BOOKS conciliar and liturgical practices
Council at Chalcedon (451) was conducted with a copy of the GOSPELS at the assembly’s center, as Nicea (325)
When the “…GOSPELS are present, so too is the Lord” (as taken from liturgy of Divine Service):
Upon reading of GOSPEL, “…presiding bishop rises up and lays aside his stole (omophorion), thus signifying that Lord Himself – author of pastoral function – his God and Master,” is present
Codices of “four-in-one” GOSPELS (Gospel “Harmonies”, e.g., Diatesseron) had already acquired “symbolic status” in relations between the Church and Empire during reign of Constantine
C/H maintains that Constantine asked Eusebius of Caesarea to furnish him with 50 copies of GOSPELS (not the Bible) in Greek for use in the new city of Constantinople (NEEDS CONFIRMATION)
Within broader issue of surviving MSS, C/H refers to relatively higher survival rate of GOSPEL books in relation to other ‘scriptural’ books from Late Antiquity
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