The Codex Athous Laurae, designated by Ψ or 044 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), or δ 6 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament Manuscripts), is a manuscript of the New Testament written in Greek uncial letters on parchment. The manuscript has many gaps in the text, as well as containing handwritten notes (known as marginalia). Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeographically), the codex is dated to the 8th or 9th century. The codex is currently kept in the Great Lavra monastery (B' 52) on the Athos peninsula.

Description

The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book), containing 261 parchment leaves, which measure 21 by 15.3 cm, with the text-block being 15 by 8.7 cm. The text is written in small uncial letters, in one column of 31 lines per page. These letters have breathings (utilised to designate vowel emphasis) and accents (used to indicate voiced pitch changes). The codex contains a table of contents ("κεφαλαια" / kephalaia) before each book, the Ammonian Sections and Eusebian Canons (an early system of dividing the four Gospels into different sections), lectionary notes in the margin (for liturgical use), musical notes (neumes), and subscriptions. It is considered one of the oldest manuscripts with musical notes. The codex originally contained the entire New Testament except for the Book of Revelation, with several gaps at both the beginning and end. The Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark 1:1-9:4, and one leaf from the Hebrews with text 8:11-9:19 have subsequently been lost. The order of the codex's books are as follows: The General epistles are in an unusual order (1-2 Peter, James, 1-3 John, and Jude; James usually comes before 1 Peter). There is also a shorter ending to the Gospel of Mark before the longer version. This is similar to the ending found in other Greek New Testament manuscripts, such as Codex Regius and all other Greek codices in which the general epistles appear.

History

The manuscript was seen by biblical scholar C. R. Gregory on August 26, 1886. He described it as the first of its kind. In 1892, the biblical scholar J. Rendel Harris did not examine the codex even though he was on a visit to Mount Athos, as he was only inspecting the Septuagint (an early Greek translation of the Old Testament) manuscripts there. Von Goltz and Protestant theologian Georg Wobbermin had collated the text of Acts, the general epistles, and Pauline epistles for biblical scholar Hermann von Soden. The codex was examined by biblical scholar 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.

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. The text-types are groups of different manuscripts which share specific or generally related readings, which then differ from each other group, and thus the conflicting readings can separate out the groups, which are then used to determine the original text as published; there are three main groups with names: Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine. Despite being an unusually mixed text, Von Soden lists it as generally Alexandrian due to the Gospel of Mark and the General Epistles being mostly in-line with the Alexandrian text-type. 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. The text of the General Epistles appeared to be the same type as found in Codex Alexandrinus, Minuscule 33, Minuscule 81, and Minuscule 436. Biblical scholar Kurt Aland placed the text of the codex in Category III in the Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles, and its text of the General Epistles in Category II of his New Testament manuscript text classification system. Category III manuscripts are described as having "a small but not a negligible proportion of early readings, with a considerable encroachment of [Byzantine] readings, and significant readings from other sources as yet unidentified", and Category II manuscripts as those "of a special quality, i.e., manuscripts with a considerable proportion of the early text, but which are marked by alien influences. These influences are usually of smoother, improved readings, and in later periods by infiltration by the Byzantine text." and, along with (the Pericope Adulterae), are omitted. Acts 20:28