Codex Bezae

The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, designated by siglum D or 05 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 5 (in the von Soden of New Testament manuscript), is a codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century written in an uncial hand on vellum. It contains, in both Greek and Latin, most of the four Gospels and Acts, with a small fragment of 3 John.

A digital facsimile of the codex is available from Cambridge University Library, which holds the manuscript.

Description

The codex contains 406 extant parchment leaves, from perhaps an original 534 (26 x 21.5 cm), written one column per page with the Greek text on the left face and the Latin text on the right. The text is written colometrically and is full of hiatus. The Greek text of the codex has some copying errors, e.g., errors of metathesis: in , (''egeneto'') was changed into (''enegeto''); in , (''hypelaben'') into (''hypebalen''). The first three lines of each book are in red letters, and black and red ink alternate the title of books. As many as eleven correctors (G, A, C, B, D, E, H, F, J¹, L, K) have amended the text of the manuscript between the sixth and twelfth centuries.

The following nomina sacra are written in an abbreviated form: (, ''Iēsous'' 'Jesus'), (, ''Christos'' 'Christ'), (, ''patēr'' ' Father'), (, ''staurōthē'' ' ewas crucified'). Other words which usually feature among the nomina sacra are written out in full: (''mēter'' ' Mother''', huios'' ' Son''', sōter'' ' savior''', anthrōpos'' 'man''', ouranos'' 'sky, David, Israēl, Iērousalēm'').

Codex contents

The manuscript presents the gospels in the Western order Matthew, John, Luke and Mark, of which only Luke is complete; after some missing pages the manuscript picks up with the ''Third Epistle of John'' (in Latin) and contains part of '' Acts''.

; Lacunae:
: Matthew 1:1–20, 6:20–9:2, 27:2–12; John 1:16–3:26; Acts 8:29–10:14, 21:2–10, 21:16–18, 22:10–20, 22:29–end

; Omitted verses:
: Matthew ; ; ; ; ; ;
: Mark
: Luke ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
: John

; Supplementations (by a later hand):
: Matthew 3:7–16; Mark 16:15–20; John 18:14–20:13

Text type

The Greek text is unique, with many interpolations found in no other manuscript. It has several remarkable omissions, and a capricious tendency to rephrase sentences. Aside from this one Greek manuscript, the type of text is found in Old Latin (pre-Vulgate) versions — as seen in the Latin here — and in Syriac, and Armenian versions. ''Bezae'' is the principal Greek representative of the Western text-type.

There is no consensus on the many problems the Greek text presents. Since the Latin text occasionally agrees with Codices Bobiensis and Vercellensis against all others, it "preserves an ancient form of the Old Latin", and is a witness to a text which was current no later than 250 CE. Issues of conformity have dogged the usage of the codex in biblical scholarship. "In general the Greek text is treated as an unreliable witness," but it is "an important corroborating witness wherever it agrees with other early manuscripts."

Some of the outstanding features: '' Matthew 16:2b–3'' is present and not marked as doubtful or spurious. One of the longer endings of ''Mark'' is given. ''Luke'' 22:43f and ''Pericope de adultera'' are present and not marked as spurious or doubtful. ''John'' 5:4 is omitted, and the text of ''Acts'' is nearly 8% longer than the generally received text.

Acts in Codex Bezae differs quite considerably from other manuscripts, which some argue possibly represents an earlier version directly from Luke.

Notable readings

Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis contains some extraordinary readings. Below is a selection of some of the more notable or unsupported readings, with text and translation.

History

The place of origin of the codex is still disputed; both Gaul (current France) and southern Italy have been suggested.

The manuscript is believed to have been repaired at Lyon in the ninth century, as revealed by a distinctive ink used for supplementary pages. It was closely guarded for many centuries in the monastic library of St Irenaeus at Lyon. The manuscript was consulted, perhaps in Italy, for disputed readings at the Council of Trent, and was at about the same time collated for Stephanus's edition of the Greek New Testament. During the upheavals of the Wars of Religion in the 16th century, when textual analysis had a new urgency among the Reformation's Protestants, the manuscript was stolen from the monastic library in Lyon when French Huguenots ransacked the library in 1562. It was delivered to the Protestant scholar Theodore Beza, the friend and successor of Calvin, who gave it in 1581 to the University of Cambridge, in the comparative security of England, which accounts for its double name. It remains in the Cambridge University Library (Nn. II 41).

John Mill collated and Johann Jakob Wettstein transcribed (1716) the text of the codex. Both did their editions of the Greek Testament, but both did their work carelessly. A much better collation was made about 1732 by John Dickinson.

The University of Cambridge in 1787 appointed Dr Thomas Kipling to edit a facsimile edition which appeared in two volumes in 1793.

The English cleric Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener edited the text of the codex in 1864 (rewritten text of the codex) and in 1899 (photographic facsimile).

The importance of the Codex Bezae is such that a colloquium held at Lunel, Hérault, in the south of France on 27–30 June 1994 was entirely devoted to it.The story of the colloquium has been chronicled by one of the participants: J.-M. Auwers, "Le colloque international sur le Codex Bezae", Revue Théologique de Louvain 26 (1995), 405–412. See also: Codex Bezae, Studies from the Lunel Colloquium, ed. D.C. Parker & C.-B. Amphoux Papers discussed the many questions it poses to our understanding of the use of the Gospels and Acts in early Christianity, and of the text of the New Testament.

See also

* Biblical manuscript
* Codex Glazier
* List of New Testament Latin manuscripts
* List of New Testament uncials
* Western non-interpolations

References

Further reading

* Christian-B. Amphoux
«La grande lacune du Codex de Bèze.»
, Vol. 17 (2004) 3–26
* F. H. Chase
''The Old Syriac Element in the Text of Codex Bezae''
MacMillan, 1893.
*
*
* M.-É. Boismard – A. Lamouille, ''Le texte occidental des Actes des Apôtres. Reconstitution et réhabilitation'', 2 vol., Paris 1984.
* F. G. Kenyon
Codex Bezae
(1901) JTS, pp. 293–299, at the ''Internet Archive''
* A. F. J. Klijn,
A Survey of the Researches Into the Western Text of the Gospels and Acts
' (1949–1959), Novum Testamentum, Volume 3, Numbers 1–2, 1959, pp. 1–53.
* W. A. Strange, ''The Problem of the Text of Acts'', (SNTS MS, 71), Cambridge 1992.
*
* ''Codex Bezae, Studies from the Lunel Colloquium, June 1994'', ed. D.C. Parker & C.-B. Amphoux, Leiden: Brill, 1996.
*
* Weiss Bernard
''Der Codex D in der Apostelgeschichte''
Texte und Untersuchungen (Leipzig 1897)
* James D. Yoder
''Concordance to the distinctive Greek text of Codex Bezae''
1961
*

''L’Évangile de Luc et les Actes des Apôtres selon le Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis''
annotated translation by Sylvie Chabert d’Hyères. Paris: L’Harmattan, 422 p., 2009.

External links

High resolution digital facsimile of the Codex Bezae
with full transcription, from Cambridge University Library
* R. Waltz

at the ''Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism'' (2007)



The Gospels and Acts according to codex Bezae; greek and latin text, translation and comments

History of Research on Codex Bezae

Codex Bezae and the Da Vinci Code
The alleged parchment 1 has been copied from Codex Bezae
* Real secrets and hoaxes, of Da Vinci Code, Rennes-le-Château and Codex Bezae, analyzed on th
"Mercure de Gaillon"





1910: Codex Bezae

More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts

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Bezae
Vetus Latina New Testament manuscripts
5th-century biblical manuscripts
Manuscripts in Cambridge