The three main Mss. fall into two families: V and the others. V has 10 books; S and L have 12. In V the paragraphs on the major and minor prophets are in Septuagint order, as aso in the parallel passage in the Chronicon Paschale ; in S and L, they are disarranged into the order of Theodore of Mopsuestia, as in McCrindle's translation. Winstedt suggests this shows that Cosmas' literary executor added two books from his papers, and 'corrected' the order into that favoured among Nestorians, and perhaps added other notes at various points, found only in L and S. Cosmas wrote his own notes, so supplementary paragraphs cannot be distinguished from the original with ease. S cannot be a copy of L, and is more reliable as L has been corrected by an educated man who corrected Cosmas' bad Greek at various points. V is undoubtedly the best manuscript.
Roger P EARSE
5th July 2003
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2003. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
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