Altogether there are well over 4500 Greek manuscripts and lectionaries (selected scriptures read in services) whole or in part; and all with more or less variations and faults; but of those faults which are substantial it has been calculated by Westcott and Hort, that they amount to but “about one word in a thousand.” Thus in the aggregate they do not affect fundamental doctrine, but in general testify amply to the certainty of the Greek text.
Greek Uncials (meaning inch) are unspaced capital letters, copied from the fourth to the tenth century, and number about 700.
4th Century Codex (a manuscript in book form) Sinaiticus, “S.” Forty-three sheets of it were discovered in 1844 by Constantine Tischendorf in the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai when monks were preparing to light the fire with those old manuscripts, which were “Greek to them.” Fifteen years later he recovered 199 more sheets. It has been said that they were written on the skins of 100 antelopes, and purchased from Russia by the British Museum for over half a million dollars. Although the oldest uncial, like others it has been corrupted by ecclesiastical hands, but these alterations are easily detected.
4th Century Codex Vaticanus, “B.” It is far superior to the Sinaiticus, yet lacks the latter part of Hebrews on.
5th Century Codex Alexandrinus, “A.” It much agrees with the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus in the epistles, but is Constantinopolitan in the gospels, agreeing with the mass of Greek cursives and the Peshito Syriac.
Greek Cursives (written in a more running style) number over 2500, and date from the ninth to the fifteenth century. Each is known by its number. Some of these are of special value.