Pars secunda:
Ever careful for the welfare of the churches of God, the emperor addressed me personally in a letter on the means of providing copies of the inspired oracles....
“Victor Constantinus, Maximus Augustus, to Eusebius.
“It happens, through the favoring providence of God our Saviour, that great numbers have united themselves to the most holy church in the city which is called by my name [Constantinople]. It seems, therefore, highly requisite, since that city is rapidly advancing in prosperity in all other respects, that the number of churches should also be increased. Do you, therefore, receive with all readiness my determination on this behalf. I have thought it expedient to instruct your Prudence to order fifty copies of the sacred Scriptures, the provision and use of which you know to be most needful for the instruction of the Church, to be written on prepared parchment in a legible manner, and in a convenient, portable form, by professional transcribers thoroughly practiced in their art. The catholicus of the diocese has also received instructions by letter from our Clemency to be careful to furnish all things necessary for the preparation of such copies; and it will be for you to take special care that they be completed with as little delay as possible. You have authority also, in virtue of this letter, to use two of the public carriages for their conveyance, by which arrangement the copies when fairly written will most easily be forwarded for my personal inspection; and one of the deacons of your church may be intrusted with this service, who, on his arrival here, shall experience my liberality. God preserve you, beloved brother!”
Such were the emperor’s commands, which were followed by the immediate execution of the work itself, which we sent him in magnificent and elaborately bound volumes of a threefold and fourfold form (trissa kai tetrassa).[61] This fact is attested by another letter, which the emperor wrote in acknowledgment, in which, having heard that the city Constantia in our country, the inhabitants of which had been more than commonly devoted to superstition, had been impelled by a sense of religion to abandon their past idolatry, he testified his joy, and approval of their conduct. (Life of Constantine 4.34, 36–37, NPNF)
By the time of Constantine’s request of Eusebius (perhaps ca. 334–336), one can presume that there was a fairly well-defined collection of both OT and NT Scriptures, even though several books of the NT, as well as some books that did not eventually make it into the NT canon, continued to be debated in later councils of the church. Eusebius’s copies of the church’s Scriptures may well have become the standard for the expertly copied codices of the fourth and fifth centuries. In fact, some scholars suggest that either Codex Vaticanus, or Codex Sinaiticus, or Codex Washingtonianus may be among the fifty copies produced by Eusebius. Codex Vaticanus (B) may be a defective copy rejected by Eusebius, or a descendent of one of the fifty copies.[62] More likely, the kind of text employed in the fifty copies is a forerunner of the Byzantine (majority) text.[63] If Constantine’s fifty copies included the current twenty-seven books of the NT,[64] this in itself would have had a powerful impact on the eventual acceptance of a twenty-seven book NT canon.[65] Whatever the case, Eusebius’s account is pivotal in the history of the formation of the Christian biblical canon, and Constantine himself most likely influenced the current form of our NT canon.[66]. (s. 362-364)
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Det handler altså ikke om at Kirken lager én utgave av Bibelen som publiseres i et opplegg på 50 bøker, men at Konstantin I ba biskop Eusebius om å produsere 50 bibler.