Codex Climaci rescriptus is a collective

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

consisting of several individual manuscripts (eleven) underneath with

Christian Palestinian Aramaic Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) was a Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkite Christian community in Palestine and Transjordan between the fifth and thirteenth centuries. It is preserved in inscriptions, manuscripts (mostly palimpsests ...

texts of the

Old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

and

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 Christ ...

as well as two apocryphal texts, including the

Dormition of the Mother of God The Dormition of the Mother of God is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches (except the East Syriac churches). It celebrates the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary the ''Theotokos'' ("Mother of ...

, and is known as Uncial 0250 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering) with a

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 ...

uncial Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...

text of the

and overwritten by

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

treatises of

Johannes Climacus John Climacus ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης τῆς Κλίμακος; la, Ioannes Climacus), also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th–7th-century Christian monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He is reve ...

(hence name of the codex): the ''scala paradisi'' and the ''liber ad pastorem''. Paleographically the Greek text has been assigned to the 7th or 8th century, and the Aramaic text to the 6th century. It originates from

Saint Catherine's Monastery Saint Catherine's Monastery ( ar, دير القدّيسة كاترين; grc-gre, Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Katherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, ...

going by the News Finds of 1975.Sinai Palimpsest Project
/ref> Formerly it was classified for CCR 5 and CCR 6 as lectionary manuscript, with Gregory giving the number ℓ 1561 to it.K. Aland, M. Welte, B. Köster, K. Junack, "Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments" (Berlin, New York 1994), p. 40.

Description

The codex is a 146 folio remnant of ten separate manuscripts, eight of which are in

, which have been dated to the 5th or 6th century CE; and two of which are in Greek, which have been dated to the 7th or 8th century CE. The

sections contain

lectionary A lectionary ( la, lectionarium) is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christianity, Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evang ...

pericopes of the four Gospels and Epistles, as well as biblical manuscripts of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, remnant parts of the Jerusalem

(CCR 3) with Old and New Testament pericopes, and sections of the early Christian apocryphal

(

Transitus Mariae The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

) as well as one or two unknown homilies on 112 folios (23 by 18.5 cm), written in two columns per page, 18 to 23 lines per page in an adapted Syriac

Estrangela The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with ...

square script. This manuscript is the second largest early corpus of

after Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus from

, Sinai. The Greek section contains the text of 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 an ...

s, with numerous lacunae, on 34 parchment folios (23 by 15.5 cm). Written in two columns per page, 31 lines per page, in uncial letters. According to Ian A. Moir this manuscript contains a substantial record of an early Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels once at Caesarea, which would have been the sister of

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts) ...

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

and

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

, but is now lost. The Christian Palestinian Aramaic texts were read and edited by

Agnes Smith Lewis Agnes Smith Lewis (1843–1926)Christa Müller-KesslerLewis, Agnes Smith (1843–1926) in ''Oxford Dictionary of the National Biography'', vol. 33 (Oxford, 2004), pp. 579–580. and Margaret Dunlop Gibson (1843–1920),Christa Müller-KesslerD ...

and the Greek text by Ian A. Moir,

, ''Codex Climaci rescriptus'', Horae Semiticae, VIII (Cambridge, 1909).Ian A. Moir, ''Codex Climaci rescriptus graecus (Ms. Gregory 1561, L)'', Texts and Studies NS, 2 (Cambridge, 1956). and many of the readings for the

part could be improved for the reeditions by Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff. Two folios are attributed to the

and were reedited.Christa Müller-Kessler, An Overlooked Christian Palestinian Aramaic Witness of the Dormition of Mary in ''Codex Climaci Rescriptus'' (''CCR'' IV), ''Collectanea Christiana Orientalia'' 16, 2019, pp. 81–98. The missing eighteenth quire can be added from the New Finds (1975) in

.Sebastian P. Brock, The Syriac New Finds at St. Catherines's Monastery, Sinai, and Their Significance, ''The Harp'' 27, 2011, pp. 48–49.

In Christian Palestinian Aramaic: ; CCR 1: a Gospel manuscript including texts of Matthew and Mark Matt. 21:23-41; 27-31; 22:40-23:1; 23:1-25; 24:42-46; 24: 25:14; 26:24-32; 26:40-49; 27:9-19; 27:39-48; 27:64-28:3; 28:4-10 Mark 1:1-10; 1:20-30; 2:2-11; 17-24 ; CCR 2A: a Gospel of John in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, plus the Acts and Epistles Acts 19:31-36; 20:1; 20:2-7; 20:8-14; 21:3-8; 21:9-14; 24:25-25:1; 25:3-26; 26:23-29; 27:1-13; 27:14-27 ; CCR 2B Romans 4:17-22; 5:4-15; 6:14-19; 7:2-11; 8: 9-21; 9:30;10:3-9; 15:11-21 I Corin. 1:6-23; 2:10-3:5; 4:1-15; 5:7-6:5; 10:18-31; 12:12-24; 13:4-11; 14:4-7; 14:8-14; 14:14-24; 14:24-37; 15:3-10; 15:10-24; 15:24-49; 16:3-16; 16:16-24 II Corin. 1:1-3; 1:23-2:11; 2:11-3:5; 4:18-5:6; 5:6-12; 6:3-16; 7:3-8 Galat. 1:1-23; 3:20-24; 4:2; 4:4-29; 5:1; 5:24; 6:4-12; 6: 4 Eph. 1:18-2:8; 4:14-27; 5:8-16; 5:17-24 Phil. 2:12-26 Coloss. 4: 6-17 I Thess.1:3-9; 5:15-26 II Thess. 1:3-2:2 II Timothy 3:2-14 Titus 2:7-3:3 Philemon 11-25 1 John 1:1-9 II Peter 1:1-12; 3:16-18 ; CCR 3: Old Jerusalem lectionary Exodus 4:14-18 Deut. 6: 4-21; 7:1-26 I Sam. 1:1; 2:19-29; 4:1-6; 6:5-18 Job 6:1-26; 7: 4-21 Psalms 2:7; 40(41):1; 50(51):1; 56(57):1; 109(110):1; 131(132):1 Proverbs 1:20-22 Isaiah 40:1-8 Jerem. 11:22-12: 4-8 Joel 2:12-14; 2:20 Micah 4:1-3; 4:3-5 Matt. 1:18-25; 2:1-2; 2:2-8; 2:18-23 Luke 1: 26-38 Galatians 4:1-7 Titus 2:11–15 ; CCR 7: a biblical manuscript: Leviticus 8:18-30; 11:42-12:2-8 ; CCR 8: Old Jerusalem lectionary: Isaiah 63:9b-11a Matt. 27:27-41 Mark 15:16-19 John 13:15-29 John 15:19-26; 16:9 Hebrews 3:6; 9:11-28; 10:19-20 ; CCR 4: Fragment of an unknown apocryphal

homily A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ex ...

about the life of Jesus;

(

) with chapters 121-122; 125–126 according to the Ethiopic transmission. ; In Greek (CCR 5 & 6): Matt. 2:12-23; 3:13-15; 5:1-2.4.30-37; 6:1-4.16-18; 7:12.15-20; 8:7.10-13.16-17.20-21; 9:27-31.36; 10:5; 12:36-38.43-45; 13:36-46; 26:75-27:2.11.13-16.18.20.22-23.26-40;

Mark Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fi ...

14:72-15:2.4-7.10-24.26-28;

Luke People *Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...

22:60-62.66-67; 23:3-4.20-26.32-34.38;

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

6:53-7:25.45.48-51; 8:12-44; 9:12-10:15; 10:41-12:3.6.9.14-24.26-35.44-49; 14:22-15:15; 16:13-18; 16:29-17:5; 18:1-9.11-13.18-24.28-29.31; 18:36-19:1.4.6.9.16.18.23-24.31-34; 20:1-2.13-16.18-20.25; 20:28-21:1.

Text

The Greek text of the

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

0250 is mixed with a predominant element of the

Byzantine text-type In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form fou ...

. Aland placed it in Category III. Gregory classified it as lectionary (ℓ ''1561'').

C. R. Gregory C. or c. may refer to: * Century, sometimes abbreviated as ''c.'' or ''C.'', a period of 100 years * Cent (currency), abbreviated ''c.'' or ''¢'', a monetary unit that equals of the basic unit of many currencies * Caius or Gaius, abbreviated as ...

, ''Textkritik des Neuen Testaments'', Leipzig 1909, vol. 3, p. 1374-1375. Matthew 8:12 : it has ἐξελεύσονται (''will go out'') instead of ἐκβληθήσονται (''will be thrown''). This variant is supported only by one Greek manuscript

, by Latin

Codex Bobiensis Codex Bobiensis or Bobbiensis (Siglum ''k'', Nr. 1 by Beuron) is one of the oldest Old Latin manuscripts of the New Testament. The fragmentary text contains parts of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 8:8-16:8) and Gospel of Matthew ( Matthew 1:1-15:36). ...

, syr^{c, s, p, pal}, arm, and

Diatessaron The ''Diatessaron'' ( syr, ܐܘܢܓܠܝܘܢ ܕܡܚܠܛܐ, Ewangeliyôn Damhalltê; c. 160–175 AD) is the most prominent early gospel harmony, and was created by Tatian, an Assyrian early Christian apologist and ascetic. Tatian sought to comb ...

. Matthew 8:13 : It has additional text (see Luke 7:10): και υποστρεψας ο εκατονταρχος εις τον οικον αυτου εν αυτη τη ωρα ευρεν τον παιδα υγιαινοντα (''and when the centurion returned to the house in that hour, he found the slave well'') along with א, C, ( N), Θ, ''f''¹, ( 33, 1241), g¹, syr^h. Matthew 27:35 : It has additional text (see John 19:24): Διεμερίσαντο τα ιματια μου εαυτοις, και επι τον ιματισμον μου εβαλον κληρον (''they divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots'') along with Δ, Θ, ''f''¹, ''f''¹³,

537 __NOTOC__ Year 537 ( DXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Second year after the Consulship of Belisarius (or, less frequently, year 1290 ...

, 1424.

Discovery and present location

One folio of the codex was purchased by

in Cairo in 1895, 89 folios were received from an undisclosed Berlin scholar in 1905, and 48 further ones were acquired in

Port Tewfik The Suez Port is an Egyptian port located at the southern boundary of the Suez Canal. It is bordered by the imaginary line extending from Ras-El-Adabieh to Moussa sources including the North Coast until the entrance of Suez Canal. Originally ''Port ...

in 1906. One folio was bought by

Alphonse Mingana Alphonse Mingana (born as Hurmiz Mingana; syr, ܗܪܡܙ ܡܢܓܢܐ, in 1878 at Sharanesh, a village near Zakho (present day Iraq) - died 5 December 1937 Birmingham, England) was an Assyrian theologian, historian, Syriacist, orientalist and a ...

. This folio had been already in the hand of

in 1895. Eight leaves (Sinai, Syriac NF 38) surfaced among the New Finds in

from 1975. Until 2010, the codex was housed at the Westminster College in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, formerly donated by Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson to this College. It was listed for sale at a

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

auction, where it failed to sell on July 7, 2009. In 2010, Steve Green, president of

Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail company. It owns a chain of arts and crafts stores with a volume of over $5 billion in 2018. The chain has 969 stores in 47 US states. Hobby Lobby is owned by ...

, bought the codex directly from Sotheby's after their auction ended unsuccessfully. The codex now resides in the

Green Collection The Green Collection, later known as the Museum Collection, is the one of the world's largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts, made up of more than 40,000 biblical antiquities assembled by the Green family, founders of th ...

. but one folio is still kept in the

Mingana Collection The Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts, comprising over 3,000 documents, is held by the University of Birmingham's Cadbury Research Library. History In 1924 Alphonse Mingana, an ethnic Assyrian, made the first of three trips to th ...

, Birmingham, and eight more folios are stored from the New Finds (1975) in

, Sinai. In 2021 parts of the previously lost star catalogue of

Hipparchus of Nicaea Hipparchus (; el, Ἵππαρχος, ''Hipparkhos''; BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equi ...

were discovered in the manuscript.

References

Text editions

, ''Codex Climaci rescriptus'', Horae Semiticae, VIII (Cambridge, 1909). * Hugo Duensing, Zwei christlich-palästinisch-aramäische Fragmente aus der Apostelgeschichte, ''Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft'' 37, 1938, pp. 42–46. *

Matthew Black Rev Matthew Black (3 September 1908, Kilmarnock – 2 October 1994, St Andrews) was a Scottish minister and biblical scholar. He was the first editor of the journal, ''New Testament Studies''. Life He was born in Kilmarnock the son of James Blac ...

, A Palestinian Syriac Leaf of Acts XXI, ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library'' 23, 1939, pp. 201–214. * Ian A. Moir, ''Codex Climaci rescriptus grecus (Ms. Gregory 1561, L)'', Texts and Studies NS, 2 (Cambridge, 1956). * Christa Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, ''The Christian Palestinian Aramaic Old Testament and Apocrypha'', A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, I (Groningen, 1997). * Christa Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, ''The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Gospels'', A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, IIA (Groningen, 1998). * Christa Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, ''The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Acts of the Apostles and Epistles'', A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic. IIB (Groningen, 1998). * Christa Müller-Kessler, An Overlooked Christian Palestinian Aramaic Witness of the Dormition of Mary in ''Codex Climaci Rescriptus'' (''CCR'' IV), ''Collectanea Christiana Orientalia'' 16, 2019, pp. 81–98.

External links

Uncial 0250
at the Wieland Willker, "Textual Commentary"
Sinai Palimpsest Project
at the Monastery of Saint Catherine {{DEFAULTSORT:Uncial 0250 Aramaic texts Greek language Palimpsests Greek New Testament uncials 8th-century biblical manuscripts Christian hagiography 5th-century literature

Description

Contents

Text

Discovery and present location

See also

References

Text editions

Further reading

External links