Codex Oriental Ms. 424, designated by

siglum Scribal abbreviations or sigla (singular: siglum) are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern manuscript editing (substantive and mechanica ...

A¹ (Horner), t (de Lagarde Boetticher, is written in two languages

Bohairic Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: , ) is a language family of closely related dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Copts, starting from the third-century AD in Roman Egypt. Coptic ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

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 ...

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 ...

of the

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 ...

, on paper. It is dated by a colophon to the year 1308. Many leaves of the codex were lost.George Horner
''The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect, otherwise called Memphitic and Bohairic''
3 vol. 1905, p. X

Description

It contains the text of the

Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest extan ...

Catholic epistles The catholic epistles (also called the general epistlesEncarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "katholieke brieven". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.) are seven epistles of the New Testament. Listed in order of their appearance in ...

, and

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its messag ...

in quarto, on 217 paper leaves (size 25.1 by 17.8 cm). The volume is bound in two parts (Romans–Colossians, 1 Thessalonians–Acts), much of the text being lost. The

nomina sacra In Christian scribal practice, nomina sacra (singular: ''nomen sacrum'' from Latin ''sacred name'') is the abbreviation of several frequently occurring divine names or titles, especially in Greek manuscripts of the Bible. A nomen sacrum consists ...

are written in an abbreviated way. At the end of the Pauline epistles, and at the end of the Acts (see image), are two important Arabic colophons, in which the pedigree of the manuscript is given. From these we learn that both portions of this manuscript were written A. Mart. 1024, i.e. A.D. 1308, by Abu Said ben Said al Dar ibn Abu al Fadl, the Christian. They were copied, however, from a previous manuscript in the handwriting of the patriarch Abba Gabriel and bearing the date A. Mart. 966, i.e. A.D 1250. This manuscript of Abba Gabriel again was copied from two earlier manuscripts, that of the Pauline epistles in the handwriting of Abba Yuhanna, bishop of Sammanud, that of the Catholic epistles and Acts in the handwriting of "Jurja ibn Saksik the famous scribe" (or Zagazig).

Constantin von Tischendorf Lobegott Friedrich Constantin (von) Tischendorf (18 January 18157 December 1874) was a German biblical scholar. In 1844, he discovered the world's oldest and most complete Bible dated to around the mid-4th century and called Codex Sinaiticus a ...

''novum Testamentum Graece''
''

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 ...

'', vol. III, p. 879. The corrections were made in red ink. Boetticher designated corrections by

t*.

History

The manuscript belonged to Archdeacon

Henry Tattam Henry Tattam (28 December 1789 – 8 January 1868, Stanford Rivers, Essex) was a Church of England clergyman and Coptic scholar. Life Tattam was Rector of St Cuthbert's Bedford, 1822–1849, and from 1831 to 1849 also Rector of Great Woolstone, ...

, and was purchased for the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

at the sale of his books. It was designated "tattamianus", by Boetticher.

Horner Horner is an English and German surname that derives from the Middle English word for the occupation ''horner'', meaning horn-worker or horn-maker, or even horn-blower. People *Alison Horner (born 1966), British businesswoman * Arthur Horner (dis ...

used the manuscript in his edition of the Bohairic New Testament as a basis for the text of the Epistles and Acts.George Horner, ''The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect, otherwise called Memphitic and Bohairic'', 4 vols. (1898-1905; repr. Osnabrück: 1969). The manuscript was examined by Bp Lightfoot and

Arthur Headlam Arthur Cayley Headlam (2 August 1862 – 17 January 1947) was an English theologian who served as Bishop of Gloucester from 1923 to 1945. Biography Headlam was born in Whorlton, County Durham, the son of its vicar, Arthur William Headlam (1826 ...

. Currently it is housed at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and assigned

shelfmark A shelfmark is a mark in a book or manuscript that denotes the cupboard or bookcase where it is kept as well as the shelf and possibly even its location on the shelf. The closely related term pressmark (from press, meaning cupboard) denotes only th ...

Oriental 424.

References

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Description

History

See also

References

Further reading