more common (publisher’s catalogs, used book lists, and faculty/student recommendations), in addition to the rewarding, but less common (browsing the footnotes of every journal and major reference work that comes into the library). This is a significant process, which ensures that every title has been hand-selected for the way that it fits into the larger mission of serving students, faculty, and researchers.

Last year we accessioned (librarian-speak for added to our collection) nearly 2,000 new books. And by books, we mean the kind with a front and back with pages made of paper (“It’s not all online” – Don Meredith). That number includes 193 books that were donated by friends of the library. We also checked out over 7,500 books, and scanned/emailed 13,000 pages of material from them to distance education students.

Unlike many other disciplines of study, theological and biblical studies rely on many works that are decades or even centuries old. I wouldn’t want a doctor to take out my gall bladder relying on a textbook that was fifty years old! But you can’t study theology without reading the ancient writers. In fact, our primary book is two thousand years old!

– Don Meredith

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: library, meredith, research



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Harding School of Theology
1000 Cherry Road
Memphis, Tennessee 38117

office 901-432-7750
text 901-300-3995