Nomina Sacra

In an earlier post I spoke about a talk given at the University of North Texas by Fr. Justin of St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai. Given the number of non-Eastern Christians it was not surprising for someone to ask what the letters on the icons meant (see right). The question was then asked what was the significance of the shortened form and the use of the diacritical marks (i.e. wavy lines over the IC XC). Fr. Justin responded that there are 15 words considered sacred by the early Church that were shortened similarly. This exchange prompted me to read up on what those words are and the history of the nomina sacra.

From Nomina Sacra in P46 (the oldest surviving manuscript containing Paul's epistles):

Nomina sacra are special abbreviations which appear in New Testament texts. Unlike most abbreviations, which are meant to save time, nomina sacra are used to set certain, holy words apart from the rest of the text. This is clear from the fact that these words are abbreviated in their sacral usages but not in profane usages (e.g. ὑΐοϲ, 'son' is contracted to υϲ when it refers to Jesus, the Son of God, but the same word is not contracted in other usages).

The letters used in nomina sacra were not the first few letters of the word (as in other forms of abbreviation), but were usually the first and last letter (as in θϲ for θεόϲ, "god") or a selection of indicative letters (as in ϲτροϲ for ϲταυρόϲ, "cross"). Because the last letter or two is retained, the grammatical case of the word is clear (e.g. θϲ for θεόϲ, but θυ for θεοῦ, θω for θεῷ, and θν for θεόν).

I should also point out that this practice was not reserved for Greek. In fact, the use of nomina sacra existed in Latin, Coptic, Slavonic (look up "titlos" for more on this), and Armenian. There is some debate about whether this convention grew from. Was it the often mentioned Jewish tetragrammaton, Greek abbreviation, from elsewhere, is it unique to the early Christian writings, or even from the Apostles themselves? Scholarship I have read so far seems to believe it plausible that the practice originated from Jewish roots and was "canonized" by the scribes of Paul in the first century. This would explain the early adoption and the almost universal use of the nomina sacra in distanct church communities. For more on the topic I suggest the very well written and concise Nomina Sacra: Scribal Practice and Piety in Early Christianity (PDF) by Kenneth R. Solomon.

"Yes, yes," I hear you saying, "but which words are they?!" Some of them may surprise you.