Caesarean text-type

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Codex Coridethianus

In textual criticism of the New Testament, Caesarean text-type is the term proposed by certain scholars to denote a consistent pattern of variant readings that is claimed to be apparent in certain Koine Greek manuscripts of the four Gospels, but which is not found in any of the other commonly recognized New Testament text-types (Byzantine, Western and Alexandrian). In particular a common text-type has been proposed to be found: in the ninth/tenth century Codex Koridethi; in Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2 (a Greek manuscript of the Gospels used, sparingly, by Erasmus in his 1516 printed Koine New Testament); and in those Gospel quotations found in the third century works of Origen, which were written after he had settled in Caesarea.[1][2] The early translations of the Gospels in Armenian and Georgian also appear to witness to many of the proposed characteristic Caesarean readings, as do the small group of minuscule manuscripts classed as Family 1 and Family 13. However, some text-critics, such as Kurt and Barbara Aland have disputed the existence of a Caesarean text-type.[3]

Description[edit]

A particularly distinctive common reading of the proposed text-type is in Matthew 27:16-17, where the bandit released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus is named as "Jesus Barabbas" rather than — with all other surviving witnesses — just "Barabbas". Origen notes particularly that the form "Jesus Barabbas" was common in manuscripts in Caesarea, whereas he had not found this reading in his previous residence in Alexandria. Otherwise the Caesarean readings have a mildly paraphrastic tendency that seems to place them between the more concise Alexandrian, and the more expansive Western text-types. None of the surviving Caesarean manuscripts is claimed to witness a pure type of text, as all appear to have been to some degree assimilated with readings from the Byzantine text-type.

Some writers have questioned the validity of this grouping, claiming that the classification is the result of poor research. Insofar as the Caesarean text-type does exist (in Matt, Luke and John is not well defined), then it does so only in the Gospels. The proposed Caesarean witnesses do not appear to have any common distinctive readings in the rest of the New Testament. Some of the Caesarean manuscripts have the so-called Jerusalem Colophon.

The Caesarean text-type was discovered and named by Burnett Hillman Streeter in 1924.[2] According to some scholars such as Kurt and Barbara Aland, it is only a hypothetical text-type.[3]

There are no pure Caesarean manuscripts. In many cases, it is difficult to decide the original reading of the group, for instance in Mark 1:16:[1]: LIII 

αμφιβαλλοντας τα δικτυα — ƒ13 565.
αμφιβληστρα βαλλοντας — ƒ1
αμφιβληστρον βαλλοντας700.
βαλλοντας αμφιβληστρον28.

Classification[edit]

H. von Soden — Iota (Jerusalem) (I), in part (most strong "Caesarean" witnesses are found in Soden's Iα group, with family 1 being his Iη and family 13 being Iι).

Kirsopp Lake, an outstanding British textual critic, developed the hypothesis of the relationship between ƒ1, ƒ13, Θ, 565, 700, and 28.[4] Streeter carried Lake's work another step forward by pointing to Caesarea as the original location of the family.[5]

F. G. Kenyon — Gamma (γ)[6]

M. J. Lagrange — C

Supposed witnesses[edit]

The earliest potential witnesses to something alike the Caesarean manuscripts are 𝔓45 and some of the (now non-existent) manuscripts used by Origen (185 – c. 253). According to biblical scholar Teofilio Ayuso, Papyrus 45 and the quotations of Origen count as "proto-Caesarean", however the full Caesarean text only appears later in manuscripts such as Koridethi (Θ) and the early Armenian and Georgian manuscripts.[7] Notwithstanding this association of 𝔓45 and a "proto" or "pre-Caesarean" text-type, biblical scholar Larry Hurtado quashed any sort of affiliation between 𝔓45 and the Caesarean text-type. He argued only that 𝔓45 and Codex Washingtonianus (W) had a close relationship in the Gospel of Mark, but not with any other witness considered to represent the Caesarean text-type. Therefore, Hurtado states "the 'pre-Caesarean' witnesses are not Caesarean at all," and accordingly 𝔓45 and W "[do] not belong to any major text-type."[8][9]

Sign Name Date Content
Θ (038) Codex Koridethi 9th Mark
565. Minuscule 565 9th Gospels
28. Minuscule 28 11th Gospel of Mark
700. Minuscule 700 11th Gospels
1.

and rest of ƒ1

Minuscule 1,

118, 131, 209

12th

11th-15th

only Gospels
13.

and rest of ƒ13

Minuscule 13,

69, 124, 346

13th

11th-15th

Gospels

only Gospels

Other manuscripts

𝔓29, 𝔓38, 𝔓41, 𝔓48, Uncial 0188, 174, 230, 406 (?), 788, 826, 828, 872 (only in Mark), 1071, 1275, 1424 (only in Mark), 1604, 2437,[10] 32.

Textual features[edit]

(Apparent Caesarean witnesses in Bold)

Matthew 8:13

και υποστρεψας ο εκατονταρχος εις τον οικον αυτου εν αυτη τη ωρα ευρεν τον παιδα υγιαινοντα (and when the centurion returned to his house in that hour, he found the slave well) - אC (N) Θ (0250) ƒ1 (33. 1241.) g1 syrh
omit. - Majority of MSS[11]: 18 

Matthew 13:35

δια Ησαιου του προφητου (through Isaiah the prophet) – Θ ƒ1 ƒ13 33.
δια του προφητου (through the prophet) — Majority of MSS[12]: 50 

Matthew 20:23

και το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθησεσθε (and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with) - Majority of MSS
omit. — אB D L Z Θ 085 ƒ1 ƒ13 it syrs, c sa[11]: 56 

Matthew 27:16–17

Ιησουν τον Βαραββαν (Jesus Barabbas) — Θ ƒ1 700.* syrs, pal arm geo
τον Βαραββαν (Barabbas) — Majority of MSS

Mark 8:14

ενα μονον αρτον εχοντες (only having one loaf) — 𝔓45 Θ ƒ1 565. 700 k sa
omit — Majority of MSS

Mark 8:15

των Ηρωδιανων (of the Herodians) — 𝔓45 W Θ ƒ1 ƒ13 28. 565. 1365. i k copsa arm geo
Ηρωδου (of Herod) — majority of mss

Mark 8:17

εν ταις καρδιαις υμων, ολιγοπιστοι (in your hearts, Oh little-faithed ones) — Θ 28. 565. 700. pc syrh
omit. - Majority of MSS

Mark 9:29

προσευχη και νηστεια (prayer and fasting) — 𝔓45 A C D L W Θ Ψ ƒ1 ƒ13 Majority of MSS
προσευχη (prayer) — אB 0274 k

Mark 10:19

μη αποστερησης (do not defraud) — אA B2 C D X Θ 565. 892. 1009. 1071. 1195. 1216. 1230. 1241 1253. 1344. 1365. 1646. 2174. Byz Lect
omit. — B* K W Δ Ψ ƒ1 ƒ13 28 700 1010. 1079. 1242. 1546. 2148. 10 950 1642 1761 syrs arm geo[12]: 165 

Mark 12:1

ανθρωπος τις εφυτευσεν αμπελωνα (a certain man planted a vineyard) — W Θ ƒ13 565 aur c
αμπελωνα ανθρωπος εφυτευσεν (a man planted a vineyard) — אΒ C Δ Ψ 33. 1424.

Mark 12:7

θεασαμενοι αυτον ερχομενον ειπαν προς εαυτους (seeing him coming, he said towards them) — Θ 565. 700. c
θεασαμενοι αυτον ερχομενον ειπον (seeing him coming, he said) — N ƒ13 28.
προς εαυτους ειπαν οτι (he said towards them, "Because...) — אΒ C L W' Ψ 33. 892.
ειπαν προς εαυτους (he said towards them) — D
ειπον προς εαυτους οτι (he said towards them, "Because...) — A Majority of MSS

Mark 13:6

λέγοντες ὅτι Ἐγώ ο Xρηστός (saying that, "I am the Messiah") — W Θ ƒ13 28 61. 115. 255. 299. 565. 700. 1071. b c g2 l vgmss sa bo geob arm arabms Cyp
λέγοντες ὅτι Ἐγώ εἰμι (saying that, "I am he") — Majority of MSS

See also[edit]

Other text-types
Subgroups of the Caesarean text-type

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Lake, Kirsopp (1902). Codex 1 of the Gospels and its Allies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1-59244-836-4.
  2. ^ a b Streeter, Burnett Hillman (1926). The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins Treating of the Manuscript Tradition, Sources, Authorship, & Dates (2 ed.). London: Macmillan.
  3. ^ a b 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. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
  4. ^ Lake, Kirsopp; Blake, Robert (1923). "The Text of the Gospels and the Koridethi Codex". Harvard Theological Review. 16 (3): 267–286. doi:10.1017/S0017816000013742. JSTOR 1507787. S2CID 163050334.
  5. ^ Wisse, Frederik (1982). The Profile Method for Classifying and Evaluating Manuscript Evidence. Michigan: Eerdmans. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-8028-1918-5.
  6. ^ Kenyon, Frederic G. (1912). Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. London: Macmillan & Co. pp. 334–338.
  7. ^ Colwell, Ernest Cadman (1969). Studies in Methodology in Textual Criticism of the New Testament. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-37927-5.
  8. ^ Hurtado, Larry W. (1981). Text-Critical Methodology and the Pre-Caesarean Text: Codex W in the Gospel of Mark. Michigan: Eerdmans. p. 88. ISBN 0-8028-1872-2.
  9. ^ Metzger, Bruce Manning; Ehrman, Bart D. (2005). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 310–311. ISBN 0-19-516667-1.
  10. ^ David Alan Black, New Testament Textual Criticism, Baker Books, 2006, p. 65.
  11. ^ a b Aland, Kurt; Black, Matthew; Martini, Carlo Maria; Metzger, Bruce M.; Wikgren, Allen, eds. (1981). Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (26 ed.). Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelstiftung. ISBN 3-438-051001. (NA26)
  12. ^ a b Aland, Kurt; Black, Matthew; Martini, Carlo Maria; Metzger, Bruce Manning; Wikgren, Allen, eds. (1983). The Greek New Testament (3rd ed.). Stuttgart: United Bible Societies. ISBN 9783438051103. (UBS3)

Sources[edit]

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