Song of Songs Journal Now Live

 As I promised I've uploaded the journal for the Greek Septuagint version Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon and Canticles in English and Ασμα Ασματων in Greek). It is available as a PDF on the Downloads page.

Song of Songs is a poetry book and usually formatted as such, particularly in modern editions such as Swete's. I could have kept it formatted as poetry but it would be more than twice as long as the prose formatting I used. Poetry formatting would not be a problem for those using devices such as tablets and PCs to do journaling, but for those who might want to print it out and use traditional media such as pens, this is obviously going to consume a lot more paper. If there's any demand for the poetical formatting I might make those for the poetic books such as Song, the Psalms etc once I have all the canonical books completed and uploaded.

Next week I will post Lamentations (Θρῆνοι) and (God willing) the week after will be Ecclesiastes (Ἐκκλησιαστής - 12 chapters and 222 verses), then Esther (Ἐσθήρ - 16 chapters, 265 verses).

I also plan to start posting a 'Verse of the Week' each Wednesday (Australian time) that I will post on X and my blog. I will start with variants in Codex Alexandrinus as well as interesting features and observations and perhaps expand to include other interesting codices in the future. Alexandrinus is a very large manuscript and there's a lot to work with there.

In the meantime, I pray it blesses you, helps you in your journey to learn Biblical Greek and to draw closer to God through his inspired Scriptures.

Ruth Journal is Live

 As I promised in my last update I have made the next journal, this being Ruth (Ῥούθ). The A4 portrait version is linked on the download pages. Enjoy.

I intend to complete all the canonical books first and so the next will be the Song of Songs (Ἆσμα Ἀσματον) next weekend followed by Lamentations (Θρῆνοι).

The Plan 

I really have no set plan for which will come next, it's mostly down to which remaining book has the least verses. Song of Songs has 8 chapters but 117 verses while Lamentations has 5 chapters and 154 verses.

The length of some books such as Psalms (151 psalms and 2,534 verses including the non-canonical Psalm 151) may make the books unwieldy for printing and thus I may split them. Traditionally Psalms is broken up to 5 separate books and I may split the journals in the same manner.

 The main determiner of this will be how big the files are. Computers, tablets/mobile phones, and the internet can handle pretty large files today, but even so a modern PC or tablet is still happier with a file that is no bigger than a couple of megabytes than one that is 10 or 20. So far all the LXX journals are about 400-500 KB and the GNT journals no more than 300 (Luke is the largest at 301 KB). So perhaps sticking to that is the best plan. But if even the biggest such as Genesis (50ch and 1,530 vss) weigh in at less than 2Mb then I'll probably leave them as a single book.

After I've finished the canonical books I'll start on the Apocryphal books and perhaps some early Christian writings such as 1 and 2 Clement, Barnabas, the Didache etc.

On Being a Terrible Blogger

 As I write this I have, as far as I know, zero followers. This isn't a complaint because I'm at fault for this. I don't update nearly enough, I don't post enough, and I don't promote my blog at all. Part of this is down to my apparent inability to come up with things to blog about and partly down to work and college where I'm studying a diploma in graphic design.

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions and so I am not going to make one, but I do want to turn this into a proper blog with more regular updates. I have a part time job and just two units remaining on my course and so I should be able to not only post more often, but also do some promoting, right?

We shall see.

 To get the ball rolling, I have completed my transcript of the GNT of Codex Alexandrinus (available on the Downloads page). I have also been transcribing the Septuagint/LXX of Alexandrinus and so far have completed Hosea, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Haggai - the link for that is also on the Downloads page, the link is above the 02 GNT entry.

 The next update for the Minor Prophets will be Amos, but that has 146 verses and I've reached verse 9 of chapter 1, so it will be a few weeks until that is done.

 Another project I need to complete is the LXX journal files. In my last update I had completed Swete's version of the Minor Prophets (a coincidence) and I've done nothing since. My aim is to finish these, at least one a week, and get them up as well. Once I have the Affinity app installed on my new Linux machine that will start to happen as well. So depending on the size of the book, I hope to have a new volume or part volume up per week (God willing).

I would also like to start blogging through Alexandrinus and its features with my thoughts on what I've found. I would also like to make a Logos Personal Bible and maybe learn how to make them for some other software such as Accordance, Sword, and theWord, but that's for another day.

Finally I'm working to update the Alexandrinus font to Gentium 7.000, but that's low on my to-do list and will happen when I get to it. The journals are by far the more important thing and once they are done, I will focus on other things. I've made a start, but only the Bold font has had any work done and that's only to add Hebrew and Coptic.

So, God willing, I will be back in a week with a new journal document and possibly a post on the Gospel of Matthew of Alexandrinus.

New Year - New Goodies

Scripture Journals

I write this on 06 January 2025. In the past year I have been busy studying a Diploma of Graphic Design. My hope is that I can use this to improve the work I have been doing and, of course, to earn a living doing the things I love.

To start the new year I have added Scripture Journals for the Greek H.B. Swete versions of the 12 Minor Prophets to the downloads page. The next step will be to begin the longer books in the order Dr William Ross suggests for reading the LXX from easiest to hardest. God willing I will have these up by the middle of the year.

I have also done some housekeeping with the Greek New Testament and reordered the entries to reflect the traditional ordering of the books - Gospels, Acts, General Epistles (James, I & II Peter, I-III John, Jude), the Pauline Epistles (Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I & II Thessalonians, Hebrews, I & II Timothy, Titus, and Philemon), and finishing with Revelation and giving them numbers that match the LXX books including the Apocrypha.

The plan is to eventually add the books referred to variously as Νόθοι (spurious) and Ἀντιλεγόμενα (spoken against). The latter also includes some of the books now widely accepted as canonical (e.g. Jude, 2 & 3 Peter, 2 & 3 John, and Revelation) but in this case will be books that were never considered canonical apart from small groups of early Christians and were included in manuscripts such as the Epistles of Clement, The Epistle of Barnabas, The Shepherd of Hermas, and the Didache.

Alexandrinus Transcript

Along with these I have uploaded an updated Codex Alexandrinus transcript with Luke, and I & II John completed as well as the first two chapters of the Gospel of John. The next update will come when John is complete along with at least II Peter, maybe I Peter as well.

After that will likely be Acts and James to complete the first two sections of the New Testament.

What Else?

Well ... I am also putting the finishing touches to a transcript of books 1 to 9 of the Preparation For the Gospel by Eusebius of Caesarea and hopefully will have a version for publication shortly. In addition, there is a typeface in the works based on Alexandrinus and other ancient manuscripts and I plan to work on an iOS version of the Bible App.

The Beginnings of a New Polytonic Codex Alexandrinus Transcript

I have uploaded a new parallel version of Codex Alexandrinus (hereafter 02) in a polytonic form to Downloads along with a typeface I'm working on for this project. The current version has the University of Muenster transcription in the left hand column and a new polytonic 'critical version' in the right column. Eventually, God willing, I hope to have the entirety of 02 from Genesis to Revelation available in a full Greek New Testament.

I had started with the Septuagint portion of 02, but thought it would be more immediately useful to have the New Testament and the epistles of Clement completed first. Part of the reason for this is that I would like to do a 'critical' version of 02 collated with the Family Π manuscripts that are believed to have been derived either directly from 02 or a common ancestor. This family represents some of the earliest Byzantine manuscripts, with the earliest being dated from around the 9th century AD.

The goal (God willing) is that I would create a new version with lacunae in 02 being filled with the equivalent Family Π text such as from Matthew 1-25:6. But this is a future goal and for the moment as clean a copy of the GNT as possible is the immediate goal.

The current version contains the surviving text of Matthew, the whole of the Gospel of Mark, 3 John, and the Epistle of Jude. I have begun by laying it out in a two column table with a verse to a cell to make it easier to compare the Muenster transcript to the polytonic text. I have a very rough and somewhat messy system* to indicate where 02 follows or differs from the Critical (CT), Byzantine or Majority (MT), and Erasmian or Textus Receptus (TR) families and where 02 goes its own way. I say this is messy because I'm using the 3rd Edition CNTTS apparatus, which is far from comprehensive or perfect**. In the future I will use the ECM apparatus which is more up to date and contains far more sources.

The styles markup is very rudimentary but should give something of an idea of the nature of 02's text and which way it leans. If you are using MS word you can open the Styles menu and see what the colours mean. It is far from comprehensive but should give an idea where 02 variants occur and what text-type they follow. When I have the full GNT I will begin working on a proper apparatus that more fully lists variants and in the case of variants unique to 02 what other manuscripts contain the reading.

I will update it as I go and make a note of this on the Downloads page as I reach the end of books. The next planned update will add the Gospel of Luke and maybe another short letter such as 2 John or Philemon. I like to break up the work by following a long text with a shorter one to keep the sense of progress coming along.

Note - I should make it clear, I'm not doing this for any theological reason or because I think 02 is the best manuscript. It is one of the oldest and therefore most valuable copies of God's inspired word surviving and that's one reason for this work. The Septuagint (LXX) is also valuable because it differs in some significant ways from other existing LXX texts.

Note 2 - you will need the Alexandrinus typeface found near the top of the Downloads page to properly display the text. There are currently no special characters not found in the SBL Gentium Plus typeface, but there will be in the final full 02 transcript. Other typefaces will display the text properly, but in the final version there are critical marks from the Grabe transcript I am working the LXX from***.

But, the primary reason is that I'm curious about the claim that it may be related to the Family Π Byzantine texts and I would like to know exactly how closely related it is. So far from what I've seen, it does share some characteristics with this family and is, I believe, a valuable witness to the bigger Byzantine family of texts.

It is available on the Download page for your edification.

I pray it blesses the reader and proves useful.

LXX and GNT app for Android

I've created a basic app for Android that includes Henry Barclay Swete's Septuagint as well as the unfinished Tregelles comparative GNT with the apparatus as it is presently.

It can be downloaded here

It's very basic and only uses the default app icons in the software I used to create it. It has the full text of both the LXX and GNT including OT apocrypha (e.g. such as additions to Daniel, 1-4 Maccabees, Enoch etc). It features a verse of the day (turned on in settings), highlighting, notes, and bookmarks. The books of the LXX are in the order laid out by Swete in his edition while Tregelles' are in the older order (Gospels, Acts, General Epistles, Pauline Epistles, Revelation) and the Text Critical Edition are in the traditional Western Protestant order.

Update (12 Jan 2024): I've reworked this app and made the following changes:

• Changed all book names to their Greek form (except for the Fathers)
  
• Separated the Tregelles GNT into its own group
  
• added the Text Critical GNT, a GNT based on the Robinson Pierpont text with critical notes
• Added the Apostolic Fathers in Greek.
• Reset the version number to 0.0.2
  

Scripture Journals

It's been a little while since I posted, work has been coming in and with the state of the economy I can't pass that up. The schedule has been a little up in the air, but it's finally settled into something I can work with from now on.

That has allowed me over the past few days to create some Scripture journals based on Tregelles' Greek New Testament and post them as individual files to the Downloads page. I hope over the next couple of weeks to make two different versions of a combination of all of the books of the New Testament. One will be in Tregelles' order (which is not what most are used to today) and one in the order they are presented on the Downloads page.

The reason for the second version is that I have been studying Greek for some time through the Biblical Mastery Academy. Once you finish the Beginning Greek course you move to Milestone courses and progress through books in this order learning vocabulary, grammar, and to read God's work in Greek. I'll also zip these up to provide an easy way to download them all at once as individual files as well as the full GNT versions. Having that will allow students, such as myself, to simply move on to the next book in the reading order without jumping backwards and forwards. The Tregelles order allows others to study from Matthew to Revelation.

The files have a generous spacing between lines (almost 3 times the text height or a leading of 32 points) and a wide right hand margin. They are intended for use on devices so they don't have different left/right pages. Though, they could still be printed and comb bound or put into a folder both of which would leave the blank left page as extra space for notes etc.

These are free (that is, I'm not charging for them) and I pray they serve to help those learning Greek and to bless them with God's word.

If you do wish to help out a little, please consider donating a dollar or two via my Ko-Fi link up in the right hand corner of the page.

However, this is not required to download anything on the Downloads page, they are and will remain free. When I have things to sell, I will link them separately.

I'll get back to working on the apparatus now as well.