Codex Coislinianus
Encyclopedia
Codex Coislinianus designated by Hp or 015 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α 1022 (Soden), was named also as Codex Euthalianus. It is a Greek uncial
Uncial
Uncial is a majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters are written in either Greek, Latin, or Gothic.-Development:...

 manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 of the Pauline epistles
Pauline epistles
The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul as the first word, hence claiming authorship by Paul the Apostle. Among these letters are some of the earliest extant Christian documents...

, dated palaeographically
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...

 to the 6th century. The text is written stichometrically
Stichometry
Stichometry is a term applied to the measurement of ancient texts by στίχοι or verses of a fixed standard length.It was the custom of the Greeks and Romans to estimate the length of their literary works by measured lines...

.
It has marginalia
Marginalia
Marginalia are scribbles, comments, and illuminations in the margins of a book.- Biblical manuscripts :Biblical manuscripts have liturgical notes at the margin, for liturgical use. Numbers of texts' divisions are given at the margin...

. The codex is known for its subscription at the end of the Epistle to Titus
Epistle to Titus
The Epistle of Paul to Titus, usually referred to simply as Titus, is one of the three Pastoral Epistles , traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the New Testament...

.

The manuscript was divided into several parts and was used as raw material for the production of new volumes. The codex came to the attention of scholars in the 18th century (after edition of Montfaucon
Bernard de Montfaucon
Bernard de Montfaucon was a French Benedictine monk, a scholar who founded a new discipline, palaeography; an editor of works of the Fathers of the Church; he is also regarded to be one of the founders of modern archaeology.-Early life:Montfaucon was born January 13, 1655 in the castle of...

). Currently it is housed in several European libraries, in: Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Athos
Athos
Athos may refer to:* Athos , one of the Gigantes in Greek mythologyAthos may also refer to:-Places:* Athos, a village in France, part of the commune Athos-Aspis...

, Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, and Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

.

It is cited in all critical editions of the Greek New Testament
Novum Testamentum Graece
Novum Testamentum Graece is the Latin name editions of the original Greek-language version of the New Testament.The first printed edition was the Complutensian Polyglot Bible by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, printed in 1514, but not published until 1520...

.

Contents

The surviving leaves of the codex contain:
1 Cor.
First Epistle to the Corinthians
The first epistle of Paul the apostle to the Corinthians, often referred to as First Corinthians , is the seventh book of the New Testament of the Bible...

 10:22–29, 11:9–16;
2 Cor.
Second Epistle to the Corinthians
The second epistle of Paul the apostle to the Corinthians, often referred to as Second Corinthians , is the eighth book of the New Testament of the Bible...

 4:2–7, 10:5–11:8, 11:12–12:4;
Gal.
Epistle to the Galatians
The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, often shortened to Galatians, is the ninth book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia...

 1:1–10, 2:9–17, 4:30–5:5;
Col.
Epistle to the Colossians
The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians, usually referred to simply as Colossians, is the 12th book of the New Testament. It was written, according to the text, by Paul the Apostle to the Church in Colossae, a small Phrygian city near Laodicea and approximately 100 miles from Ephesus in Asia...

 1:26–2:8, 2:20–3:11;
1 Thes.
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, usually referred to simply as First Thessalonians and often written 1 Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible....

 2:9–13, 4:5–11;
1 Tim.
First Epistle to Timothy
The First Epistle of Paul to Timothy, usually referred to simply as First Timothy and often written 1 Timothy, is one of three letters in the New Testament of the Bible often grouped together as the Pastoral Epistles, the others being Second Timothy and Titus...

 1:7–2:13, 3:7–13, 6:9–13;
2 Tim.
Second Epistle to Timothy
The Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy, usually referred to simply as Second Timothy and often written 2 Timothy, is one of the three Pastoral Epistles traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the New Testament...

 2:1–9;
Titus
Epistle to Titus
The Epistle of Paul to Titus, usually referred to simply as Titus, is one of the three Pastoral Epistles , traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the New Testament...

 1:1–3, 1:15–2:5, 3:13–15;
Hebr.
Epistle to the Hebrews
The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the books in the New Testament. Its author is not known.The primary purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews is to exhort Christians to persevere in the face of persecution. The central thought of the entire Epistle is the doctrine of the Person of Christ and his...

 1:3–8, 2:11–16, 3:13–18, 4:12–15, 10:1–7, 10:32–38, 12:10–15, 13:24–25.


All these books, belonging to the Pauline epistles, have survived only in fragments. Romans
Epistle to the Romans
The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ...

, Philippians, Ephesians, 2 Thes
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
The Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, often referred to as Second Thessalonians and written 2 Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible...

, and Phil
Epistle to Philemon
Paul's Epistle to Philemon, usually referred to simply as Philemon, is a prison letter to Philemon from Paul of Tarsus. Philemon was a leader in the Colossian church. This letter, which is one of the books of the New Testament, deals with forgiveness.Philemon was a wealthy Christian of the house...

 have been lost altogether.

Description

The codex originally contained the entire Pauline epistles. The leaves were arranged in quarto
Quarto
Quarto could refer to:* Quarto, a size or format of a book in which four leaves of a book are created from a standard size sheet of paper* For specific information about quarto texts of William Shakespeare's works, see:...

 (four leaves in quire). Only 41 leaves of the codex have survived. The text is written on parchment in large, square uncials (over 1.5 cm), in one column per page, and 16 lines per page. The breathings (designated by ⊢ and ⊣) and accents were added by a later hand (not to the subscriptions). Accents often were put in wrong places. Iota subscriptum does not occur, there are some errors of itacism (f.e. ΙΟΔΑΙΟΙ instead of ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΙ). The nomina sacra
Nomina sacra
Nomina sacra means "sacred names" in Latin, and can be used to refer to traditions of abbreviated writing of several frequently occurring divine names or titles in early Greek language Holy Scripture...

 are written in an abbreviated way (ΘΥ, ΠΡΣ, ΧΥ, ΑΝΟΥΣ), the words at the end of the line are contracted.

The text is divided according to the κεφαλαια (chapters), whose numbers are given at the margin. It contains also tables of the κεφαλαια (tables of contents) before each book.

The value of the codex is indicated by its subscription at the end of the Epistle to Titus:
Ἔγραψα καὶ ἐξεθέμην κατὰ δύναμιν στειχηρὸν τόδε τὸ τεῦχος Παύλου τοῦ ἀποστόλου πρὸς ἐγγραμμὸν καὶ εὐκατάλημπτον ἀνάγνωσιν… ἀντεβλήθη δὲ ἡ βίβλος πρὸς τὸ ἐν Καισαρίᾳ ἀντίγραφον τῆς βιβλιοθήκης τοῦ ἀγίου Παμφίλου χειρὶ γεγραμμένον αὑτοῦ.

I, Euthalius, wrote this volume of the Apostle Paul as carefully as possible in stichoi, so that it might be read with intelligence: the book was compared with the copy in the library at Caesarea, written by the hand of Pamphilius the saint.


Almost the same note appears in Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. It is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of...

 in the Book of Ezra
Book of Ezra
The Book of Ezra is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Originally combined with the Book of Nehemiah in a single book of Ezra-Nehemiah, the two became separated in the early centuries of the Christian era...

 and some Armenian manuscripts.

Text

The Greek text of this codex
Codex
A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...

 is a representative of the Alexandrian text-type
Alexandrian text-type
The Alexandrian text-type , associated with Alexandria, is one of several text-types used in New Testament textual criticism to describe and group the textual character of biblical manuscripts...

, but with a large number of Byzantine
Byzantine text-type
The Byzantine text-type is one of several text-types used in textual criticism to describe the textual character of Greek New Testament manuscripts. It is the form found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts, though not in the oldest...

 readings. According to Lagrange
Marie-Joseph Lagrange
Marie-Joseph Lagrange was a Catholic priest in the Dominican Order and founder of the École Biblique in Jerusalem...

 the text is similar to that of Codex Vaticanus
Codex Vaticanus
The Codex Vaticanus , is one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek Bible , one of the four great uncial codices. The Codex is named for the residence in the Vatican Library, where it has been stored since at least the 15th century...

. It is one of the witnesses for the Euthalian
Euthalius
Euthalius was a deacon of Alexandria and later Bishop of Sulca. He lived towards the middle of the fifth century and is chiefly known through his work on the New Testament in particular as the author of the "Euthalian Sections"....

 recension of the Pauline epistles.

According to Eberhard Nestle
Eberhard Nestle
Eberhard Nestle was a German biblical scholar, textual critic, Orientalist, editor of Novum Testamentum Graece, and the father of Erwin Nestle.- Life :...

 it is "one of the most valuable manuscripts". Kurt
Kurt Aland
Kurt Aland was a German Theologian and Professor of New Testament Research and Church History. He founded the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster and served as its first director for many years...

 and Barbara Aland
Barbara Aland
Barbara Aland, née Ehlers is a German theologian and was a Professor of New Testament Research and Church History at Westphalian Wilhelms-University of Münster until 2002.- Biography :...

 gave the following textual profile of it 71, 01/2, 122, 3s. This means the text of the codex agrees with the Byzantine standard text 7 times, it agrees 12 times with the original text against the Byzantine and that it has 3 independent or distinctive readings. Aland considered the quality of the text to suit his Category III. The corrections in the text are almost always representative of the Byzantine textual tradition
Byzantine text-type
The Byzantine text-type is one of several text-types used in textual criticism to describe the textual character of Greek New Testament manuscripts. It is the form found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts, though not in the oldest...

.

The words before a bracket are the readings of Nestle-Aland, the words after a bracket are the readings of the codex
2 Cor — 10,7 ἀφ' ] ἐφ'
2 Cor — 10,8 τε ] omit
2 Cor — 11,1 ἀφροσύνης ] τη ἀφροσυνη
2 Cor — 11,3 καὶ τἥς ἀγνοτητος ] omit
2 Cor — 11,30 μου ] omit
2 Cor — 12,3 χωρὶς ] εκτος
Gal — 1,3 ἠμων καὶ κυρἰου ] και κυριου ημων
Col — 1,27 ὅ ] ος

History

The codex was probably written in the 6th century at the library in Caesarea, later coming into the possession of the monastery of the Great Lavra on Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...

, but its value appears to have been overlooked. Leaves of the codex were used as raw material for the production of new volumes. In 975 some leaves, now known as Fragmenta Mosquensia, were used to cover a volume of Gregory Nazianzen at Mount Athos. In the 12th century Fragmenta Taurinensia were used in Nicetas
Nicetas of Heraclea
Nicetas was an 11th century Greek clergyman. A deacon of St. Sophia, Constantinople, he was a nephew of the bishop Serres or Serrae in Macedonia. Eventually he became Metropolitan of Heraclea , at the end of the eleventh century...

' catenae
Catena (Biblical commentary)
A catena is a form of biblical commentary, verse by verse, made up entirely of excerpts from earlier Biblical commentators, each introduced with the name of the author, and with such minor adjustments of words to allow the whole to form a continuous commentary.The texts are mainly compiled from...

 to the Psalterium, in 1218 another part, now named as Fragmenta Coisliniana, were used with the same purpose.

As a result, leaves of the codex were scattered in several places of the monastery, from where they were collected on several occasions by people from France, Russia, and Italy. The first was Pierre Séguier
Pierre Séguier
-Early years:Born in Paris, France of a prominent legal family originating in Quercy. His grandfather, Pierre Séguier , was président à mortier in the parlement of Paris from 1554 to 1576, and the chancellor's father, Jean Séguier, a seigneur d'Autry, was civil lieutenant of Paris at the time of...

 (1588–1672), who bought 14 leaves which, known later as Fragmenta Coisliniana, and became a part part of the Fonds Coislin. They were held in Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an area of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés....

. In 1715 Bernard de Montfaucon
Bernard de Montfaucon
Bernard de Montfaucon was a French Benedictine monk, a scholar who founded a new discipline, palaeography; an editor of works of the Fathers of the Church; he is also regarded to be one of the founders of modern archaeology.-Early life:Montfaucon was born January 13, 1655 in the castle of...

 published text of these 14 leaves. He made a few mistakes corrected by Tischendorf
Constantin von Tischendorf
Lobegott Friedrich Constantin Tischendorf was a noted German Biblical scholar. He deciphered the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, a 5th century Greek manuscript of the New Testament, in the 1840s, and rediscovered the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th century New Testament manuscript, in 1859.Tischendorf...

 (in 1865). Tischendorf observed in Paris additional passage. Montfaucon used the manuscript for his palaeographical
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...

 studies.

After the fire of St. Germain-des-Prés in 1793 only 12 leaves were found, the other two have been transferred to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. From 1795 until the present it has been held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

. Fragmenta Mosquensia were brought to Moscow in 1665. They were examined by Matthaei
Christian Frederick Matthaei
Christian Frederick Matthaei , a Thuringian, palaeographer, classical philolog, professor first at Wittenberg and then at Moscow.- Life :...

. The last was Porphiryj Uspenski
Porphiryj Uspenski
Porphiry Uspenski archbishop of Kiev of the Russian Orthodox Church, and archeologist. His baptismal name was Konstantin Aleksandrovich Uspenski .- Life :...

, who took one leaf from the monastery.

The codex is located in eight places, in seven libraries, in six cities in Europe. The bulk of the surviving leaves (22 leaves) are held in two collections in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, both in the National Library of France (Suppl. Gr. 1074, and Coislin 202). Eight leaves have not left the Great Lavra. Nine leaves are held in Ukraine or Russia, three each in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 (Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine
Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine
The Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine is the main academic library and main scientific information centre in Ukraine, one of the world's largest national libraries. It is located in the capital of the country – Kiev. The library contains about 15 million items...

), Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 (Hist. Mus.
State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...

 563, and Russian State Library
Russian State Library
The Russian State Library is the national library of Russia, located in Moscow. It is the largest in the country and the third largest in the world for its collection of books . It was named the V. I...

, Gr. 166,1). Finally, two leaves are held in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

.

Henri Omont
Henri Omont
Henri Auguste Omont, was a librarian, philologist and French historian, born on September 15, 1857, died December 9, 1940.- Life :In 1881 he wrote a thesis De la ponctuation and was employed in the École Nationale des Chartes as an archivist. He became general inspector in the Bibliothèque...

 published the part of the codex known to him. Another part of the codex housed at Athos was published by Kirsopp Lake
Kirsopp Lake
Kirsopp Lake was a New Testament scholar and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. He had an uncommon breadth of interests, publishing definitive monographs in New Testament textual criticism, Greek palaeography, theology, and archaeology...

, in 1905. It is cited in the printed editions of the Greek New Testament since Tischendorf's
Constantin von Tischendorf
Lobegott Friedrich Constantin Tischendorf was a noted German Biblical scholar. He deciphered the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, a 5th century Greek manuscript of the New Testament, in the 1840s, and rediscovered the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th century New Testament manuscript, in 1859.Tischendorf...

 edition
Editio Octava Critica Maior
Editio Octava Critica Maior is a critical edition of the Greek New Testament produced by Constantin von Tischendorf. It was Tischendorf's eighth edition of the Greek Testament, and the most important, published between 1864 and 1894.- Edition :...

.

The manuscript is cited in all critical editions of the Greek New Testament (UBS3, UBS4, NA26, NA27). In NA27 it belongs to the witnesses consistently cited of the first order.

Further reading


External links

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