Nomina sacra
In a few early cases, an alternate practice is seen of abbreviation by suspension, meaning that the initial two letters (at least) of the word are used; e.g., the opening verses of Revelation in π18 write αΌΈΞ·ΟΞΏαΏ¦Ο Ξ§ΟΞΉΟΟΟΟ (Jesus Christ) as ΞΠΧΑ.It is evident that the use of nomina sacra was an act of reverence rather than a purely practical space-saving device,[4]:β100, 104-106β as they were employed even where well-established abbreviations of far more frequent words such as and were avoided,[4]:β101β and the nomen sacrum itself was written with generous spacing.Biblical scholar Larry Hurtado has suggested Greek numerals as the origin of the overline spanning the nomen sacrum, with ΞΞ, the ordinary way of writing "18", being taken as reminiscent of a suspended form of ΞΞΞ£ΞΞ₯Ξ£ (Jesus).[7] Linguist George Howard argues that ΞΊΟ (ΞΊΟΟΞΉΞΏΟ) and ΞΈΟ (ΞΈΞ΅ΟΟ) were the initial nomina sacra, created by non-Jewish Christian scribes who "found no traditional reasons to preserve the tetragrammaton" in copies of the Septuagint.Hurtado, following Colin Roberts, rejects that claim in favour of the theory that the first was ΞΉΞ· (αΌΈΞ·ΟΞΏαΏ¦Ο), as suggested in the Epistle of Barnabas, followed by the analogous ΟΟ (Ξ§ΟΞΉΟΟΟΟ), and later by ΞΊΟ and ΞΈΟ, at about the time when the contracted forms ΞΉΟ and ΟΟ were adopted for the first two.
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