The Biblical Manuscripts in the Freer Collection, a collection of six biblical manuscripts, date from the 3rd to 6th centuries. Most of the manuscripts are written in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, one in Coptic. They are important witnesses of the history of the text of

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

and

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

. The collection was established by Charles Freer (1854–1919), an industrialist from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and is held at the Freer Gallery of Art in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

All these manuscripts were purchased at the beginning of the 20th century in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

by Charles Freer. Four manuscripts were bought on 19 December 1906 from an Arab dealer named Ali in Giza, not far from

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. Freer paid £1,600. Upon the next expedition to Egypt, Freer met with Ali and acquired a Coptic codex of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

and the earliest papyrus codex of the

Minor Prophets The Minor Prophets or Twelve Prophets ( he, שנים עשר, ''Shneim Asar''; arc, תרי עשר, ''Trei Asar'', "Twelve") ( grc, δωδεκαπρόφητον, "the Twelve Prophets"), occasionally Book of the Twelve, is a collection of propheti ...

. Formerly these manuscripts were held in

, in Freer's private collection. He gave his art collections to the United States together with funds for a building to house them. The building cost $1,000,000, all of which was paid by Freer. The Freer Gallery of Art was opened in 1923.

Manuscripts

* W^I: Greek parchment codex, containing Deuteronomy and Joshua, from the early 5th century (designated as Washington Manuscript I by the Freer/Slacker Gallery). * Rahlfs 1219: Incomplete Greek parchment codex of the

from 5th century (designated as Washington Manuscript II by the Freer/Slacker Gallery). * W (Codex Washingtonianus): Contains the four

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

s from the 5th century, with some material from 6th century (designated as Washington Manuscript III by the Freer/Slacker Gallery). * Fragmentary

Codex Freerianus Codex Freerianus, designated by I or 016 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α 1041 ( von Soden), also called the ''Washington Manuscript of the Pauline Epistles'', is a 5th-century manuscript in an uncial hand on vellum in Greek. It is named afte ...

, contains Pauline epistles from the 5th century (designated as Washington Manuscript IV by the Freer/Slacker Gallery). * W: Twelve Prophets on papyri - before the discovery of the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

, this was the oldest Greek manuscript of Twelve Prophets, of the 3rd century A.D. (designated as Washington Manuscript V by the Freer/Slacker Gallery). * Coptic manuscript of

from the 5th century.

Gallery of Biblical Manuscripts

File:Canon Table from a Gospel manuscript.jpg File:Washington Manuscript IV - The Epistles of Paul (Codex Washingtonensis).jpg File:Washington Manuscript V - The Minor Prophets (Codex Washingtonensis).jpg File:Washington Manuscript III - The Four Gospels (Codex Washingtonensis).jpg File:Washington Manuscript II - The Psalms (Codex Washingtonensis).jpg File:Descent into Hell and the Ascension from a Gospel according to Four Evangelists.jpg File:Copy of The Gospel according to the four Evangelists.jpg File:The Orthodox Hymnal (Sharaknotz).jpg File:Folio from an Armenian Manuscript- The Annunciation.jpg File:Washington Manuscript I - Deuteronomy and Joshua (Codex Washingtonensis).jpg File:Partial Psalter, 126 fragmentary leavesjpg.jpg File:Portrait of Mark in a Gospel According to the Four Evangelists.jpg File:St. John of the Ladder (Climacus)- illustration from a Klimax manuscript.jpg File:The Gospel according to the Four Evangelists.jpg File:Fragment of two conjugate leaves from a Service-book.jpg File:Adoration of the Magi in a Gospel according to the four Evangelists.jpg

References

External links

The finding aid for this collection from The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
Includes biographical information, relevant name and subject terms, and descriptions of the series.

Manuscripts

Gallery of Biblical Manuscripts

References

External links

Further reading