Should the Next NA/UBS Editions Use Numbers for Majuscules?

 Florian Voss asks on Twitter. What say you?

What would you think if the new editions of the #nestlealand (NA29) and the #UBSGNT (UBS6) used numbers for all majuscules instead of letters, as it is now the case in individual cases (e.g., 01 instead of ℵ)?

— Florian Voss (@florianvoss2) February 10, 2022

I say yes despite the one drawback. And while we’re at it, let’s get rid of the Gothic letters too. 

On Using Majuscule Numbers instead of Letters

Along with my principled resistance to using Gothic letters in textual criticism, I have for a while also been personally opposed to using letters for the majuscules. Instead, I have tried to restrict myself to the Gregory-Aland numbers. The reason for this is that the numbers are never duplicated and so avoid the confusion my students regularly experience between D in the Gospels and D in Paul, for example. My preference is, no doubt, influenced by my frequent use of the ECM, which only uses the numerical designations in the text volumes. Once I got used to the numbers, the letter designations began to fade.

However, this week, I have realized one (and only one?) benefit of using letters. What’s lost in restricting myself to the numbers alone is the connection between the Greek and Latin diglots. D F G often agree and are thought to have a shared ancestor. But, if the apparatus only lists them as 06 010 012 then it’s easy to miss the evidence of their Latin counterparts designated as the lower case d f g.

The easiest solution is to use both the numerical and letter designations (e.g., D/06). But that still gets a bit cumbersome.

It’s Time to Stop Using Gothic Letters in Textual Criticism

A week or so ago my carrel-mate here at Tyndale was stumped for who knows how long by a Gothic letter “C” that looked a whole lot like Gothic letter “T” for “targum.”

What finally gave it away was the superscript “Sa” which I thought had to be for “Sahidic.” That meant, of course, that the “T” must actually be a “C.” Sure enough it was. But comparing this “C” in the Hermeneia volume on Ezekiel to BHS’s “T,” you can see the obvious problem. All of this would be avoided if simple Roman letters had been used.

The offending Gothic “C” (left) and “T” (right)

Now, look, I enjoy the wonderful Gothic “P” for papyri as much as anybody. It looks cool and it adds gravitas to what are often scrappy manuscripts. But I say it’s time to banish Gothic letters from our writing and apparatuses for good. They’re bad for electronic searches, they don’t exist in most fonts, and whatever value they once had is gone. They only create confusion. So let’s get rid of them. Who’s with me?

Show your support:

NT Textual Criticism Signs

The following list was first posted on the website Four Senses by Erwin Ochsenmeier in 2009. I repost it here, as the information is no longer available. Below you will find the various TC sigla with their Unicode hexadecimal numbers and explanations. Thanks to Erwin Ochsenmeier and Luc Herren for these lists. I recommend Gentium and Cardo for display of the Sigla. If you can not see the sigla in the left column below, then you need to download one of these fonts.

Sigla

Siglum	Code	Description
˸	02F8	Alternative punctuation (or : 003A)
[	005B	Authenticity questioned opening
]	005D	Authenticity questioned closing
*	002A	Original reading when correction has been made
|	007C	Instance of variation separation within a verse
¦	00A6	Alternative readings within an instance of variation
°	00B0	One-word omission
…	0085	Text of edition same as variant
†	2020	Mutilated codex Dagger
•	2022	Apparatus section
✝	271D	Change in NA from NA25 (Latin Cross)
⟦	27E6	Early addition authenticity denied opening
⟧	27E7	Early addition authenticity denied closing
⸀	2E00	Following word replaced
⸁	2E01	Following word replaced recurrence
⸂	2E02	Following words replaced opening
⸃	2E03	Following words replaced closing
⸄	2E04	Replacement recurrence opening
⸅	2E05	Replacement recurrence closing
⸆	2E06	One or more words inserted
⸇	2E07	Insertion recurrence
⸈	2E08	Transposition as indicated in apparatus
⸉	2E09	Transposition in quoted witnesses opening
⸊	2E0A	Transposition in quoted witnesses closing
⸋	2E0B	Words, clauses, sentences omitted opening
⸌	2E0C	Words, clauses, sentences omitted closing

Groups

Siglum	Code	Description
ƒ	0192	Family
ℌ	210C	Hebrew Bible
ℵ	2135	Codex Sinaiticus
ϛ	03DB	Stephanus in Eusebius’ letter to Carpian
𝔊	1D50A	Septuagint (PUA E316 In SBL BibLit)
𝑙	1D459	Lectionary
𝔐	1D510	Majority Text
𝔓	1D513	Papyrus

2135

2135 is the Unicode hexidecimal number for the Gregory-Aland Codex Sinaiticus siglum (ℵ). This siglum is distinct from the Hebrew character Aleph which means that when you include this character, the text direction does not change. Although many are not friendly to Microsoft Word, the various critical sigla from the Nestle-Aland editions all have unicode designations. For an overview, read this old blog entry at Four Senses. The Unicode Consortium has a PDF with most of the relevant encodings, here.