Codex Climaci Rescriptus

New Testament manuscripts
papyri • uncials • minuscules • lectionaries

Uncial 0250
Name	Codex Climaci Rescriptus
Text	Gospels and Old Testament
Date	6th - 8th century
Script	Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Greek and Syriac
Found	Sinai
Now at	Westminster College
Cite	A. S. Lewis, "Codex Climaci rescriptus", Horae semiticae 8 (1909), pp. 27-31.
Size	23 cm by 18.5-15.5 cm
Type	mixed
Category	III
Note	nine unique textual readings in Greek

Codex Climaci rescriptus, known as Uncial 0250 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament as well as a Christian Palestinian Aramaic uncial manuscript of the Old and New Testament. Paleographically the Greek section has been assigned to the 8th century (or 7th century), and the Christian Palestinian Aramaic section to the sixth century. Formerly it was classified as lectionary manuscript, Gregory gave for it number ℓ 1561.^[1]

Description

The codex is a 137 leaf remnant of eight separate manuscripts, six of which are in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, which have been dated to the sixth century AD.; and two of which are in Greek, which have been dated to the seventh or eighth century AD.

The Christian Palestinian Aramaic sections contains significant parts of the four Gospels, as well as the Acts and Epistles, and the remains of a large volume of the Old Testament in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, on 104 leaves (23 by 18.5 mm). Mostly written in two columns per page, 18 lines per page in Uncial Estrangelo script.

The Greek section contains the text of the four Gospels, with numerous lacunae, on 33 parchment leaves (23 by 15.5 cm). Written in two columns per page, 31 lines per page, in uncial letters.^[2]

It is a palimpsest, the upper text containing two Syriac treatises of Johannes Climacus (hence name of the codex), the Scala paradisi and portions of the Liber ad pastorem.^[3]

Contents

In Christian Palestinian Aramaic:

CCR 1

a Gospel-book in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, including the texts of Matthew and Mark

Matt. 21:23-41; 27-31; 22:40-23:1; 23:1-25; 24:42-46; 24: 25:14; 26:24-32; 26:40-49; 27:9-19; 27:39-48; 27:64-28:3; 28:4-10

Mark 1:1-10; 1:20-30; 2:2-11; 17-24

CCR 2

a Gospel of John in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, plus

the Acts and Epistles

John 1:1-9

(The Sotheby's catalogue reports this, but its list of folios reads "I John 1:1-9," i.e., First Epistle, not Gospel. Since it is on the back of II Peter 3:16-18 (136r & v), in canonical order, the ms may have the Epistle text.)^[4]

Acts 19:31-36; 20:1; 20:2-7; 20:8-14; 21:3-8; 21:9-14; 24:25-25:1; 25:3-26; 26:23-29; 27:1-13; 27:14-27

Romans 4:17-22; 5:4-15; 6:14-19; 7:2-11; 8: 9-21; 9:30;10:3-9; 15:11-21

I Corin. 1:6-23; 4:1-15; 13: 4-11; 14:4-7; 14:8-14; 14:24-37; 15:3-10; 15:24-49; 16:16-24

II Corin. 1:23-2: 4-11; 4:18-5:6; 5:6-12; 6:3-16; 7:3-8

Galat. 1:1-23; 3:20-24; 4:2; 4:4-29; 5:1; 5:24; 6:4-12; 6: 4

Eph. 1:18-2:8; 4:14-27; 5:8-16; 5:17-24

Phill. 2:12-26

Coloss. 4: 6-17

I Thess.1:3-9; 5:15-26

II Thess. 1:3-2:2

II Timothy 3:2-14

Titus 2:7-3:3

Philemon 11-25

II Peter 1:1-12; 3:16-18

CCR 3

a Lectionary in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, including

significant portions of the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament

Exodus 4:14-18

Deut. 6: 4-21; 7:1-26

I Sam. 1:1; 2:19-29; 4:1-6; 6:5-18

Job 6:1-26; 7: 4-21

Psalms 2:7; 40(41):1; 50(51):1; 56(57):1; 109(110):1; 131(132):1

Proverbs 1:20-22

Isaiah 40:1-8; 63:9-11

Jerem. 11:22-12: 4-8

Joel 2:12-14; 2:20

Micah 4:1-3; 4:3-5

Matt. 1:18-25; 2:1-2; 2:2-8; 2:18-23

Luke 1: 26-38

CCR 7

a biblical codex in Christian Palestinian Aramaic:

Leviticus 8:18-30; 11:42-12:2-8

CCR 8

a Lectionary in Christian Palestinian Aramaic

Matt. 27:27-41

Mark 15:16-19

John 13:15-29

John 15:19-26; 16:9

CCR 4

Unique records of homilies and stories about the life of Jesus in Christian Palestinian Aramaic

Fragment of a Homily Fragment of a story about Jesus attempting to convert a Roman leader, Berghamus, before 2000 of his own soldiers, in an unnamed city in the Holy Land

In Greek (CCR 5 & 6)

Matt. 2:12-23; 3:13-15; 5:1-2.4.30-37; 6:1-4.16-18; 7:12.15-20; 8:7.10-13.16-17.20-21; 9:27-31.36; 10:5; 12:36-38.43-45; 13:36-46; 26:75-27:2.11.13-16.18.20.22-23.26-40;

Mark 14:72-15:2.4-7.10-24.26-28;

Luke 22:60-62.66-67; 23:3-4.20-26.32-34.38;

John 6:53-7:25.45.48-51; 8:12-44; 9:12-10:15; 10:41-12:3.6.9.14-24.26-35.44-49; 14:22-15:15; 16:13-18; 16:29-17:5; 18:1-9.11-13.18-24.28-29.31; 18:36-19:1.4.6.9.16.18.23-24.31-34; 20:1-2.13-16.18-20.25; 20:28-21:1.^[5]

Text

The Greek text of this codex is mixed with a predominant element of the Byzantine text-type. Aland placed it in Category III.^[2]

Matthew 8:12

it has ἐξελεύσονται (will go out) instead of ἐκβληθήσονται (will be thrown). This variant is supported only by one Greek manuscript Codex Sinaiticus, by Latin Codex Bobiensis, syr^{c, s, p, pal}, arm, and Diatessaron.^[6]

Matthew 8:13

It has additional text (see Luke 7:10): και υποστρεψας ο εκατονταρχος εις τον οικον αυτου εν αυτη τη ωρα ευρεν τον παιδα υγιαινοντα (and when the centurion returned to the house in that hour, he found the slave well) as well as codices א, C, (N), Θ, f¹, (33, 1241), g¹, syr^h.^[7]

Matthew 27:35

τα ιματια μου εαυτοις, και επι τον ιματισμον μου εβαλον κληρον — Δ, Θ, f¹, f¹³, 537, 1424.

Discovery and present location

One leaf of the codex was purchased by A. S. Lewis in Cairo in 1895, 89 leaves were received from a Berlin scholar in 1905, and 48 further leaves were purchased in Port Tewfik in 1906.^[8]

Gregory classified it as lectionary (ℓ 1561).^[9] The manuscript was not mentioned by Hermann von Soden in his Die Schriften des NT.

According to Moir this manuscript contains a substantial record of an early Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels once at Caesarea, which would have been the sister of Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus, but is now lost.

Until 2010, the codex was housed at the Westminster College in Cambridge.^[2] It was been listed for sale at a Sotheby's auction, where it failed to sell on July 7, 2009.^[10] In 2010, the codex was bought by Steven Green, president of Hobby Lobby Inc., directly from Sotheby's after their unsuccessful auction.^[11]

See also

• List of New Testament uncials
• Textual criticism

References

1. ^ K. Aland, M. Welte, B. Köster, K. Junack, "Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments", Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1994, p. 40.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Aland, Kurt; Barbara Aland; Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.) (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1. 
3. ^ [1] Sotheby's catalogue, which suggests the translation was from the autograph.
4. ^ [2] Sotheby's sale catalogue.
5. ^ Kurt Aland, Synopsis Quattuor Evangeliorum. Locis parallelis evangeliorum apocryphorum et patrum adhibitis edidit, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1996, p. XXVI.
6. ^ UBS4, p. 26.
7. ^ NA26, p. 18
8. ^ Ian A. Moir, Codex Climaci rescriptus graecus (Ms. Gregory 1561, L), Texts and Studies NS, 2 (Cambridge, 1956), p. 3.
9. ^ C. R. Gregory, "Textkritik des Neuen Testaments", Leipzig 1909, vol. 3, p. 1374-1375.
10. ^ Sotheby's Auctions Forbes Magazine report.
11. ^ Hobby Lobby Family Collects Bibles for Museum – NYTimes.com, June 11, 2010

Further reading

• A. Smith Lewis, A Palestinian Syriac Lectionary containing Lessons from the Pentateuch, Job, Proverbs, Prophets, Acts and Epistles, Studia Sinaitica 6 (1895), p. cxxxix
• Agnes Smith Lewis, Codex Climaci rescriptus, Horae Semiticae 8 (Cambridge, 1909), pp. 27–31.
• Ian A. Moir, Codex Climaci rescriptus grecus (Ms. Gregory 1561, L), Texts and Studies NS, 2 (Cambridge, 1956).
• C. Müller-Kessler, Christian Palestinian Aramaic and its significance to the Western Aramaic dialect group, Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999), pp.
• C. Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic Old Testament and Apocrypha, Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic I (1997)
• C. Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament version from the early period. Gospels, Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic IIA (1998), pp.
• C. Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament version from the early period. Acts of the Apostels and Epistels, Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic IIB (1998)
• C. Müller-Kessler, Die Frühe Christlich-Palästinisch-Aramäische Evangelienhandschrift CCR1 übersetzt durch einen Ostaramäischen (Syrischen) Schreiber?, Journal for the Aramaic Bible 1 (1999), pp. 79–86

External links

• Uncial 0250 at the Wieland Willker, "Textual Commentary"