The Codex Fuldensis, also known as the Victor Codex (

Hessian State Library The Wiesbaden State Library (german: Landesbibliothek Wiesbaden), formerly the ''Nassau State Library'' and ''Hessian State Library'', is one of the state libraries of Germany. It is funded by the State of Hesse and located in Wiesbaden. With co ...

, ''Codex Bonifatianus I''), designated by F, is a

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 ...

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 printed or reproduced i ...

based on the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

made between 541 and 546. The codex is considered the second most important witness to the Vulgate text; and is also the oldest complete manuscript witness to the order of the

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 com ...

. It is an important witness in any discussion about the authenticity of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35Philip B. Payne
''Fuldensis, Sigla for Variants in Vaticanus and 1 Cor 14.34-5''
NTS 41 (1995) 251-262. and the

Comma Johanneum The Johannine Comma ( la, Comma Johanneum) is an interpolated phrase (comma) in verses of the First Epistle of John. The text (with the comma in italics and enclosed by square brackets) in the King James Bible reads: It became a touchpoint f ...

. It is one of the earliest dated manuscripts of the New Testament. It was corrected until 2 May, 546 AD.

Description

It contains the

and 23 canonical books of the

; plus the

Epistle to the Laodiceans The Epistle to the Laodiceans is a letter of Paul the Apostle, the original existence of which is inferred from an instruction to the congregation in Colossae to send their letter to the believing community in Laodicea, and likewise obtain a cop ...

, and a copy of

Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...

's ''Prologue to the Canonical Gospels''. It represents the Italian type of text. 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 are harmonised into a single continuous narrative, according to the form of

Tatian Tatian of Adiabene, or Tatian the Syrian or Tatian the Assyrian, (; la, Tatianus; grc, Τατιανός; syc, ܛܛܝܢܘܣ; c. 120 – c. 180 AD) was an Assyrian Christian writer and theologian of the 2nd century. Tatian's most influential w ...

's Diatessaron. Its text is akin to that of

Codex Amiatinus The Codex Amiatinus (also known as the Jarrow Codex) is considered the best-preserved manuscript of the Latin Vulgate versionBruce M. Metzger, ''The Text of the New Testament'' (Oxford University Press 2005), p. 106. of the Christian Bible. It w ...

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 ...

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'', Oxford University Press, New York — Oxford 2005, p. 108. The harmonised gospel text is preceded by a listing of its sections, with a summary of their contents, which was copied unchanged from the Old Latin exemplar. From this it can be determined that the Old Latin source had lacked the

Genealogy of Jesus The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham, while Luke begins with Adam. The lists are identical between Abraham and David, ...

(which Victor inserted); but that the source had included the passage of

Jesus and the woman taken in adultery Jesus and the woman taken in adultery (or the ) is a passage ( pericope) found in John 7:53– 8:11 of the New Testament. It has been the subject of much scholarly discussion. In the passage, Jesus was teaching in the Second Temple after co ...

. The sequence of books follows the ordering: * Diatessaron *

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 ex ...

** Romans ** 1-2 Corinthians ** Galatians ** Ephesians ** Philippians ** 1-2 Thessalonians ** Colossians ** Laodiceans ** 1-2 Timothy ** Titus ** Philemon ** Hebrews *

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 ...

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 ...

(usual order) *

Book of Apocalypse The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...

The section 1 Cor 14:34-35 is placed by the original scribe in the margin in an unusual order, verses 36-40 before 34-35, while the text on the page is the normal order. This section is marked by umlaut in

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 ...

. Several manuscripts of the Western text-type, placed section 1 Cor 14:34-35 after 1 Cor 14:40 (manuscripts: Claromontanus, Augiensis, Boernerianus, it^{d, g}). Also codex 88, which is not representative of the Western text, placed this section after 1 Cor 14:40. One manuscript of the Vulgate does the same (''

Codex Reginensis 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 ...

''). According to Metzger the evidence of the codex is ambiguous. Perhaps the scribe, without actually deleting verses 34-35 from the text, intended the liturgist to omit them when reading the lesson. The 1 John text section omits the Comma Johanneum. However, the Vulgate Prologue to the Canonical Epistles includes a direct reference to the heavenly witnesses, with the Prologue written as a first-person epistle from Jerome to Eustochium. In this Prologue unfaithful translators are criticized for removal of the verse. The Prologue from about 1700 on had often been attacked as a late forgery, not by Jerome. At the time the earliest known extant Vulgate with the Prologue was about AD 800. The Prologue was noted to be in the Codex Fuldensis of AD 546 when the text was published by Ranke c. AD 1850.

History

Victor of Capua (died 554) reports that he found an Old Latin harmony of the Gospels, which he recognised as following Tatian's arrangement of the ''Diatessaron''. He substituted the Vulgate text for the

Old Latin Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin (Classical la, prīsca Latīnitās, lit=ancient Latinity), was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic ...

, appending the rest of the New Testament books from the standard Vulgate. Boniface acquired the codex and in 745 gave it to the monastic library (Abb. 61), in

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

, where it remains to the present day (hence the name of the codex).Bruce M. Metzger, ''The Early Versions of the New Testament'' (Oxford 1977), p. 335. It served as the source text for vernacular harmonies in

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old Hig ...

and

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). I ...

. According to Malcolm Parkes, glosses to James are in Boniface's own handwriting. Codex Sangallensis 56 was copied, in the 9th century, from the ''Diatessaron'' of the Codex Fuldensis. It also contains some extracts from the Acts of the Apostles. Ernst Ranke published the text of the codex in 1868. Ernestus Ranke, ''Codex Fuldensis. Novum Testamentum Latine Interprete Hieronymo'' (Lipsiae 1868).

References

{{Reflist

External links

Codex Fuldensis Online (Shelfmark: 100 Bonifatianus 1)
*

(1913) ''

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

''
Codex Sangallensis 56
at the ''Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen'' (copy of Fuldensis in Diatessaron)
More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts
Fuldensis 6th-century biblical manuscripts Biblical paraphrases Fulda

Description

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links