Codex Bezae An Early Christian Manuscript and its Text [Paperback]

David Parker makes a comprehensive investigation of the Codex Bezae, one of the most important primary sources in New Testament scholarship.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.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.Codex Bezae is one of the most important primary sources in New Testament scholarship. Since its rediscovery in the sixteenth century it has continued to fascinate scholars, who have remained intrigued by the riddles of its general appearance and textual characteristics. David Parker makes the first comprehensive investigation of the manuscript for over a century, and sets out to uncover the story behind this most enigmatic of manuscripts. By studying the characteristics of Codex Bezae, both physical and textual, and by comparing its Greek and Latin texts, the author aims to show how a bilingual tradition developed, and thus to discover as much as possible about its earliest stages, which leads to an important new theory about its origins. In a final section, the general character of the text is assessed with a view to what this can tell us of the earliest traditions about Jesus.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. TlÓg