Codex Alexandrinus
Codex Alexandrinus, or A, is an early fifth century biblical manuscript kept at the British Library in London. The language of the text is koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament. The manuscript is the principle source of Revelation as it appears in modern Bible translations. It includes an excellent Greek version of Isaiah, an Old Testament book originally written in Hebrew.[1] The Greek version of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, is significant as a source of various New Testament quotes and allusions.
In 1627, Patriarch Cyril I of Constantinople presented the manuscript English ambassador Thomas Roe. Cyril is thought to have obtained the document in Alexandria, hence the name. Beginning with Wettstein in 1730, scholars noticed that the text of Alexandrinus was older than that of Textus Receptus, the standard Greek text of the time, and significantly different from it.
In 1731, the codex narrowly escaped a fire. It was rescued by librarian Richard Bentley.[2] Bentley led an effort to create a revised Greek New Testament text based on Alexandrinus. This project was still incomplete when he died in 1742.
The text of codex was published in 1786 by Carl Gottfried Woide. A full sized black-and-white facsimile edition by E. Maunde Thompson was published in 1879-1883.[3] The British Library put digitized color images online in 2012.[4]
References
- ↑ The Book of Isaiah According to the Septuagint (Codex Alexandrinus) (2011).
- ↑ "Codex Alexandrinus," (2017).
- ↑ Smith, W. Andrew, A Study of the Gospels in Codex Alexandrinus: Codicology, Palaeography, and Scribal Hands, (2014), p. 2.
- ↑ "Codex Alexandrinus (Gregory-Aland 02), Bible in four volumes: Volume 4 (New Testament)," British Library.