Codex Koridethi

New Testament manuscripts
papyri • uncials • minuscules • lectionaries

Uncial 038
] A portion of the Codex Koridethi, containing Mark 6:19-21
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 Codex Koridethi, also named Codex Coridethianus, designated by Θ, 038, or Theta (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 050 (Soden), is a 9th century manuscript of the four Gospels. It is written in Greek with uncial script in two columns per page, in 25 lines per page. There are gaps in the text: Matthew 1:1–9, 1:21–4:4, and 4:17–5:4 are missing.

The letters are written in a rough, inelegant hand. The scribe who wrote the text is believed to have been unfamiliar with Greek.^[1]

The codex is located now in Tbilisi (Georgian National Center of Manuscripts, Gr. 28).^[2]

Name and history

Many people think that the text gets its name from the town in which it was discovered. This is not correct. The Editio Princeps by Beermann and Gregory^[3] states:

Kala/Caucasia: In the year 1853 a certain Bartholomeé visited a long abandoned monastery in Kala, a little village in the Caucasian mountains near the Georgian/Russian border (some miles south east of the 5600m high Elbrus). There, in an old church, far off every civilisation, he discovered the MS. The MS rested there probably for several hundred years (Beermann: ca. 1300–1869).

Koridethi: Before this time the MS was in a town called Koridethi. This was a village near the Black Sea, near today's Batumi in Georgia. There should still be some ruins of a monastery. Notes in the Gospel indicate dates from ca. 965 CE on. At around this time, according to a note, the book has been rebound. The book was there until around 1300 CE.

Further south, Armenia: A Greek inscription mentions the city of Tephrice or Tephrike (Greek: Τεφρική): "I, Kurines, Comes of the comandant of the city Tephrice came to the castelles and went back to the fort of the Great Martyrs(?)." Even though the content and meaning is not completely clear, the city Tephrice is clear. The town was destroyed in 873. It was on a line between today's Sivas and Malatya in Turkey/Armenia. Beermann's conclusion therefore is (p. 581) that the codex must be older than 873 CE. Beermann speculates that the "fort of the Great Martyrs" (if correctly deciphered) might have been Martyropolis, a town near the Wan Lake, near today's Batman in Turkey.

Witness of Byzantine text-type

In 2007 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft edited The Gospel According to John in the Byzantine Tradition. Koridethi is cited in the apparatus. In the Introduction to this edition is written: "Manuscript 038 (Θ) represents a text on the boundary of what might reasonably be considered a manuscript of the Byzantine tradition in John".^[4]

Text of the codex

The text-type of Matthew ch. 1-14, Luke, and John is more or less Byzantine, while Mark is Caesarean. The text of the Matthew ch. 14-28 is Alexandrian. Aland placed it in Category II.^[2] It lacks the text of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11).

Matthew 1:11

It reads Ιωσιας δε εγεννησεν τον Ιωακειμ, Ιωακειμ δε εγεννησεν τον Ιεχονιαν instead of Ιωσιας δε εγεννησεν τον Ιεχονιαν. The reading is supported by Codex Campianus, f¹, 33, 258, 478, 661, 791, 954, 1216, 1230, 1354, 1604, ℓ 54.^[5]

Matthew 8:13

It has additional text: 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), 0250, f¹, (33, 1241), g¹, syr^h.^[6]

Matthew 10:12

It reads λεγοντες ειρηνη τω οικω τουτω instead of αυτην. The reading is used by manuscripts: Sinaiticus*^,2, Bezae, Regius, Washingtonianus, f ¹ 1010 (1424), it vg^cl.^[7]

Matthew 20:23

phrase και το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθησεσθε (and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with) omitted, as in codices Sinaiticus, B, D, L, Z, 085, f¹, f¹³, it, syr^{s, c}, cop^sa.^[8]

Matthew 27:16

it has famous textual variant "Ιησουν τον Βαραββαν" (Jesus Barabbas). This variant contain Minuscule 700, and manuscripts of the textual family f¹.

Matthew 27:35

τα ιματια μου εαυτοις, και επι τον ιματισμον μου εβαλον κληρον — Δ, Θ, 0250, f¹, f¹³, 537, 1424.

In Mark 9:49 it has unique textual variant πας γαρ πυρι αναλωθησεται instead of πας γαρ πυρι αλισθησεται.^[9]

In Luke 14:5 it has singular reading ὄνος υἱὸς ἢ βοῦς for υἱὸς ἢ βοῦς;^[10]

In Luke 23:34 omitted words: "And Jesus said: Father forgive them, they know not what they do." This omission is supported by the manuscripts Papyrus 75, Sinaiticus^a, B, D*, W, 0124, 1241, a, Codex Bezae^lat, syr^s, cop^sa, cop^bo.^[11]

In John 6:1 it reads της θαλασσης της Γαλιλαιας εις τα μερη της Τιβεριαδος – along with D, 892, 1009, 1230, 1253;^[12]

In John 7:71 it reads απο Καρυωτου for Ισκαριωτου, the reading of the codex is supported by Sinaiticus, f¹³, syr^h;^[13]

John 18:11

παντες γαρ οι λαβοντες μαχαιραν εν μαχαιρα απολουνταιν – Θ^[14]

See also

• List of New Testament uncials

Notes

1. ^ Metzger, Bruce M.; Ehrman, Bart D. (2005). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (4 ed.). New York – Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-19-516122-9. 
2. ^ ^{a b} 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. 118. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1. 
3. ^ "Die Koridethi-Evangelien", Gustav Beermann und Caspar René Gregory, Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913
4. ^ The Gospel According to John in the Byzantine Tradition, Stuttgart 2007, Introduction, p. V.
5. ^ Eberhard Nestle, Erwin Nestle, Barbara Aland and Kurt Aland (eds), Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th edition, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1991), p. 2; UBS3, p. 2.
6. ^ Eberhard Nestle, Erwin Nestle, Barbara Aland and Kurt Aland (eds), Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th edition, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1991), p. 18
7. ^ Eberhard Nestle, Erwin Nestle, Barbara Aland and Kurt Aland (eds), Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th edition, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1991), p. 24
8. ^ Eberhard Nestle, Erwin Nestle, Barbara Aland and Kurt Aland (eds), Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th edition, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1991), 56.
9. ^ Eberhard Nestle, Erwin Nestle, Barbara Aland and Kurt Aland (eds), Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th edition, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1991), p. 121.
10. ^ UBS3, p. 273.
11. ^ UBS4, p. 311.
12. ^ UBS3, p. 342
13. ^ UNS3, p. 349
14. ^ NA26, p. 307.

Further reading

• K. Lake, R. P. Blake, The Text of the Gospels and the Koridethi Codex, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Jul. 1923), pp. 267–286.
• B. H. Streeter, The Four Gospels. A study of origins the manuscript traditions, sources, authorship, & dates, Oxford 1924, ss. 77-107.
• Herman C. Hoskier, Collation of Koridethi with Scrivener's Reprint of Stephen III, BBC 6 (1929), pp. 31–56.
• F. G. Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts (4th ed.), London 1939.

External links

• The Koridethi MS. and the Text of Caesarea
• Codex Koridethi at the Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism