Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus

Il Codice di Efrem, o Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Parigi, National Library Greek 9; Gregory-Aland no. C o 04) è un manoscritto su pergamena del V secolo della Bibbia in greco onciale (maiuscolo).

Trae in nome dal fatto di essere scritto su un codice pergamenaceo contenente un trattato del teologo Efrem Siro: il testo biblico primitivo fu cancellato nel XII secolo per permettere la scrittura del testo attuale (dicesi palinsesto un manoscritto così 'riciclato').

The effacement of the original text was incomplete, fortunately, for beneath the text of Ephraem are the remains of what was once a complete Bible, containing both the Old Testament and the New. It forms one of the codices for textual criticism on which the Higher criticism is based.

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Codex was brought to Florence by an emigré scholar. Catherine de' Medici brought it to France as part of her dowry, and from the Bourbon royal library it came to rest in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.

The first complete collation of the New Testament was made by Wetstein (1716). Constantin von Tischendorf made his reputation an international one when he published the Greek New Testament text in 1843 and the Old Testament in 1845. The torn condition of many folios, the ghostly traces of the text overlaid by the later one made the decipherment an extremely difficult task. Even with modern aids like ultra-violet photography, not all the text is securely legible.

The codex (illustration, above right) measures 12 1/4 in/31.4-32.5 cm by 9 in/25.6-26.4 cm, with a single column to a page. Originally the whole Bible seems to have been contained in it.

Collegamenti esterni

Catholic Encyclopedia:Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Codex Ephraemi Syri Rescriptus

Bibliografia

Hatch, William Henry, The Principal Uncial Manuscripts Of The New Testament, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1939.