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series of sections numbered consecutively. In this collection the Epistle to the Hebrews came between the Epistles to the Galatians and to the Ephesians.

The paragraphs in B, so far as they come under consideration here, begin:

NH j Gal. 5:16.

NQ j Heb. 1:1. X Heb. 3:1. XA j Heb. 4:14. XB j Heb. 6:9. XG j Heb. 7:19.

XD j Heb. 9:11.

The remainder of the Epistle accounts for sections XE j XQ j . Then follows

O Eph. 1:1.

This arrangement preserved by B approximates to that of the Thebaic and Bashmuric versions, in which the Epistle comes between 2 Corinthians and Galatians (Zoega, Cat. Codd. in Mus. Borg. pp. 186, 140; comp. Lightfoot ap. Scrivener l.c. pp. 339, 404). Cassiodorus ( Instit. 14) gives another arrangement of the same type, placing the epistle between Colossians and 1 Thessalonians.


The order of the Books in a Latin MS. of St Paul's Epistles (glossed) in the Chapter Library at Westminster is worth quoting: Romans; 1, 2 Corinth.; 1, 2 Thess.; 1, 2 Tim.; Gal., Eph., Col., Phil., Heb., Philm., Titus. The order is marked in the colophons, e.g., Explicit epistola ad Philippenses. Praefatio epistolae ad Hebraeos; Explicit epistola ad Hebraeos. Incipit epistola ad Philemonem.

In the Syriac versions the Epistle comes after the Pastoral Epistles and Philemon; and this order, which was followed in the mass of later Greek MSS. (K 2 L 2 & c.), probably under Syrian influence, has passed into the ‘Received text.’ Compare Epiph. Haer. xlii. p. 373.

The same order is found in Latin MSS. For in the West the Epistle did not originally form part of the collection of the writings of St Paul; and other clear traces remain of the absence of the book from the Apostolic collection. Thus in Cod. Clarom. D 2 the Epistle, as has been seen, appears as an appendix to the Pauline Epistles, being separated from the Epistle to Philemon by the Stichometry. The archetype of this MS. and the original text from which the Gothic version was made, evidently contained only thirteen Epistles of St Paul.

Another testimony to the collection of thirteen Epistles of St Paul is given by the remarkable Stichometry printed by Mommsen from a MS. belonging to the Library of Sir T. Phillipps ( Hermes , 1886, p. 146).


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