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The Codex Vaticanus is an ancient copy of the Old and New Testaments written in Greek. It is the first complete Bible written in codex, or book form. Codex was a format, developed in the second century AD, in which several sheets of papyrus, or parchment, were folded in the middle and stitched, or otherwise bound together along the fold, producing pages that could be read like a modern book. 55
At the end of the nineteenth century, two British scholars, Brooke Westcott and Fenton Hort, produced a volume titled The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881). Along with this publication, they stated their position that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, along with a few other early manuscripts, represent a text that most closely replicates the original writings. In the twentieth century, many second- and third-century papyrus manuscripts of the New Testament have been discovered. Most of these papyrus manuscripts have a text that is very similar to Codex Vaticanus and to Codex Sinaiticus. 71
Linguistic scholars have observed that Codex Vaticanus is reminiscent of classical and Platonic Greek, not Koine Greek of the New Testament (see Adolf Deissman’s Light of the Ancient East). Nestle admitted that he had to change his Greek text (when using Vaticanus and Sinaiticus) to make it “appear” like Koine Greek. 69
One of the most noteworthy papyrus manuscripts is P75, a copy of Luke and John dated c.175-200. It is universally recognized as a very accurate manuscript and one that bears extremely close resemblance to Codex Vaticanus. This shows that a pure line of textual transmission was preserved from the middle of the second-century to the fourth century. The papyrus P75 and several other papyrus manuscripts have helped twentieth-century scholars produce a Greek text that is even closer to the original text than that of Westcott and Hort. This most recent edition is commonly known as the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament. 71
The Vatican Codex, in spite of the views of Tischendorf, who held for the priority of the Codex Sinaiticus , discovered by him, is rightly considered to be the oldest extant copy of the Bible . It may be said that the Vatican Codex, written in the first half of the fourth century, represents the text of one of those recensions of the Bible which were current in the third century, and that it belongs to the family of manuscripts made use of by Origen in the composition of his Hexapla. 23
Many other scholars have made special collations for their own purposes e.g. Tregelles, Tischendorf, Alford, etc. B, denou phototypice expressus, jussu et cura praesidum Bibliothecae Vaticanae” (Milan, 1904-6). This edition contains a masterly anonymous introduction (by Giovanni Mercati), in which the writer corrects many inexact statements made by previous writers. Until recently the privilege of consulting this ancient manuscript quite freely and fully was not granted to all who sought it. The material condition of the Vatican Codex is better, generally speaking, than that of its contemporaries; it is foreseen, however, that within a century it will have fallen to pieces unless an efficacious remedy, which is being earnestly sought for, shall be discovered. 82
The Nestle/Aland GreekText, with its many revisions, took over from the Westcott and Hort era, along with the United Bible Society (UBS). These used basically the same Sinaitic (Aleph) and Vaticanus (B) manuscripts with its allies, which amount to less than 1% of the 5400 Greek manuscripts that make up the Majority Text. For example, the New International Version (NIV) concerning Mark, Chapter 16:9-20, wants you to believe these verses do not belong in God�s Word. They draw a line across the page after Verse 8 and insert their explanation. 73
Codex Vaticanus is one of the most important manuscripts for Textual criticism and is a leading member of the Alexandrian text-type. It was heavily used by Westcott and Hort in their edition, The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881). 1
Codex Vaticanus (B), the earliest of the great parchment manuscripts at about 300 AD, has resided in the Vatican since the middle ages and remains there today. It is one of the most important manuscripts for textual criticism. 70
Westcott and Hort preferred the Vaticanus manuscript as their chief authority above all other Greek manuscripts. It was “their touchstone” (Aland, The Text of the New Testament, p. 14). 25
Pasquale Amicarelli, of Italy, has put together a module that contains images of Codex Alexandrinus. These images are indexed so that if you are looking at any New Testament text in BibleWorks you can click a link in your Resource Summary Window and be taken immediately to the correct page. Pasquale is working on similar modules for Vaticanus and Sinaiticus! 74
In June 2005, a joint project to produce a new digital edition of the manuscript (involving all four holding libraries) and a series of other studies was announced. This will include the use of hyperspectral imaging to photograph the manuscripts to look for hidden information such as erased or faded text. 2
- References
- en.wikipedia.org
- oce.catholic.com
- members.aol.com
- en.wikipedia.org
- www.library.arizona.edu
- www.catholic.org
- mb-soft.com
- www.newlivingtranslation.com
- www.linguistsoftware.com
- www.1611kingjamesbible.com
- www.timetracts.com
- en.wikisource.org
- www.tertullian.org
- www.wayoflife.org
- www.heritagebbc.com
- rosetta.reltech.org
- www.religionfacts.com
- bibleworks.oldinthenew.org
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