Doing business for the sake of locating manuscripts.
I was running out of two important things: time to submit my PhD, and money. My private business, which I set up as a contingency plan when I face shortage of money, was in the middle of exciting deals I was trying to close with tenders authorities of three Middle Eastern governments.
At the same time, my PhD’s submission date was getting close enough to consider serious plans for the next research post.
On the same day I received two phone calls and an email message: from Kuwait, Jebel Ali (Dubai) and the British Library, respectively. “our consortium won, Mina, congratulations. The first instalment of money is on its way. Please proceed with the first container and come!” a public tender in Kuwait was secured. There was also another private deal in UAE. Money started to flow.
As for the email, it was to confirm if the British Library has any extra information regarding MS 20003.[1]This manuscript is basically the part of the Book of Acts in GA 81. It has a beautiful colophon that pins down the date of the copy to 1044 CE. It is considered to be the best minuscule witness to Acts.[2] However, on the INTF you can see that GA81 has the Pauline and Catholic epistles, which are missing from the British Library, why?
The story of the manuscript was mysterious. The more I read, the more confusing the data seemed to me. First, Tischendorf, to put it politely, took the folios of Acts only from a larger codex when he was at the Patriarchal library of the Greek Orthodox Church in Alexandria. He then sold it to the British library in 1854. In 1964, someone else visited the patriarchal library and identified extra 225 folios that constitute Pauline and catholic epistles to be associated with Tischendorf’s folios of Acts. A poor quality microfilm of these folios was made on spot and sent to the INTF. Since 1964 GA81 became the combination of the discovered folios and Tischendorf’s earlier ones of Acts.
But can we be certain that this is the entire work? The fantastic quality of at least the folios of Acts makes it worthwhile to try to answer this question, I thought. Then comes the tricky bit. According to the edition of Aland’s Kurzgefaßte Liste, the shelfmark of the folios that remain in the Patriarchal Library in Alexandria is 59.
Liste’s 1994 edition p.378
Now, can we get information about document 59 in Alexandria? A bishop at the church was my friend, and he was actually the librarian before getting ordained. He said something rather interesting: “as far as I remember, document 59 is a Gospel text, likely to be an ευαγγελιστάριον.” I asked him if he remembers its date, “if it is the same one I remember, then it should be one of our oldest 4 Gospel MSS… from the 11th century.”
So, it has the same shelfmark as GA81, and it is also 11th century… bingo!
Before, I make any further step, another message arrived from Amsterdam: “we think that we can help you with what you are looking for.” But this was another lead to follow…
I was not more excited …
To be followed
[1] http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=add_ms_20003
[2] Caspar R. Gregory, Textkritik des Neuen Testaments, vol.1 (Leipzig: J. C. Heinrich’she Buchhandlung, 1900), 269. See also: Scrivener, A Plain Introduction, 289. K. Aland, and B. Aland, The Text of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eardmans Publishing Company), 335. David Parker, An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts (Cambridge: CUP, 2008), 290.
Home | TheMonier 
You must be logged in to post a comment.