I. GREEK MANUSCRIPTS

1. The celebrated Sinaitic MS (א) of the fourth century, where, after a gap caused by the loss of six leaves, the Shepherd follows the Epistle of Barnabas at the end of the volume. Unfortunately, however, only a fragment, roughly speaking the first quarter of the text, survives, the manuscript, after several lacunae, breaking off finally in the middle of Mand. iv. 3.

2. The Athos MS (A), written in a very small and cramped hand of the fourteenth century. This consists of three leaves now in the University Library at Leipsic, and six leaves still remaining in the Monastery of Gregory on Mount Athos. The portion of the manuscript now at Leipsic was in 1855 brought from Mount Athos by the famous forger Simonides, who sold it to the University there, as well as what purported to be a copy of six other leaves of the same document. This copy was subsequently edited by Anger. The existence, however, of the original manuscript was questioned until 1880, when Dr Lambros rediscovered it at Mount Athos. His collation of the readings of these six leaves was in 1888 published by J. A. Robinson (The Athos Codex of the Shepherd of Hermas). Like the Sinaitic, this manuscript is incomplete, having lost a leaf at the end; but from Mand. iv. 3 to Sim. ix. 30 (where it fails us), that is to say, for nearly three fourths of the whole work, it is our sole Greek authority for the text.

Besides Simonides’ apographon mentioned above, another copy was subsequently found among his papers after his arrest, and published by Tischendorf. The publication of Dr Lambros’ collation shows us that, whereas the apographon edited by Anger was a forgery, the second apographon was truly described as being a transcript of the Athos MS. In passages therefore where the Athos codex has become damaged and illegible between 1855 and 1880, this apographon (As) has a certain value.