 |
The Church of the
Holy Sepulchre |
In addition
to all its cherished pilgrimage-sites, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is home
to a small collection of New Testament manuscripts. A Gospels-manuscript,
GA
1358, is there; this manuscript used to be cited as if it supports the
reading of Codex Bezae in Mark 1:41 (where Codex Bezae famously says that Jesus
became furious , rather than that He
was filled with compassion) – but in 2011, researcher
Jeff Cate showed that the
text of Mark 1:41 in 1358 has merely been conformed to the parallel account in
Matthew, stating neither that Jesus was filled with compassion nor that He was
angry.
The Library
of Congress recently released microfilm page-views of
GA 1358
– Naos Anastaseos 15. This
manuscript, about 1000 years old, contains not only the text of the four
Gospels but also book-introductions by
Cosmas
Indicopleustes (a writer of the mid-500’s who is otherwise infamous for his
belief that the earth is flat) – not just for Matthew, but also
before
Luke and
before
John.
Here is a
basic index of GA 1358:
After
the end of John, this manuscript features a brief summary of apostolic
history, and a description of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ
recorded in the Gospels.
The Naos
Anastaseos (
Sanctuary of the Resurrection) collection also includes nine Greek Gospels-lectionaries, most of
which are very late, having been produced in the late 1500’s and early
1600’s. Two of them, however –
Naos
Anastaseos 11 – Evangelion (made in the 1200’s) and
Naos
Anastaseos 9 (made in 1152) – are much older.
Naos
Anastaseos 9 – GA Lectionary
1033
– has some particularly interesting features which render it the most
significant manuscript in the collection.
Its
full-page
picture of Mary and the Child Jesus is artistically notable, but of far
more interest is its treatment of the
pericope
adulterae, that is, the story of the adulteress which is found in John
7:53-8:11. This passage, famously absent
from the Alexandrian manuscripts that serve as the primary New Testament
base-text for most modern English translations (the
ESV,
NIV, NLT, etc.), is present in about 85% of the extant Greek manuscripts.
In one
small group of manuscripts known as family-13 (also called the Ferrar group, in
honor of
William Hugh
Ferrar, a researcher in the 1800’s who noted the close relationship of four
of the main members of the group, minuscules 13, 69, 124, and 346), the story
of the adulteress is not found in the Gospel of John; it is instead inserted in
the Gospel of Luke after 21:38 (that is, at the end of chapter 21). This dislocation of the
pericope adulterae has been confidently asserted by many
commentators to be evidence that it was a “floating” composition which copyists inserted
at different locations.
Naos
Anastaseos 9 may shine some light on this subject. Let’s look into its pages and see what we
find.
In most
continuous-text manuscripts of the Gospel of John, John 7:53-8:11 follows John 7:52. Many manuscripts are supplemented by a
lectionary-apparatus – rubrics and notes for the lector, explaining what each
day’s Scripture-reading was, and where to find it (and, often, a phrase with
which to start it). Typically, in the
lectionary-cycle, the annual Scripture-reading, or lection, for Pentecost, a
major feast-day, begins at John 7:37, and continues to the end of 7:52, but
instead of stopping there, the lector is instructed to jump ahead in the text
to 8:12, and read that verse, and then conclude.
Accordingly, in Naos Anastaseos 9, we see, in
the
lection for Pentecost (beginning on page-view 35), no indication of the
existence of John
7:53-8:11 in the
Pentecost-reading; John
7:52 is
followed immediately by John
8:12;
nothing separates the two verses except a normal cross-symbol which routinely
serves as a pause-marker.
When we
look in the Menologion-section of Naos Anastaseos 9 for the lection for October
8 – the feast-day of Saint Pelagia, when John 8:3-11 was typically read – we do
not find the
pericope adulterae there
either. Instead, there is a listing
which says that for the reading for St. Pelagia’s Day, seek the lection for
April 1. Turning, then, to
the
lection for April 1, we find the lection for Saint Mary the Egyptian – and,
behold, there is the text of John 8:1-11.
 |
The April 1 lection
(beginning) |
The
following readings show this very satisfactorily:
● v. 1 – ὄχλος instead of λαὸς (agreeing with Λ)
● v. 3 – καὶ προσήνεγκαν αὐτῶ instead of ἄγουσιν δὲ
(agreeing with family-13)
● v. 3 – does not include πρὸς αὐτον (agreeing with Λ,
family-13, et al)
● v. 3 – επί instead of εν (agreeing with Λ, family-13, et al)
● v. 3 – ἐν τῶ instead of just ἐν (agreeing with Λ)
● v. 4 – εἶπον instead of λέγουσιν (agreeing with Λ)
● v. 4 – εἴληπται instead of κατελήφθη (agreeing with Λ and
family-13)
● v. 5 – includes περὶ αὐτῆς at the end of the verse
(agreeing with Λ and family-13)
 |
The April 1 lection
(continued) |
● v. 6 – does not include τῷ δακτύλῳ (agreeing with Λ)
● v. 6 – does not include μὴ προσποιούμενος (agreeing with Λ
and family-13)
● v. 7 – ἀναβλέψας instead of ἀνακύψας (agreeing with Λ and
family-13, et al)
● v. 7 – λίθον βαλέτω after πρῶτος (agreeing with U, Λ, and
family-13)
● v. 7 – εἰς instead of ἐπ (unique to Neos Anastaseos 9)
● v. 9 – και εξῆλθεν at the beginning of the verse (agreeing
with Λ)
● v. 10 – ἀναβλέψας instead of ἀνακύψας (agreeing with Λ and
family-13, et al)
● v. 10 – includes ἲδεν αὐτὴν (basically agreeing with U, Λ,
and family-13)
● v. 10 – καὶ instead of θεασάμενος πλὴν τῆς γυναικὸς
(agreeing with U, Λ, family-13, et al)
● v. 10 – εἰσιν οἱ (no ἑκεῖνοι), agreeing with U, Ω,
family-13, et al)
● v. 11 – ὁ δὲ Ἰ[ησοῦ]ς, agreeing with Λ and 124)
● v. 11 – καὶ μηκέτι (agreeing with Byz, Λ, et al)
The exceptionally
close correspondence between Codex Λ and the text of the lection for April 1 in
Naos Anastaseos 9 suggests that the ancient manuscripts which are referred to
in the Jerusalem Colophon were indeed located at Jerusalem – not Mount Sinai or
Mount Athos – and were ancestors of Naos Anastaseos 9.
This
evidence also indicates that a note about the pericope adulterae which appears in
Codex Λ, in the margin of minuscule 1424, and in minuscules 20, 215, 262, 1118,
and 1187 is also referring to manuscripts at Jerusalem when it mentions ancient
manuscripts which contain the pericope
adulterae.
Let’s take a closer look at this note in
1187. In
1187,
the
pericope adulterae is given its
own rubric at the top of the page, and each line of John 8:3-11 (but not
7:53-8:2) is accompanied by an obelus. The note says:
“The
obelized portion is not in certain copies, and it was not in those used by
Apollinaris. In the old ones, it is all
there. And this pericope is referred to by
the apostles, affirming that it is for the edification of the church.”
Τα
ὀβελισμένα ἔν τισιν ἀντιγράφοις ού κεῖται· ουδε ἀ-
πολιναρίου·
εν δε τοις ἀρχαιος ὅλα κεῖται· μνημονευου-
σιν της
περικοπης ταυτης και οι αποστολοι πάντες
ἐν αισ εζέθεντο
διατάζεσιν ἐις οἰκοδομεῖν τῆς ἐκκλησίας: –
Out of the 37 Greek manuscripts that
have the Jerusalem Colophon, at least five of them – 039, 262, 899, 1187, and
1555 – also consistently share some otherwise rare readings, essentially
rendering them a distinct textual family.
In addition, 039, 20, 262, 1118, and 1187 have the annotation about the
pericope adulterae which mentions the
absence of the PA in the copies of Apollinaris and the presence of the PA in
ancient copies and the use of the PA in
Apostolic
Constitutions. Thus, in 039, 262,
and 1187, both features are present.
This suggests that these three witnesses are the best witnesses – along
with Naos Anastaseos 9 – to the earliest strata of a small but distinct
transmission-line (Wisse’s “Group Λ”).
[Explore the embedded links in this post for more information and resources on this subject.]
