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New Testament manuscript From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Codex Koridethi, also named Codex Coridethianus, designated by siglum Θ or 038 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), ε050 (Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, written on parchment. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been assigned to the 9th century CE.[1] The manuscript has several gaps.
| New Testament manuscript | |
| |
| Name | Coridethianus |
|---|---|
| Sign | Θ |
| Text | Gospels |
| Date | 9th century |
| Script | Greek |
| Found | 1853 |
| Now at | Georgian National Center of Manuscripts |
| Size | 29 x 24 cm |
| Type | Caesarean text-type / Byzantine text-type |
| Category | II |
The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book), containing an almost complete text of the four Gospels written on 249 parchment leaves (size 29 cm by 24 cm), with the following gaps: Matthew 1:1–9, 1:21–4:4, and 4:17–5:4.[2] The text is written in two columns per page, with 19-32 lines per column.[3]
The letters are written in a rough, inelegant hand in blackish-brown ink.[3] Greek accents (used to indicate voiced pitch changes) are written, but breathing marks (utilised to designate vowel emphasis) are rarely included.[3] The scribe who wrote the text is believed to have been unfamiliar with Greek.[1] The manuscript includes the Ammonian sections, but not always the Eusebian Canons (both early systems of dividing the four Gospels into different sections); lectionary (weekly church reading portions) beginning (αρχη / arche) and ending (τελος / telos) marks are also written.[3]
Quotations from the Old Testament are marked. The tables of contents (known as κεφαλαια / kephalaia) are included before the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John, and a brief subscription is written after the Gospel of John ends.[3]
The Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew chapters 1-14, and the whole of the Gospel of Luke and Gospel of John is considered to be more or less a representative of the Byzantine text-type, while the text of the Gospel of Mark has been considered to be a representative of the Caesarean text-type.[1] The text-types are groups of different New Testament manuscripts which share specific or generally related readings, which then differ from each other group, and thus the conflicting readings can separate out the groups. These are then used to determine the original text as published; there are three main groups with names: Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine.[1]: 205–230 The Caesarean text-type however (initially identified by biblical scholar Burnett Hillman Streeter) has been contested by several text-critics, such as Kurt and Barbara Aland.[2]: 55–56 The text of Matthew chapters 14-28 has been considered to be a representative of the Alexandrian text-type. Aland placed it in Category II of his New Testament manuscript classification system.[2] Category II manuscripts are described as being manuscripts "of a special quality, i.e., manuscripts with a considerable proportion of the early text, but which are marked by alien influences. These influences are usually of smoother, improved readings, and in later periods by infiltration by the Byzantine text."[2]: 335 It lacks the text of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11).[4]: 273
(See main article the Caesarean text-type)
Streeter based his identification of a new text-type primarily on the readings found on this codex in the Gospel of Mark, and their corresponding appearances in the biblical citations in the writings of the early church father, Origen.[5] He also grouped the manuscripts of ƒ1, ƒ13, and the minuscules 28, 565 and 700 along with Codex Koridethi, initially designating them as fam. Θ.[5]: 77, 82 [6]: 313 His reasonings were developed further by biblical scholars Kirsopp Lake, Robert Blake and Silva New, resulting in this fam. Θ being designated the Caesarean Text-type in their joint publication, The Caesarean text of the Gospel of Mark,[7] with Codex Koridethi being considered the Caesarean Text's chief representative.[6] Though further publications sought to establish the Caesarean Text as a definitive text-type, by the end of the 20th century this notion had failed to convince the majority of scholars.[8]
In 2007 the German Bible Society edited The Gospel According to John in the Byzantine Tradition. Codex 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".[9]
It is commonly believed the manuscript is named after the town in which it was discovered, however this is not correct. The first publication of the entire manuscript by Beermann and Gregory states:[11]
Kala/Caucasia:
Koridethi:
Further south, Armenia:
The codex is now located in Tbilisi, at the Georgian National Center of Manuscripts, Gr. 28.[2][13]
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