Codex Climaci Rescriptus is a collective

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off in preparation for reuse in the form of another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid ski ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

consisting of several individual manuscripts underneath,

Christian Palestinian Aramaic Christian Palestinian Aramaic was a Western Aramaic languages, Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkite, Melkite Christian community, predominantly of Jews, Jewish descent, in Palestine (region), Palestine, Transjordan (region), Transjordan an ...

texts of the Old and

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

as well as two apocryphal texts, including the

Dormition of the Mother of God The Dormition of the Mother of God is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches (except the East Syriac churches). It celebrates the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary the '' Theotokos'' ("Mother ...

, and is known as Uncial 0250 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering) with a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

uncial Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin, as well as Gothic, and are the current style for ...

text of the

and overwritten by Syriac treatises of

Johannes Climacus John Climacus (; ; ), also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th–7th century Christian monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He is revered as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church. ...

(hence name of the codex): the ''scala paradisi'' and the ''liber ad pastorem''. Paleographically the Greek text has been assigned to the 7th or 8th century, and the Aramaic text to the 6th century. It originates from

Saint Catherine's Monastery Saint Catherine's Monastery ( , ), officially the Sacred Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is a Christian monastery located in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Located at the foot of Mount Sinai ...

going by the New Finds of 1975.Sinai Palimpsest Project
/ref> Formerly it was classified for CCR 5 and CCR 6 as lectionary manuscript, with Gregory giving the number ℓ 1561 to it.K. Aland, M. Welte, B. Köster, K. Junack, "Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments" (Berlin, New York 1994), p. 40.

Description

The codex is a 146 folio remnant of ten separate manuscripts, eight of which are in

, which have been dated to the 5th or 6th century CE; and three of which are in Greek, which have been dated to the 7th or 8th century CE. The

sections contain

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...

of two Gospels Matthew and

Mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

, as well as of the

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

and the

Epistles An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...

, remnant parts of the Old Jerusalem

lectionary A lectionary () is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christianity, Christian or Judaism, Jewish worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, ...

(CCR 3) with Old and New Testament pericopes, and sections of the early Christian apocryphal

(''Liber Requiei Mariae'') as well as one or two unknown homilies on 112 folios (23 by 18.5 cm), written in two columns per page, 18 to 23 lines per page in an adapted Syriac

Estrangela The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with the ...

square script. This manuscript is the second largest early corpus of

after Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus from

, Sinai for the early period of transmission (5th to 7th CE). The Greek section contains the text of the four

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s, with numerous lacunae, on 34 parchment folios (23 by 15.5 cm). Written in two columns per page, 31 lines per page, in uncial letters. According to Ian A. 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 The Codex Sinaiticus (; Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonica ...

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by siglum B or 03 in the Gregory-Aland numb ...

and

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...

, but is now lost. The Christian Palestinian Aramaic texts were read and edited by Agnes Smith Lewis and the Greek texts by Ian A. Moir,. Agnes Smith Lewis, ''Codex Climaci rescriptus'', Horae Semiticae, VIII (Cambridge, 1909).Ian A. Moir, ''Codex Climaci rescriptus graecus (Ms. Gregory 1561, L)'', Texts and Studies NS, 2 (Cambridge, 1956). A few pages remained unidentified until recently. Many of the readings for the

part could be improved for the reeditions by Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff. Two folios are attributed to the

and were reedited.Christa Müller-Kessler, An Overlooked Christian Palestinian Aramaic Witness of the Dormition of Mary in ''Codex Climaci Rescriptus'' (''CCR'' IV), ''Collectanea Christiana Orientalia'' 16, 2019, pp. 81–98. The missing eighteenth quire could recently be added from the New Finds (1975) in

.Sebastian P. Brock, The Syriac New Finds at St. Catherines's Monastery, Sinai, and Their Significance, ''The Harp'' 27, 2011, pp. 48–49.Christa Müller-Kessler, The Missing Quire of Codex Climaci rescriptus Containing 1–2 Corinthians in Christian Palestinian Aramaic (Sin. syr. NF M38N), in Claudia Rapp et al. (eds.), ''New Light on Old Manuscripts'' (Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung, 45; Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse, 547), Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, pp. 147–170. https://doi.org/10.1553/978OEAW91575s147

In Christian Palestinian Aramaic: ; CCR 1: a Gospel manuscript including 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 2A: a Gospel of John in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, plus the Acts and Epistles 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 ; CCR 2B 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; 2:10-3:5; 4:1-15; 5:7-6:5; 10:18-31; 12:12-24; 13:4-11; 14:4-7; 14:8-14; 14:14-24; 14:24-37; 15:3-10; 15:10-24; 15:24-49; 16:3-16; 16:16-24 II Corin. 1:1-3; 1:23-2:11; 2:11-3:5; 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 Phil. 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 1 John 1:1-9 II Peter 1:1-12; 3:16-18 ; CCR 3: Old Jerusalem lectionaryChrista Müller-Kessler, The Early Jerusalem Lectionary Tradition in Christian Palestinian Aramaic (5th–7th Centuries AD): Lections Containing Unattested Old and New Testament Pericopes in Unpublished Palimpsests (Sinai, Greek NF MG 32; Georgian NF 19, 71), ''Le Muséon'' 134, 2023, pp. 201–263. Exodus 4:14-18 Deut. 6: 4-21; 7:1-26 I Kgds. 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 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 Galatians 4:1-7 Titus 2:11–15 ; CCR 7: biblical manuscript: Leviticus 8:18-30; 11:42-12:2-8 ; CCR 8: Old Jerusalem lectionary Isaiah 63:9b-11a Matt. 27:27-41 Mark 15:16-19 John 13:15-29 John 15:19-26; 16:9 Hebrews 3:6; 9:11-28; 10:19-20 ; CCR 4: Fragment of an unknown apocryphal

homily A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ...

about the life of Jesus;

(''Liber Requiei Mariae'') with chapters 121-122; 125–126 (Ethiopic transmission). ; 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;

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 John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

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.

Text

The Greek text of the

codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

0250 is mixed with a predominant element of the

Byzantine text-type In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main Textual criticism#New Testament, text types. ...

. Aland placed it in Category III. Gregory classified it as lectionary (ℓ ''1561'').

C. R. Gregory C. or c. may refer to: * Century, sometimes abbreviated as ''c.'' or ''C.'', a period of 100 years * Letter C, the third letter in the alphabet. * Cent (currency), abbreviated ''c.'' or ''¢'', a monetary unit that equals of the basic unit of man ...

, ''Textkritik des Neuen Testaments'', Leipzig 1909, vol. 3, p. 1374-1375. Matthew 8:12 : it has ἐξελεύσονται (''will go out'') instead of ἐκβληθήσονται (''will be thrown''). This variant is supported only by one Greek manuscript

, by Latin Codex Bobiensis, syr^{c, s, p, pal}, arm, and

Diatessaron The ''Diatessaron'' (; c. 160–175 AD) is the most prominent early gospel harmony. It was created in the Syriac language by Tatian, an Assyrian early Christian apologist and ascetic. Tatian sought to combine all the textual material he fou ...

. 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'') along with א, C, ( N), Θ, ''f''¹, ( 33, 1241), g¹, syr^h. Matthew 27:35 : It has additional text (see John 19:24): Διεμερίσαντο τα ιματια μου εαυτοις, και επι τον ιματισμον μου εβαλον κληρον (''they divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots'') along with Δ, Θ, ''f''¹, ''f''¹³, 537, 1424.

Discovery and present location

One folio of the codex was purchased by Agnes Smith Lewis in Cairo in 1895, 89 folios were received from an undisclosed Berlin scholar in 1905, and 48 further ones were acquired in Port Tewfik in 1906. One folio was bought by

Alphonse Mingana Alphonse Mingana (), born Hurmiz Mingana (; 1878 – 5 December 1937), was an Assyrian theologian, historian, Syriacist, orientalist and a former priest who is best known for collecting and preserving the Mingana Collection, a collection of ...

. This folio had been already in the hand of Agnes Smith Lewis in 1895. Eight leaves (Sinai, Syriac NF 38) surfaced among the New Finds in

from 1975. Until 2010, the codex was housed at the Westminster College in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, formerly donated by Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson to this College. It was listed for sale at a

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

auction, where it failed to sell on July 7, 2009. In 2010, Steve Green, president of

Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail company. It owns a chain of arts and crafts stores with a volume of over $5 billion in 2018. The chain has 1,001 stores in 48 U.S. states. The Green family fo ...

, bought the codex directly from Sotheby's after their auction ended unsuccessfully. The codex now resides in the

Green Collection The Green Collection, later known as the Museum Collection, is one of the world's largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts, made up of more than 40,000 biblical antiquities assembled by the Green family, founders of the Am ...

. but one folio is still kept in the

Mingana Collection The Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts, comprising over 3,000 documents, is held by the University of Birmingham's Cadbury Research Library. History In 1924 Alphonse Mingana, an ethnic Assyrian, made the first of three trips to ...

, Birmingham, and eight more folios are stored from the New Finds (1975) in the library at

, Sinai. In 2021 parts of the previously lost star catalogue of

Hipparchus of Nicaea Hipparchus (; , ; BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes. Hipparchus was born in Nicaea, ...

were discovered in the manuscript.

References

Text editions

* Agnes Smith Lewis, ''Codex Climaci rescriptus'', Horae Semiticae, VIII (Cambridge, 1909). * Hugo Duensing, Zwei christlich-palästinisch-aramäische Fragmente aus der Apostelgeschichte, ''Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft'' 37, 1938, pp. 42–46. * Matthew Black, A Palestinian Syriac Leaf of Acts XXI, ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library'' 23, 1939, pp. 201–214. * Ian A. Moir, ''Codex Climaci rescriptus grecus (Ms. Gregory 1561, L)'', Texts and Studies NS, 2 (Cambridge, 1956). * Christa Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, ''The Christian Palestinian Aramaic Old Testament and Apocrypha'', A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, I (Groningen, 1997). * Christa Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, ''The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Gospels'', A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, IIA (Groningen, 1998). * Christa Müller-Kessler and M. Sokoloff, ''The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Acts of the Apostles and Epistles'', A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, IIB (Groningen, 1998). {{ISBN, 90-5693-019-2 * Christa Müller-Kessler, An Overlooked Christian Palestinian Aramaic Witness of the Dormition of Mary in ''Codex Climaci Rescriptus'' (''CCR'' IV), ''Collectanea Christiana Orientalia'' 16, 2019, pp. 81–98. https://doi.org/10.21071/cco.v16i0.1101. * Christa Müller-Kessler, The Missing Quire of Codex Climaci rescriptus Containing 1–2 Corinthians in Christian Palestinian Aramaic (Sin. syr. NF M38N), in Claudia Rapp, Guilia Rossetto, Jana Grusková, Grigory Kessel (eds.), ''New Light on Old Manuscripts The Sinai Palimpsests and Other Advances in Palimpsest Studies'', Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung, 45; Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse, 547, (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Science Press, 2023), pp. 147–170. https://doi.org/10.1553/978OEAW91575s147.

External links

Uncial 0250
at the Wieland Willker, "Textual Commentary"
Sinai Palimpsest Project
at the Monastery of Saint Catherine Texts in Aramaic Greek language Palimpsests Greek New Testament uncials 8th-century biblical manuscripts Christian hagiography 5th-century biblical manuscripts Dormition of the Mother of God

Description

Contents

Text

Discovery and present location

See also

References

Text editions

Further reading

External links