One of the
combatants in today’s hand-to-hand combat is Codex Vaticanus. There are thousands of codices – handmade
books – in the Vatican Library, and in the library’s catalog, this one is Greek
Codex #1,209. It is so important for New
Testament textual research that it has become known as the Codex Vaticanus (B,
03). Its production-date has been
assigned to the early 300’s. Wieland Willker has prepared a webpage which describes Codex Vaticanus and analyzes its
contents.
Codex B was
first catalogued at the Vatican Library in 1475. (It may have been transferred to the Vatican
Library as part of the estate of Cardinal Bessarion, who died in 1472.) Some of its readings were known to Erasmus, the compiler of
the first published Greek New Testament in the 1500’s. It was cited (from John 7:39 ) in the preface to the 1582 Rheims New Testament. Hort
considered Codex B to be the most important manuscript in existence when he and
Westcott produced the Revised Text which challenged the Textus Receptus as the
base-text of English versions of the New Testament. Many textual critics still agree with that
assessment.
Besides
containing (despite considerable damage) most of the Greek Old Testament
(including most of the apocryphal books), Codex B also contains text from every New
Testament book except First Timothy, Second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and
Revelation. The Gospels are arranged in
the familiar order, Matthew-Mark-Luke-John.
Then Acts appears, followed by the General Epistles. After the Epistle of Jude, the Epistles of
Paul begin, but First Timothy, Second Timothy, Titus, and Philemon are not
present; Hebrews follows immediately after Second Thessalonians. The last extant page of Hebrews ends midway
through 9:14 . This is followed by supplemental pages (which
have their own identification-number, GA 1957), added long after the initial
production of the codex, in minuscule script, containing the rest of Hebrews
and the book of Revelation.
The
chapter-divisions in the Gospels in Codex Vaticanus are almost unique (it does
not have the Eusebian Canons and Sections). The chapter-divisions in the
Pauline Epistles are also interesting, inasmuch as they are interrupted in such
a way as to show that in the exemplar of the manuscript, the book of Hebrews
followed the Epistle to the Galatians.
The
production of Codex Vaticanus was undertaken by a team of two copyists, both
of whom worked economically, writing three columns per page (except in the
Books of Poetry, which are formatted in two columns per page), without adding grandiose ornamentation, and without deliberately placing a blank column
between books – except at the end of the Gospel of Mark. (Incidental factors in the production of the codex led to three blank spaces in the Old Testament portion; for details about those factors see this earlier post clarifying some inaccurate claims by Daniel Wallace on this subject.)
Pages and
pages could be written about the contents of this manuscript – the flagship
manuscript of the Alexandrian Text. But today, we are focusing on a single
chapter: First Peter chapter five – the
battleground of today’s manuscript-duel.
This passage can be found in Codex Vaticanus on page-view 1424 at the
Vatican Library’s website.
First Peter 5:6ff. in MS 496 |
The intimidating task of challenging Codex Vaticanus has been accorded to minuscule 496. 496 was produced in the
1200’s or early 1300’s. It contains all
of the New Testament books except Revelation.
It was among the artifacts brought to Britain in the 1840’s by Major Charles Kerr MacDonald,
who had conducted some explorations (including a visit to Saint Catherine’s
monastery) in Egypt when he wasn’t busy searching for turquoise-mines. 496 is housed at the British Library as
Additional MS 16184. Digital page-views of the manuscript are online; First
Peter chapter five begins on fol. 191r.
It may go without saying that 496 is the underdog in this contest. Without further introductions, let’s get
this fight underway. Instead of
presenting each manuscript’s contents separately, I will present
them side-by-side, one verse at a time, as they engage in a contest
lasting fourteen rounds (or, rather, fourteen verses). Once again the Nestle-Aland compilation will
be the standard of comparison. Nomina sacra contractions, as such ( and other normal abbreviations), will not be considered variants, and bracketed text in the
Nestle-Aland compilation will be treated as part of the text.
1 – B has ουν
instead of τους. 496 has ουν τους. B’s reading was in the text in NA27, but
NA28 has
τους, in agreement with Papyrus 72 and Codex A. [B: +3, -4] [496: +3]
1 – 496 has ως
instead of ο. [496: +2, -1]
2 – B does not have επισκοπουντες. 496 has this word, which is bracketed in
NA. [B:
-13]
2 – 496 has αλλ instead of αλλα. [496: -1]
2 – 496 has και
before κατα θεον. [496: +3]
2 – B does not have κατα θεον. Papyrus 72 agrees with 496. [B: -8]
3 – 496 has τον
κληρον instead of των κληρων. [496: +2, -2]
3 – 496 has γενομενοι
instead of γινομενοι. [496: +1, -1]
3 – B does not have μηδ’ ως κατακυριεύοντες των κληρων αλλα
τύποι γινόμενοι του ποιμνίου. [B: -58]
5 – 496 has δε οι
after Ομοιως. [496: +4]
5 – 496 has υποτασσομενοι. [496: +13]
5 – B does not have ο
before θεος. This letter is bracketed in
NA27. [B: -1]
5 – 496 has διδωσι instead of διδωσιν. [496: -1]
6 – 496 has επισκοπης
after καιρω. [496: +9]
7 – 496 has επιρριψαντες
instead of επιριψαντες. B has επιρειψαντες. [496: +1]
[B: +1]
7 – 496 has μελλει
instead of μελει. [496: +1]
8 – 496 has καταπιει instead of καταπιειν. B does not have τινα, which is bracketed in NA27. [496: -1]
[B: -4]
9 – B has τω before κοσμω.
This word was bracketed in the text of NA27 but is not in the text of NA28. [B: +2]
9 – B has επιτελεισθε
but it is corrected to επιτελεισθαι. This might be a first-hand correction so I
have not included it in this comparison.
10 – 496 has στειριξει
instead of στηριξει. [496: +2, -1]
10 – B has τω
after εν, before Χριστω. 496 has Ιησου after Χριστω. [B: +2]
[496: +5] NA27 had Ιησου in the
text in brackets, but NA28 removes this word from the text entirely.
10 – B does not have θεμελιωσει. [B: -10]
11 – 496 has η δοξα
και before το κρατος. [496: +8]
11 – 496 has των
αιωνων before αμην. [496: +9]
12 – B has Σιλβανου
instead of Σιλουανου. [B: +1, -2]
12 – 496 has εστηκατε instead of στητε. [496: +3]
14 – 496 and B both have πασι instead of πασιν.
[B: -1] [496: -1]
14 – 496 has Ιησου
αμην after Χριστω. [496: +9] NA27 had Ιησου in the text in brackets, but
it is not in the text of NA28.
When we consider the corruptions in First Peter chapter 5 in
Codex Vaticanus, we see that B contains 9 non-original letters, and is missing
101 original letters. The net total of
the corruptions in First Peter 5 in B amounts to 110 letters’ worth of
corruptions.
When we consider the corruptions in First Peter chapter 5 in
496, we see that it contains 66 non-original letters, and is missing 9 original
letters. The net total of the
corruptions in First Peter 5 in 496 amounts to 75 letters’ worth of
corruptions.
Final score: B’s
corruptions: 110 letters. 496’s corruptions: 75 letters.
Winner: minuscule 496!
Yes, as unlikely as it may seem, in this particular chapter, a medieval minuscule with a transmission-stream about a thousand years longer than the transmission-stream of Codex B has the more accurate text, when NA28 is
used as the basis of comparison. This
victory of 496 is a stunning reminder that despite the fame of Codex Vaticanus,
it does not run very far ahead of the Byzantine pack, even when the Nestle-Aland compilation is the standard of comparison. And in some passages,
Codex B’s text falls behind. Even great champions don’t win them all.
[Readers are invited to double-check the comparison and the arithmetic.]
3 comments:
I can agree with your conclusions. Thanks James.
James I really appreciate your blog. I was wondering if you have come across two books by Bill Cooper. One is The Forging of Cosex Sinaiticus and the other The Authenticity of the New Testament Fragments at Qumran. He writes carefully rather than in a wild manner that identifies conspiracies everywhere. Yet obviously these are remarkable conclusions of true. Thanks Matthew
MAV,
Bill Cooper's book is full of falsities. But it is hilarious entertainment.
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