New Testament manuscript | |
Name | Zacynthius |
---|---|
Sign | Ξ |
Text | Gospel of Luke † |
Date | c. 550 |
Script | Greek |
Found | Colin Macaulay, 1820 |
Now at | Cambridge University Library |
Cite | Tregelles, Codex Zacynthius. Greek Palimpsest Fragments of the Gospel of Saint Luke, (1861) |
Size | 36 cm by 29 cm |
Type | Alexandrian |
Category | III |
Note | textually close to codex B |
Codex Zacynthius (designated by siglum Ξ or 040 in the Gregory-Aland numbering; A1 in von Soden)[1] is a Greek New Testament codex, dated paleographically to the 6th century.[2] First thought to have been written in the 8th century,[3] it is a palimpsest—the original (lower) text was washed off its vellum pages and overwritten in the 12th or 13th century. The upper text of the palimpsest contains weekday Gospel lessons (ℓ299); the lower text contains portions of the Gospel of Luke, deciphered by biblical scholar and palaeographer Tregelles in 1861. The lower text is of most interest to scholars.
The manuscript came from Zakynthos, a Greek island, and has survived in a fragmentary condition. It was brought to England in 1821 and transferred to Cambridge University in 1985 which later purchased it after an appeal in 2014. It is often cited in critical editions of the Greek New Testament.