Codex Bezae An Early Christian Manuscript and its Text

David Parker makes a comprehensive investigation of the Codex Bezae, one of the most important primary sources in New Testament scholarship.

Codex Bezae is one of the most important primary sources in New Testament scholarship. Together with Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus it represents one of our most significant links back to the early Church and its origins. Since its rediscovery in the sixteenth century, the riddles posed by its general appearance and its textual characteristics have continued to fascinate scholars, and David Parker here offers a comprehensive study of Codex Bezae. This book aims to cast light on the story behind this most enigmatic of manuscripts. Data are presented here that makes possible a reconstruction of the stages of copying from which the manuscript descends. An appraisal of the earliest correctors of the Codex enables the author to extend his picture of its history to the medieval period.

List of illustrations; Preface; List of abbreviations and textual conventions; Introduction; Part I. The Palaeography: 1. The codex and the hand; 2. The punctuation; 3. The secondary hands; 4. Towards the codicology of a bilingual codex; Part II. The Scribe and the Tradition: 5. The sense-lines; 6. The nomina sacra; 7. The orthography; 8. The Codex Bezae and its ancestors; Part III. The Correctors: 9. The corrections; 10. The supplementary leaves; 11. The development of the corrected text; Part IV. The Bilingual Tradition: 12. The codex and the critics; 13. A comparison of the columns; 14. The character of the tradition; Part V. Text and Codex: 15. The origins of the Codex Bezae; 16. The history of a text; Appendices; Plates; Notes on the plates; Indexes.

David Parker makes a comprehensive investigation of the Codex Bezae, one of the most important primary sources in New Testament scholarship, and sets out to uncover the story behind this most enigmatic of manuscripts.