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The Reading Culture of Early Christianity

Codex Regius designated by siglum L^e or 019 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 56 (von Soden), is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 8th century. The manuscript is lacunose. It has marginalia.

Description

The codex contains 257 thick parchment leaves (23.5 cm by 17 cm), with an almost complete text of the four Gospels. The codex contains five lacunae (Matt 4:22-5:14, 28:17-20, Mark 10:16-30, 15:2-20, John 21:15-25).

The text is written in two columns per page, 25 lines per page, in large, not round uncial letters. It has breathings (Spiritus asper, Spiritus lenis), and accents often added wrongly. It is carelessly written by an ignorant scribe. The letter phi is enormously large, the letter alpha presents the last stage of the uncial script.

The text is divided according to the κεφαλαια (chapters), whose numbers are given at the margin, and their τιτλοι (titles) at the top of the pages. It contains also the tables of the κεφαλαια (tables of contents) before each Gospel. There is also another division according to the Ammonian sections, with references to the Eusebian Canons at the margin. It contains lectionary markings at the margin (for liturgical reading).

It was badly written by the scribe, who was more probably Egyptian than Greek, with a tendency for writing Coptic rather than Greek.

It has two endings to the Gospel of Mark (as in codices Ψ 099 0112 274^mg 579 Lectionary 1602), while John 7:53-8:11 is omitted.

Was the Woman Caught in Adultery John 7:53-8:11 In the Original and What Was Being Taught?

NTTC JOHN 7:53–8:11: Where Did Those Verses Go of Jesus and the Woman Caught In Adultery?

Uncial **019**
New Testament Manuscript papyri uncials minuscules lectionaries Versions Patristic Quotations
Ending of Mark
Name	Regius
Sign	L^e
Text	Gospels
Date	8th century
Script	Greek
Now at	National Library of France
Size	23.5 cm by 17 cm
Type	Alexandrian text-type
Category	II
Hand	badly written
Note	marginalia

Omissions

Matthew 12:47 omitted (as in codices Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, 1009, ℓ 12, ff¹, k, syr^c, syr^s, cop^sa). Mark 7: 16; 9:44.46; 11:26; Luke 17:36, and John 5:4 are omitted. It contains Luke 22:43-44 (the agony) omitted by other Alexandrian witnesses.

Matthew 20:23 και το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθησεσθε (and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with), as in codices Sinaiticus, B, D, Z, Θ, 085, f¹, f¹³, it, syr^{s, c}, cop^sa.

Luke 9:55b-56a — καὶ εἶπεν, Οὑκ οἴδατε οἵου πνεύματος ἑστε ὐμεῖς; ὀ γὰρ υἰὸς τοῦ ἁνθρώπου οὑκ ἦλθεν ψυχὰς ἁνθρώπων ἁπολέσαι ἁλλὰ σῶσαι (and He said: “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of; for the Son of man came not to destroy men’s lives but to save them) omitted as in codices Sinaiticus B C Θ Ξ 33 700 892 1241 syr, cop^bo;

Luke 11:4 phrase αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου (but deliver us from evil) omitted. Omission is supported by the manuscripts: P⁷⁵, Sinaiticus, B, f¹, 700, vg, syr^s, cop^{sa, bo}, arm geo.

John 12:13-14 (facsimile); the initial for epsilon has motif with a blessing hand

Additions

In Matthew 10:12 it reads λεγοντες ειρηνη τω οικω τουτω instead of αυτην. The reading is used by manuscripts: Sinaiticus*^,2, Bezae, Washingtonianus, Koridethi, f ¹ 1010 (1424), it vg^cl.
In Matt. 27:49 codex contains added text: ἄλλος δὲ λαβὼν λόγχην ἒνυξεν αὐτοῦ τὴν πλευράν, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ὖδορ καὶ αἳμα (the other took a spear and pierced His side, and immediately came out water and blood). This reading was derived from John 19:34 and occurs in other manuscripts of the Alexandrian text-type (א, B, C, Γ, 1010, 1293, pc, vg^mss).
In John 20:31 it reads ζωην αιωνιον along with א C(*) D Ψ 0100 f¹³ it vg^mss syr^{p, h} cop^sa, cop^bo; majority reads ζωην;

Some readings

In Matthew 1:10 it reads Αμων for Αμως (א, B, C), the reading of the codex agrees with W, f¹³ and the Byzantine text.

Text

The Greek text of this codex is representative of the Alexandrian text-type in its late stadium. It contains a large number of Byzantine readings in the Gospel of Matthew (1:1–17:26). Kurt Aland placed it in Category II, which means it has a number of non-Alexandrian readings. According to Wisse, who examined Luke 1; 10; 20, their text is a “core member” of the Alexandrian text.

It is probably the fourth-best manuscript of the Gospels, inferior only to P⁷⁵, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Sinaiticus. It is much closer to Vaticanus than to Sinaiticus.

In some cases, it supports Sinaiticus and Vaticanus against almost all of the rest of the manuscripts. In Matthew 23:38 the word ερημος (desert) omitted like in B and ℓ 184. In Matt 19:29 instead εκατονπλασιονα (hundredfold) it has πολλαπλασιονα (manifold) like in codices B and 1010.

In Matthew 19:16 it reads διδασκαλε (teacher) along with manuscripts: א, B, D, f¹, 892^txt, 1010, 1365, ℓ 5, it^{a, d, e, ff1}, cop^bo, eth, geo, Origen, Hilary;

In Luke 22:1 it reads ηγγισεν for εγγιζεν along with Codex Bezae.

In Luke 4:17 it has textual variant καὶ ἀνοίξας τὸ βιβλίον (and opened the book) together with the manuscripts A, B, W, Ξ, 33, 892, 1195, 1241, ℓ 547, syr^{s, h, pal}, cop^{sa, bo}, against variant καὶ ἀναπτύξας τὸ βιβλίον (and unrolled the book) supported by א, D^c, K, Δ, Θ, Π, Ψ, f¹, f¹³, 28, 565, 700, 1009, 1010 and many other manuscripts.

In Luke 14:5 it reads ὄνος ἢ βοῦς for υἱὸς ἢ βοῦς; the reading of the codex is supported by א, K, L, X, Π, Ψ, f¹, f¹³, 33, 892, 1071, ℓ 547;

It was noted in the 19th century that there is a strong resemblance to Codex Vaticanus, to the citations of Origen, and to the margin of the Harkleian Syriac.

History

Probably it was written in Egypt.

The text of the codex was cited by Robert Estienne as η’ in his Editio Regia. It was loosely collated by Wettstein. Griesbach set a very high value on the codex. It was edited in 1846 by Tischendorf (Monumenta sacra inedita), but with errors.

The codex is located now at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gr. 62), in Paris.

Attribution: This article incorporates text from the public domain: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

REFERENCES

Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose; Edward Miller (1894). A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament. 1 (4 ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. pp. 137–138.
Gregory, Caspar René (1900). Textkritik des Neuen Testaments. 1. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung. p. 55.
Bruce M. Metzger, Bart D. Ehrman, “The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration”, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, p. 77.
Eberhard Nestle, Erwin Nestle, Barbara Aland and Kurt Aland (eds), Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th edition, (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1991), 56. [NA26]
NA26, p. 24, 164, 190, 232, 317.
UBS3, p. 273.
The Greek New Testament, ed. K. Aland, A. Black, C. M. Martini, B. M. Metzger, and A. Wikgren, in cooperation with INTF, United Bible Societies, 3rd edition, (Stuttgart 1983), p. 256. [UBS3]
Bruce M. Metzger (2001). “A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament”, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, p. 59; NA26, p. 84; UBS3, p. 113-114.
Carlo Maria Martini, La Parola di Dio Alle Origini della Chiesa, (Rome: Bibl. Inst. Pr. 1980), p. 285.
Frederik Wisse, The profile method for the classification and evaluation of manuscript evidence, William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1982, p. 52.
“Liste Handschriften”. Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved Sunday, May 23, 2021.