Codex Zacynthius (designated by
siglum Ξ or 040 in the
Gregory-Aland numbering; A
1 in
von Soden) is 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 ...
New Testament
codex, dated
paleographically to the 6th century.
First thought to have been written in the 8th century, it is a
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 ...
—the original (lower) text was washed off its
vellum pages and overwritten in the 12th or 13th century. The upper text of the palimpsest contains weekday Gospel lessons (''ℓ''299); the lower text contains portions of the
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...
, deciphered by biblical scholar and palaeographer
Tregelles in 1861. The lower text is of most interest to scholars.
The manuscript came from
Zakynthos
Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; el, Ζάκυνθος, Zákynthos ; it, Zacinto ) or Zante (, , ; el, Τζάντε, Tzánte ; from the Venetian form) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands. Z ...
, a Greek island, and has survived in a fragmentary condition. It was brought to England in 1821 and transferred to
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
in 1985 which later purchased it after an appeal in 2014. It is often cited in critical editions of the Greek New Testament.
Description
The lower text of the manuscript contains fragments of the chapters 1:1-11:33 of the
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...
. The codex consists of 86 thick, coarse parchment leaves and three partial leaves; (36 x 29 cm). The text was written in a single column with well-formed
uncial script. The letters are large, round and narrow, without
spiritus asper
In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( grc, δασὺ πνεῦμα, dasỳ pneûma or ''daseîa''; la, spīritus asper) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, d ...
,
spiritus lenis, or accents.
The manuscript was written by two scribes.
Abbreviations are rarely used in the codex. The handwriting is very close to that of the
Rossano Gospels.
Some
itacism
Iotacism ( el, ιωτακισμός, ''iotakismos'') or itacism is the process of vowel shift by which a number of vowels and diphthongs converged towards the pronunciation in post-classical Greek and Modern Greek. The term "iotacism" refers to ...
errors occur. It uses grammatical forms typical of the ancient manuscripts (e.g. ειπαν, ηλθαν, ευραν), which are not used in later medieval manuscripts.
The codex uses a peculiar system of chapter divisions, which it shares with
Codex Vaticanus (B) and
Minuscule 579
Minuscule 579 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), ε 376 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament Gospels, written on parchment. Using the study o ...
. A more common system divides the chapters according to their titles. The capital letters at the section beginnings stand out in the margin as in the Codices
Alexandrinus and
Ephraemi.
The text is surrounded by a marginal commentary; it is the only codex that has both text and commentary in uncial script. The commentary is a
catena of quotations of nine church fathers:
Origen
Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theo ...
,
Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...
,
Titus of Bostra, Basil,
Isidore of Pelusium
Isidore of Pelusium ( grc-gre, Ἰσίδωρος ὁ Πηλουσιώτης, d. c.450) was born in Egypt to a prominent Alexandrian family. He became an ascetic, and moved to a mountain near the city of Pelusium, in the tradition of the Desert Fa ...
,
Cyril of Alexandria, Sever from Antioch, Victor from Antioch, and
Chrysostom.
The commentary surrounds the single-column text of Luke on three sides.
Patristic text is written in small uncial letters. Most of the quotations are those of Ciril of Alexandria (93 ''scholia''); next comes Titus of Bostra (45 ''scholia''). The commentary was written in a different kind of uncial script than the biblical text.
Contents
The book contains the following chapters and verses of the Gospel of Luke: 1:1-9,19-23,27-28,30-32,36-60,77; 2:19,21-22,33-3; 3:5-8,11-20; 4:1-2,6-20,32-43; 5:17-36; 6:21; 7:6,11-37,39-47; 8:4-21,25-35,43-50; 9:1-28,32-33,35; 9:41; 10:18,21-40; 11:1-4,24-33.
Notable Readings
: (''and He said: "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of; for the Son of man came not to destroy men's lives but to save them'')
::omit - Ξ
B C L Θ 33 700
The denomination 700 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* Avar and Slavic tribes conq ...
892 1241 sy
bo
::incl. - Majority of manuscripts
: (''and opened the book'') - Ξ
A B L W 33 892 1195 1241 ℓ ''547'' sy
s, h, pal sa bo
: (''and unrolled the book'') -
Dc K Δ Θ Π Ψ ƒ1 ƒ13 28 565
__NOTOC__
Year 565 (Roman numerals, DLXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 565 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domin ...
700
The denomination 700 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* Avar and Slavic tribes conq ...
1009 1010
: (''to a city called Bethsaida'') - Ξ
B L 33 2542
sa bo
: (''into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida'') - Ξ
mg Majority of manuscripts
Text-type
The textual character of the codex is representative of the late
Alexandrian text-type, and is similar to the
Codex Regius
Codex Regius ( la, Cōdex Rēgius, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; is, Konungsbók) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it ...
.
[R. Waltz]
Codex Zacynthius Ξ (040)
at the ''Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism'' Kurt and
Barbara Aland gave the following textual profile of it: 2
1, 8
2, 2
1/2, 3
s. This means the text of the codex agrees with the Byzantine standard text 2 times, 8 times with the original text against the Byzantine, and with both the Byzantine and original text 2 times. There are 3 independent or distinctive readings. On the basis of this profile the Alands considered the quality of the text to suit his
Category III. According to the
Claremont Profile Method
The Claremont Profile Method is a method for classifying ancient manuscripts of the Bible. It was elaborated by Ernest Cadman Colwell and his students. Professor Frederik Wisse attempted to establish an accurate and rapid procedure for the classi ...
, it represents the Alexandrian text in Luke 10 and mixed
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 fo ...
in Luke 1, which probably indicates sporadic Byzantine corrections.
Palimpsest
The codex is a
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 ...
, meaning that the original text was scraped off and overwritten and the parchment leaves folded in half. The upper text was written by a minuscule hand and contains
lectionary 299 (ℓ ''299'') from the 12th or 13th century,
though the lectionary text is not complete; it is written on 176 leaves (), in one column per page, 33-36 lines per page. Three folios are only the lower halves of leaves, one folio was supplied with paper (folio LXVIII).
The manuscript contains weekday Gospel lessons (''Evangelistarium''), but is
lacunose. Tregelles did not collate its text because of its secondary value.Scrivener designated it by siglum 200,
Gregory by 299.
The text of the lectionary is cited in some critical editions of the Greek New Testament (UBS3)
[ (UBS3)] in the following places: Matthew 10:4; 11:17; 12:47; 13:13; 14:22; 18:10; 22:30; 26:27; 28:9; Mark 1:27; 2:10.26; 4:16.20; 6:2.2.3.33. It is not cited in UBS4.
History
Dating
Tregelles dated the manuscript to the 8th century. Tregelles was aware that the handwriting is typical for the 6th century, but the handwriting of the commentary is much older. The letters Ε Θ Ο Σ are round, high, and narrow, and could not have been written before the 8th century.
C. R. Gregory supported Tregelles's point of view. According to
Nicholas Pocock
Nicholas Pocock (2 March 1740 – 9 March 1821) was an English artist known for his many detailed paintings of naval battles during the age of sail.
Birth and early career at sea
Pocock was born in Bristol in 1740, the son of a seaman.Chatte ...
, the manuscript could not have been written before the 6th century nor after the 8th century.
William Hatch in 1937, on the basis of palaeographical data, suggested that the codex should be dated to the 6th century. It does not use breathings and accents and the text of the commentary is written in uncial script.
Aland supported Hatch's point of view.
[UBS3 from 1983 dated the manuscript to the 8th century (UBS3, p. XVI.), but in the second edition of ''Der Text des Neues Testaments'' (1989) Aland dated it to the 6th century. NA26 from 1991 dated it to the 6th century (NA26, p. 693.).] This date is accepted by the majority of scholars.
David C. Parker in 2004 argued that manuscript was written later than the 6th century, because it has a small number of square letters, and the handwriting is not typical for the 6th century. Some letters were compressed (Μ, Δ, Ε), the bar over the letter Τ is short and the letter Υ is written in several ways. According to Parker the manuscript should be dated to the 7th century.
It is currently dated by the
INTF to the 6th century.
Discovery and further research
The early history of the manuscript is unknown. In 1821 it was brought by General
Colin Macaulay
Colin Macaulay (13 April 1760 – 20 February 1836), was a Scottish general, biblical scholar and key activist in the campaign to abolish slavery.
Early life
Macaulay was a son of the Rev. John Macaulay (1720–1789), minister in the Church of ...
to England from the Greek island
Zakynthos
Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; el, Ζάκυνθος, Zákynthos ; it, Zacinto ) or Zante (, , ; el, Τζάντε, Tzánte ; from the Venetian form) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands. Z ...
in the
Ionian Sea, after being presented to him by Prince Comuto (Antonios Dimitriou Komoutos, 1748-1833) a former President of the
Septinsular Republic
The Septinsular Republic ( el, Ἑπτάνησος Πολιτεία, Heptanēsos Politeia; it, Repubblica Settinsulare) was an oligarchic republic that existed from 1800 to 1807 under nominal Russian and Ottoman sovereignty in the Ionian Islan ...
. Comuto inscribed the Codex to Macaulay as a token of his esteem. On his return to England Macaulay presented the Codex to
British and Foreign Bible Society which then placed it in its library (Mss 24) in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Scholz saw the manuscript in 1845, and
Paul de Lagarde
Paul Anton de Lagarde (2 November 1827 – 22 December 1891) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, sometimes regarded as one of the greatest orientalists of the 19th century. Lagarde's strong support of anti-Semitism, vocal opposition ...
in 1853, but they did not decipher it. The subtext of the Palimpest was partly deciphered, transcribed, and edited by the Rev.
Tregelles in 1861. Tregelles used
types
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type
In computer science and computer programming, a data type (or simply type) is a set of possible values and a set of allo ...
originally cast for printing the
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 ...
, which only approximately represented the shape of the letters of the codex. The hand-written letters are smaller than the later letters. Tregelles included one page of typographical facsimile in this edition. He did not decipher the small Patristic writing and doubted that it could be read without chemical restoration.
Nicholas Pocock found errors in Tregelles' edition, but
William Hatch thought it satisfactory. J. Harold Greenlee corrected Tregelles' errors and edited the list of corrections in 1957, which was examined by
William Hatch. In 1959 Greenlee published a commentary. The codex probably needs another examination with modern technology.
Tischendorf cited the codex in his
Editio Octava Critica Maior
''Editio Octava Critica Maior'' is a critical edition of the Greek New Testament produced by Constantin von Tischendorf. It was Tischendorf's eighth edition of the Greek Testament, and the most important, published between 1864 and 1894.
Edition ...
in 564 places. It is often cited in the critical editions of the
Greek New Testament Greek New Testament refers to the New Testament in Koine Greek.
It may also refer to the following texts:
* ''Novum Instrumentum omne''
* ''Textus Receptus'', the basis of the King James Bible
* '' Novum Testamentum Graece'', a critical edition of ...
(UBS3, NA26,
[ (NA26)] NA27).
In 1985 it was loaned to the
Cambridge University Library
Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of the over 100 libraries within the university. The Library is a major scholarly resource for the members of the University of Cambri ...
(BFBS Ms 213). In December 2013, the Bible Society announced plans to sell some manuscripts, among them the Codex Zacynthius, to raise funds for a Visitors Centre in Wales. The University was given
right of first refusal
Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transactio ...
and had until February 2014 to raise the money to acquire the codex.
The public appeal raised £1.1 million and the codex was purchased by the Cambridge University Library. A full spectrographic analysis was conducted and a definitive transcription of the Palimpest then published by Professor Hugh Houghton and Professor John Parker of the University of Birmingham.
See also
*
List of New Testament uncials
*
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...
Notes
References
Further reading
*
* Nicholas Pocock
''The Codex Zacynthius'' The Academy (London, 19 February 1881), pp. 136c-137c.
*
*
*
*
W. H. P. Hatch''A Redating of Two Important Uncial Manuscripts of the Gospels – Codex Zacynthius and Codex Cyprius'' in Lake F/S, pp. 333–338.
*
External links
*
* Robert Waltz
at the ''Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism'' (2007)
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zacynthius
Greek New Testament uncials
6th-century biblical manuscripts
Palimpsests