Codex Vaticanus

A page from Codex Vaticanus

The Codex Vaticanus, or B, is a Greek manuscript of the Bible. It has been dated to the mid fourth century and may have been produced in Egypt. It has been kept at the Vatican Library in Rome since the 14th century. The codex is written in uncial text on 759 leaves of vellum. Vaticanus is the single most influential Biblical manuscript.

In 1881, Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892) used the Vaticanus as the basis for a Greek text of the New Testament, now called the Westcott-Hort, or Alexandrian, text. Some parts of Vaticanus are damaged or difficult to read. Hebrews ends at 9:14 and the Pastorals, Philemon, and Revelation are missing. Westcott and Hort used Codex Sinaiticus, another uncial manuscript, to fill in these gaps. Since 1881, the Biblical quotations used by the church fathers have been cataloged and papyrus scrolls of various New Testament books have been found. Both of these sources are older than the uncial manuscripts. They tend to confirm the validity of the Westcott-Hort text.

In 1860 Alford, and in 1862 Cure, examined a select number of the readings of the Vatican Codex, and published the results of their labours in the first volume of Alford's Greek Testament.

See also

• The Gospels
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• John Rylands Fragment
• Textus Receptus
• Codex Sinaiticus

External links

• N.T. Ancient Manuscripts
• Codex Vaticanus Catholic Encyclopedia.