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 manuscript is lacunose.

Description

The codex is made of 249 parchment leaves (29 cm by 24 cm), containing an almost complete text of the four Gospels, with the following lacunae: Matthew 1:1– 9, 1:21–4:4, and 4:17–5:4.

The text is written in two columns per page, with 25 lines per page. The letters are written in a rough, inelegant hand. The scribe who wrote the text is believed to have been unfamiliar with Greek.

Text of the codex

The text-type of Matthew chapters 1- 14, Luke, and John is considered to be more or less of the Byzantine text-type, while the text of Mark has been considered to be of the Caesarean text-type. The text of Matthew chs. 14-28 has been considered to be of the Alexandrian text-type. Aland placed it in Category II. It lacks the text of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53- 8:11).

; Witness of Byzantine text-type
In 2007 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft edited ''The Gospel According to John in the Byzantine Tradition''. Koridethi is cited in the apparatus, and it says: "Manuscript 038 (Θ) represents a text on the boundary of what might reasonably be considered a manuscript of the Byzantine tradition in John".

; Some readings

Matthew 1:11
: - Θ M ƒ¹ 33 258 478 661 791 954 1216 1230 1354 1604 ℓ ''54''
: - Majority of manuscripts (UBS3)

Matthew 8:13
: (''and when the centurion returned to the house in that hour, he found the slave well'') - Θ C ( N) 0250 ƒ¹ ( 33, 1241), g¹, syr^h
:omit - Majority of manuscripts (NA26)

: - Θ *^,2 D L W ƒ¹ 1010 (1424) it vg^cl
: - Majority of manuscripts

Matthew 12:7
: (''But those tenants, looking on as he arrived'') - Θ ƒ¹³ 28 1071

: (''and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with'')
::omit - Θ B D L Z 085 ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ it sy^{s, c} sa
::incl. - Majority of manuscripts

: (''Jesus Barabbas'') - Θ 700 ƒ¹
: (''Jesus'') - Majority of manuscripts

: — Θ Δ 0250 ƒ¹ ƒ¹³ 537 1424

: - Θ (singular reading)
: - Majority of manuscripts

: - Θ (singular reading)
: - Majority of manuscripts

:ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν Πάτερ ἄφες αὐτοῖς· οὐ γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν (''And Jesus said: Father forgive them, they know not what they do.'')
::omit - Θ ^a B D* W 0124 1241 a d sy^s sa bo
::incl. - Majority of manuscripts

: – Θ D 892 1009 1230 1253

: - Θ ƒ¹³ syr^h;

: (see ) – Θ (singular reading)

History

It is commonly believed the text gets its name from the town in which it was discovered, however this is not correct. The ''Editio Princeps'' by Beermann and Gregory"Die Koridethi-Evangelien", Gustav Beermann und Caspar René Gregory, Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913 states:

Kala/Caucasia:
In the year 1853 a certain Bartholomeé visited a long abandoned monastery in Kala, a little village in the Caucasian mountains near the Georgian/Russian border (some miles south east of the 5600m high Elbrus). There, in an old church, far off every civilisation, he discovered the MS. The MS rested there probably for several hundred years (Beermann: ca. 1300–1869). (as 1360)

Koridethi:
Before this time the MS was in a town called Koridethi. This was a village near the Black Sea, near today's Batumi in Georgia. There should still be some ruins of a monastery. Notes in the Gospel indicate dates from ca. 965 CE on. At around this time, according to a note, the book has been rebound. The book was there until around 1300 CE.

Further south, Armenia:
A Greek inscription mentions the city of Tephrice or '' Tephrike'' (): "I, Kurines, Comes of the comandant of the city Tephrice came to the castelles and went back to the fort of the Great Martyrs(?)." Even though the content and meaning is not completely clear, the city Tephrice is clear. The town was destroyed in 873. It was on a line between today's Sivas and Malatya in Turkey/Armenia. Beermann's conclusion therefore is (p. 581) that the codex must be older than 873 CE. Beermann speculates that the "fort of the Great Martyrs" (if correctly deciphered) might have been Martyropolis, a town near the Wan Lake, near today's Batman in Turkey.

The codex is now located in Tbilisi, at the Georgian National Center of Manuscripts, Gr. 28.

See also

* List of New Testament uncials

Notes

Further reading

* K. Lake, R. P. Blake, The Text of the Gospels and the Koridethi Codex, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Jul. 1923), pp. 267–286.
*
* Herman C. Hoskier, ''Collation of Koridethi with Scrivener's Reprint of Stephen III'', BBC 6 (1929), pp. 31–56.
* F. G. Kenyon, ''Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts'' (4th ed.), London 1939.
*

External links

* R. Waltz
Codex Koridethi
at the ''Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism'' (2007)

Digital Images of Codex Koridethi
online at the CSNTM.

''Sakartvélo, Tbilisi, National Center of Manuscripts (olim AN Inst. Kekelidze), gr. 28''
Pinakes , Πίνακες, Textes et manuscrits grecs

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koridethi
Greek New Testament uncials
9th-century biblical manuscripts