textual criticism of the New Testament Textual criticism of the New Testament is the identification of textual variants, or different versions of the New Testament, whose goals include identification of transcription errors, analysis of versions, and attempts to reconstruct the origi ...

, Caesarean text-type is the term proposed by certain scholars to denote a consistent pattern of variant readings that is claimed to be apparent in certain

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

manuscripts 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 printed or reproduced i ...

of the

four Gospels 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 ...

, but which is not found in any of the other commonly recognized New Testament text-types (

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and Alexandrian). In particular a common

text-type Text types in literature form the basic styles of writing. Factual texts merely seek to inform, whereas literary texts seek to entertain or otherwise engage the reader by using creative language and imagery. There are many aspects to literary wr ...

has been proposed to be found: in the ninth/tenth century

Codex Koridethi The Codex Koridethi, also named ''Codex Coridethianus'', designated by siglum Θ or 038 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 050 ( Soden), is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 9th century CE. The man ...

; in Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2 (a Greek manuscript of the Gospels used, sparingly, by

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...

in his 1516 printed Koine New Testament); and in those Gospel quotations found in the third century works of

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 the ...

, which were written after he had settled in

Caesarea Caesarea () ( he, קֵיסָרְיָה, ), ''Keysariya'' or ''Qesarya'', often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesar ...

. The early translations of the Gospels in Armenian and Georgian also appear to witness to many of the proposed characteristic Caesarean readings, as do the small group of minuscule manuscripts classed as Family 1 and Family 13.

Description

A particularly distinctive common reading of the proposed text-type is in

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Chi ...

27:16-17, where the bandit released by

Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of ...

instead of Jesus is named as "Jesus

Barabbas Barabbas (; ) was, according to the New Testament, a prisoner who was chosen over Jesus by the crowd in Jerusalem to be pardoned and released by Roman governor Pontius Pilate at the Passover feast. Biblical account According to all four canoni ...

" rather than — with all other surviving witnesses — just "Barabbas". Origen notes particularly that the form "Jesus Barabbas" was common in manuscripts in Caesarea, whereas he had not found this reading in his previous residence in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

. Otherwise the Caesarean readings have a mildly paraphrastic tendency that seems to place them between the more concise Alexandrian, and the more expansive

text-types. None of the surviving Caesarean manuscripts is claimed to witness a pure type of text, as all appear to have been to some degree assimilated with readings from 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 fo ...

. Some writers have questioned the validity of this grouping, claiming that the classification is the result of poor research. Insofar as the Caesarean text-type does exist (in Matt, Luke and John is not well defined), then it does so only in the Gospels. The proposed Caesarean witnesses do not appear to have any common distinctive readings in the rest 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 Chris ...

. Some of the Caesarean manuscripts have the so-called Jerusalem Colophon. The Caesarean text-type was discovered and named by Burnett Hillman Streeter in 1924. According to some scholars, it is only a hypothetical text-type ( Aland).Kurt Aland, and Barbara Aland, "The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism", transl. Erroll F. Rhodes, ''

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company is a religious publishing house based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1911 by Dutch American William B. Eerdmans (November 4, 1882 – April 1966) and still independently owned with William's daught ...

'', Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1995, p. 336. There are no pure Caesarean manuscripts. In many cases, it is difficult to decide the original reading of the group, for instance in Mark 1:16: : — ƒ¹³ 565. : — ƒ¹ : — 700. : — 28.

Classification

H. von Soden — Iota (Jerusalem) (I), in part (most strong "Caesarean" witnesses are found in Soden's I^α group, with family 1 being his I^η and family 13 being I^ι). Kirsopp Lake, an outstanding British textual critic, developed the hypothesis of the relationship between ƒ¹, ƒ¹³, Θ, 565, 700, and 28. Streeter carried Lake's work another step forward by pointing to Caesarea as the original location of the family. F. G. Kenyon — Gamma (γ)

Frederic G. Kenyon Sir Frederic George Kenyon (15 January 1863 – 23 August 1952) was a British palaeographer and biblical and classical scholar. He held a series of posts at the British Museum from 1889 to 1931. He was also the president of the British Academy f ...

"Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament"
London², 1912, pp. 334-338. M. J. Lagrange — C

Witnesses

; Other manuscripts , , , , Uncial 0188,

174 Year 174 ( CLXXIV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gallus and Flaccus (or, less frequently, year 927 ''Ab urbe condita ...

230 Year 230 ( CCXXX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Agricola and Clementinus (or, less frequently, year 983 ''Ab urbe c ...

406 __NOTOC__ Year 406 ( CDVI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Arcadius and Probus (or, less frequently, year 1159 ''Ab u ...

(?), 788, 826, 828, 872 (only in Mark), 1071, 1275, 1424 (only in Mark), 1604, 2437, ℓ ''32''.

Textual features

(Apparent Caesarean witnesses in Bold)

: It has additional text: (''and when the centurion returned to the house in that hour, he found the slave well'') as well as codices , C, ( N), Θ, ( 0250), ƒ¹, ( 33., 1241.), g¹, syr^h. : – Θ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 33. : — majority of mss : (''and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with'') atching MT and TR: omitted — B D L Z Θ 085 ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ it syr^{s, c} sa : — Θ ƒ¹ 700.* syr^{s, pal} arm geo : — majority of mss : — Θ ƒ¹ 565.

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 ...

k sa : omit — all other mss : — W Θ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 28. 565. 1365. itⁱ it^k cop^sa arm geo : — majority of mss : — Θ 28. 565. 700. ''pc'' syr^h : — A C D L W Θ Ψ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ Byz atching MT and TR: — B 0274 k : — A B² C D X Θ 565. 892. 1009. 1071. 1195. 1216. 1230. 1241 1253. 1344. 1365. 1646. 2174. Byz Lect : omitted — B* K W Δ Ψ ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 28

1010. 1079. 1242. 1546. 2148. ℓ ''10'' ℓ ''950'' ℓ ''1642'' ℓ ''1761'' syr^s arm geoUBS3, p. 165. : — W Θ ƒ¹³ 565 it^aur it^c : — Β C Δ Ψ 33. 1424. : — Θ 565. 700. c : — N ƒ¹³ 28. : — Β C L W' Ψ 33. 892. : — D : — A Byz : — W Θ ƒ¹³ 28 61. 115. 255. 299. 565. 700. 1071. b c g² l vg^mss sa bo geo^b arm arab^ms Cyp : — Byz

References

Sources

* Burnett Hillman Streeter, ''The Four Gospels. A study of origins the manuscript traditions, sources, authorship, & dates'', Oxford 1924, pp. 77-107. *

Bruce M. Metzger Bruce Manning Metzger (February 9, 1914 – February 13, 2007) was an American biblical scholar, Bible translator and textual critic who was a longtime professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who served on the board of the ...

, ''The Caesarean Text of the Gospels'', JBL, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Dec., 1945), pp. 457-489. * Bruce M. Metzger and

Bart D. Ehrman Bart Denton Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, includin ...

, ''The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration'' (4th edition, 2005), Oxford University Press, {{ISBN, 0-19-507297-9, p. 310–312. * Hurtado L. W., ''Text-Critical Methodology and the Pre-Caesarean Text: Codex W in the Gospel of Mark'', S & D XLIII (Grand Rapids 1981).

External links

Text Types And Textual Kinship
– from the ''Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism''

Origins of the Caesarean text
Bible versions and translations New Testament text-types Christian terminology