Codex Athous Lavrensis

The Codex Athous Laurae—designated by Ψ or 044 in the Gregory-Aland numbering, and δ 6 in von Soden numbering—is a manuscript of the New Testament written in Greek uncial on parchment. The manuscript is written in a mix of text styles, with many lacunae, or gaps, in the text, as well as containing handwritten notes, or marginalia.

The codex is currently kept in the Great Lavra monastery (B' 52) on the Athos peninsula.^[1]

History[]

The codex is dated palaeographically to the 8th or 9th century.^[1]

The manuscript was seen by C. R. Gregory on August 26, 1886. He described it as the first of its kind. In 1892 it was not examined by J. Rendel Harris, who was inspecting the Septuaginta manuscripts. Von Goltz and Georg Wobbermin had collated the text of Acts, the general epistles, and Pauline epistles for Hermann von Soden. The codex was examined by Kirsopp Lake in 1899, who thoroughly examined the Gospel of Mark and collated the text of the gospels of Luke and John. He did not examine the text of Acts and the epistles because, according to Soden, their text was ordinary. In 1903, Lake published the text of the Gospel of Mark 9:5-16:20, and a collation of the gospels of Luke, John, and the Epistle to the Colossians in Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica.^[2]

Textual overview[]

The codex originally contained the entire New Testament except for the Book of Revelation, with lacunae at both the beginning and end. The Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark 1:1-9:5, and one leaf from the Hebrews with text 8:11-9:19 have subsequently been lost.

The order of the codex's books:

• the four Gospels
• the Acts of the Apostles
• the General epistles
• the Pauline epistles

The General epistles were found to be in an unusual order (1-2 Peter, James, 1-3 John, and Jude). Also, there was a shorter ending of Mark before the longer version. This is similar to the Codex Regius and all other Greek codices in which the general epistles appear.^[3]

The codex contains 261 parchment leaves, each measuring 21 by 15.3 centimetres (8.3 by 6.0 in),^[4] with the space on each page devoted to text being 15 by 8.7 centimetres (5.9 by 3.4 in).^[5]

The text is written in small uncial letters, in one column of 31 lines per page.^[1] These letters have breathings and accents.^[6] The codex contains a table of κεφαλαια ("contents") before each book, the Ammonian Sections (in Mark, 233 sections), Eusebian Canons, lectionary notes in the margin (for liturgical use), musical notes (neumes), and subscriptions.^[6] It is considered one of the oldest manuscripts with musical notes.

Textual variants[]

The Greek text of this codex is described as representative of the Byzantine text-type, but with a large portion of Alexandrian readings, as well as some Western readings. Despite being an unusually mixed text, Von Soden lists it as generally Alexandrian because the Gospel of Mark and the General Epistles are in the Alexandrian text-type.^[7] In the Gospel of Luke and John, the Byzantine element is predominate, but with a larger proportion of Alexandrian readings than in Codex Sangallensis 48.^[3]The Byzantine element is predominant in Acts and the Pauline epistles.^[8] The text of the General Epistles appeared to be the same type as found in Codex Alexandrinus, 33, 81, and 436. Kurt Aland placed the text of the codex in Category III in the Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles, and in Category II in the General Epistles.^[1]

Mark 9:49

contains the unique variant θυσια αναλωθησεται, instead of αλι αλισθησεται.^[9]

Mark 10:7

omits και προσκολληθησεται προς την γυναικα αυτου ("and be joined to his wife") – א‎ B 892. ℓ 48 syr^s goth^[10]

Mark 10:19

omits the phrase μη αποστερησης – B^c K W f¹ f¹³ 28. 700. 1079. 1242. 1546. 2148. ℓ 10 ℓ 950 ℓ 1642 ℓ 1761 syr^s arm geo^[11] This omission is typical for the manuscripts of the Caesarean text-type.

Mark 11:26 and Mark 15:28 are omitted.^[6][12]

Luke 9:35

uses the longest reading αγαπητος εν ο ευδοκησα – as codices C³, D, ℓ 19, ℓ 31, ℓ 47, ℓ 48, ℓ 49, ℓ 49^m, ℓ 183, ℓ 183^m, ℓ 211^m.^{[13][n 1]}

John 7:53–8:11

which is the text of the Pericope Adulterae, is omitted.^[6][14]

John 20:31

contains ζωην αιωνιον – as codices א‎ C(*) D L 0100 f¹³ it vg^mss syr^{p h} cop^sa cop^bo.

Acts 12:25

contains απο Ιερουσαλημ ("from Jerusalem") – as D, Ψ, 181, 436, 614, 2412, ℓ 147, , ℓ 1021, , , , ar, d, gig, vg, Chrysostom;

εις Ιερουσαλημ ("to Jerusalem") – as א‎ B, H, L, P, 049, 056, 0142, 81, 88, 326, 330, 451, 629, 1241, 1505, 1877, 2492, 2495, Byz, Lect;

εξ Ιερουσαλημ ("from Jerusalem") – as