Saturday, April 20, 2024

Nomina sacra in Acts 2:4

Here's Acts 2:4 again, in koine and in English:

καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες Πνεύματος Ἁγίου . . . . and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit 

καὶ ἤρξαντο λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις . . . . and began to speak in other tongues 

καθὼς τὸ Πνεῦμα ἐδίδου ἀποφθέγγεσθαι αὐτοῖς . . . . as the Spirit enabled them

 In the Codex Sinaiticus, Acts 2:4 shows two nomina sacra, both for versions of πνεῦμα.  See if you can pick them out below:


The last word in the second line is ΠΑΝΤΕC (πάντες), so 'πνεύματος ἁγίου' should follow on line three.  Where is it?

The first three letters on that line are ΠΝC with a centered overline;  this is the nomen sacrum for πνεῦματος, i.e., 'πνεῦμα' in the genitive.

In the sixth line (third from bottom in this snip) you can make out another, fainter overline, centered over the three letters ΠΝΑ.  This is the nomen sacrum for the nominative form πνεῦμα.

Here is the same verse in the Codex Vaticanus.  The first word of the verse (καί) is the last three letters of the first line.


The genitive 'πνεύματος' begins line 3; there is no nomen sacrum abbreviation, nor is 'πνεῦμα' abbreviated at the end of line 5, carrying over to line 6.



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