A Fragmented Revelation: Paragraph Delimitation of John’s Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus

Scholars possess considerable knowledge of segmentation practices and technologies before the adoption of dominant chapter systems for the different New Testament sub-corpora. One exception is the book of Revelation, whose segmentation before Andrew of Caesarea’s chapter system has largely been overlooked. To address this lacuna, I explore the paragraph delimitation of Revelation in Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus. I show that the scribe(s) of both codices employed blank space, line breaks, line ends, ekthesis , and various sigla to delimit paragraphs. Sinaiticus has 33 paragraphs and Alexandrinus 144, highlighting the lack of uniformity in Revelation’s segmenting during this period. It will be shown that the scribe(s) of both codices segmented Revelation whenever a change of topic occurred. It will be suggested that the study of paragraph delimitation offers a fruitful avenue for exploring the multifaceted life of texts in early Christianity, offering a glimpse into the editorial decisions that shaped their transmission and interpretation.