Cambridge Manuscript

Cambridge Manuscript (Codex Cantabrigiensis, from its present place of deposit), called also Codex Bezae:

(from its depositor), usually designated as D of the Gospels and Acts, is one of the most important uncial MSS. of the N.T. It contains the Greek text, with a Latin translation on the opposite page, of the entire four Gospels (in the order Matthew, John, Mark, Luke) and Acts, with several gaps (Mt 1:1-20; Mt 6:20-9:2; Mt 27:2-12; Joh 1:16-3:26; Ac 8:29-10:14; Ac 21:2-10,15-18 [which passage seems to have been extant in Wetstein's time]; 22:10-20, 29-28:31, in all which the Greek is wholly absent; and Mt 3:7-16; Mr 16:15-20; Joh 18:14-20:13, where the Greek has been supplied by a scribe not earlier than the tenth century; besides about as numerous omissions and similar restorations of the Latin, but mostly at different places from the foregoing), and a few verses of the catholic Epistles (Joh 3:11-15, in the Latin only), which once stood entire between the Gospels and Acts. The MS. is a quarto volume, 10 inches high by 8 broad, consisting of 414 leaves (11 of them more or less mutilated, and 9 others by later hands), with but one column on each page, the Greek being on the left page and the Latin on the right. The vellum is not very fine. There are 33 lines on each page, and these are of unequal length, the MS. being arranged in clauses or στίχοι, and the corresponding ones in the Lat. and Gr. as nearly as possible opposite each other. It has not the large κεφάλαια or Eusebian canons, but only the Ammonian sections, and these often incorrectly placed, obviously by a later hand. The leaves are arranged in quires of 4 sheets (8 leaves) each, the numeral "signatures" of which are set by the first hand low in the margin at the foot of the last page of each. It originally consisted of upward of 64 quires, and one of the gaps, which omits 67, ending with 3 John, 11,r would be too great a space for all the canonical Epistles merely. The first three lines of each book were written in bright red ink, which was also occasionally employed elsewhere by way of ornament. The characters betray a later age than Codices Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and Ephraemi (A, B, and C), and capitals, occur as in Codex Sinaiticus (א). Its Alexandrine forms would argue an Egyptian origin, but the fact of: the Latin translation shows that it is a Western copy. It is assigned with great probability to the sixth century. It is chiefly remarkable for its bold and extensive interpolations, amounting to some six hundred in the Acts alone, on which account it has been cautiously employed by critics, notwithstanding its great antiquity. SEE CRITICISM (BIBLICAL).

This MS. was presented to Cambridge University in 1581 by Theodore Beza, who says he obtained it during the French wars in 1562, when it was found in the monastery of St. Irenseus at Lyons, and doubtless rescued by some Huguenot soldier. It seems to have been the same noted as β in the margin of Stephens's third edition. It was first completely examined by PatrickYoung, the librarian of Charles I, and next collated by Usher for Walton's Polyglot. Dr. Kipling published it in full from fac-simile types, but with the uncritical insertion of many of the marginal readings by the second hand into the text (Codex Theodori Bezce Cantabrigiensis, 1793, 2 vols. fol.). Scrivener has since reprinted it more carefully in ordinary types, with introduction, annotations, and exact fac-similes (Codex Bezce, etc., Lond. 1864, 8vo). -Scrivener, Introd. p. 96 sq.; Tregelles in Home's Introd. (new ed.), — 4, p. 169 sq. SEE MANUSCRIPTS (BIBLICAL).