| New Testament manuscript | |
 Folio 41v from the Codex Alexandrinus contains the end of the Gospel of Luke with the decorative tailpiece found at the end of each book | |
| Name | Alexandrinus |
|---|---|
| Sign | A |
| Text | Greek Old Testament and Greek New Testament† |
| Date | 5th century AD |
| Script | Greek |
| Now at | British Library |
| Size | 32 × 26 cm (12.6 × 10.4 in) |
| Type | Byzantine text-type in Gospels, alexandrian in rest of NT |
| Category | III (in Gospels), I (in rest of NT) |
| Hand | elegantly written but with errors |
| Note | close to 𝔓74 in Acts, and to 𝔓47 in Rev |
The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,[n 1] written on parchment. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the fifth century.[1] It contains the majority of the Greek Old Testament and the Greek New Testament.[1] It is one of the four Great uncial codices (these being manuscripts which originally contained the whole of both the Old and New Testaments). Along with Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible.
It derives its name from the city of Alexandria (in Egypt), where it resided for a number of years before it was brought by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Cyril Lucaris from Alexandria to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul in Turkey).[2]: 152 Then it was given to Charles I of England in the 17th century. Bishop Brian Walton assigned Alexandrinus the capital Latin letter A in the Polyglot Bible (a multi-language version of the Bible with the different languages placed in parallel columns) of 1657.[3] This designation was maintained when the New Testament manuscript list system was standardized by Swiss theologian and textual critic J. J. Wettstein in 1751.[4] Thus Alexandrinus held the first position in the manuscript list.[5]: 340
Until the later purchase of Codex Sinaiticus, biblical scholar and textual critic Frederick H. A. Scrivener described it as the best manuscript of the Greek Bible deposited in Britain.[6]: 51 Today, it rests along with Codex Sinaiticus in one of the showcases in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery of the British Library in London, U.K.[7][8] A full photographic reproduction of the New Testament volume (Royal MS 1 D. viii) is available on the British Library's website.[9]
Cite error: There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=n}} template (see the help page).
- ^ 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. 107, 109. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
- ^ Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux (1856). An Introduction to the Critical study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. Vol. 4. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
- ^ Finegan, Jack (1980). Encountering New Testament Manuscripts: A Working Introduction to Textual Criticism. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans. p. 49. ISBN 9780802818362.
- ^ Wettstein, Johann Jakob (1751). Novum Testamentum Graecum editionis receptae cum lectionibus variantibus codicum manuscripts. Amsterdam: Ex Officina Dommeriana. p. 8.
- ^ Gregory, C. R. (1907). Canon and Text of the New Testament. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Scrivenerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Metzger, Bruce M.; Ehrman, Bart D. (2005). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th ed.). New York – Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 67.
- ^ "Liste Handschriften". Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- ^ the British Library's website.