Editing Codex Alexandrinus (section)

==In Britain==
[[File:Cyril-lucaris-1.jpg|left|thumb|150px|[[Cyril Lucaris]], one of the former owners of the codex]]
The codex was brought to [[Constantinople]] in 1621 by [[Cyril Lucaris]] (a patriarch of Alexandria first, then later a patriarch of Constantinople). Lucaris was involved in a complex struggle with the Turkish government, the Catholic Church, and his own subordinates. He was supported by the English government, and presented the codex to [[James I of England|James I]] in 1624, as gratitude for his help.{{r|Waltz}} The codex was presented through the hands of [[Thomas Roe]] (together with [[minuscule 49]]), the English ambassador at the court of the Sultan. [[James I of England|King James I]] died before the codex was sent to England, and the offer was transferred to [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] in 1627.<ref name="Scot-Dangers">{{Cite book | editor1-first=Scot | editor1-last=McKendrick | editor2-first=Orlaith A. | editor2-last=O'Sullivan | first=Scot | last=McKendrick | contribution=The Codex Alexandrinus, or The Dangers of Being A Named Manuscript | title=The Bible as Book: The Transmission of the Greek Text | year=2003 | publisher=Oak Knoll Press | location=New Castle, Del | isbn=0-7123-4727-5 | url=https://archive.org/details/bibleasbooktrans0000unse | url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|1}}{{r|Scrivener|p=50}} It was saved from the fire at Ashburnham House (the [[Cotton library]]) on 23 October 1731, by the librarian, [[Richard Bentley]]. It became a part of the [[Royal Library, Windsor|Royal Library]] at the [[British Museum]], and since 1973 has been in the [[British Library]].{{r|Scot-Dangers|p=2}}

===Collations and editions===
[[File:Codex Alexandrinus J 1,1-7.PNG|thumb|right|200px|Fragment from [[Carl Gottfried Woide|Woide]]'s facsimile edition (1786), containing text of John 1:1–7]]
The text of the Epistles of Clement from the codex was published in 1633 by [[Patrick Young]], the Royal Librarian. A collation was made by [[Alexander Huish]], Prebendary of Wells, for the ''[[London Polyglot|London Polyglot Bible]]'' (1657). The text of the codex was cited in footnotes.{{r|Metzger}} [[Richard Bentley]] made a collation in 1675.

The Old Testament was edited by Ernst Grabe in 1707–1720,<ref name="Kenyon">{{Cite book| first=Frederic G. | last=Kenyon | author-link=Frederic G. Kenyon | title=Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament | year=1912 | publisher=Macmillan and Co. | location=London | url=https://archive.org/details/handbooktotextua00keny}}</ref>{{rp|73}} and the New Testament by [[Carl Gottfried Woide]] in 1786, in facsimile from wooden type, line for line, without spaces between the words, exactly mimicking the original.<ref name="Horne224">{{Cite book | first=Thomas Hartwell | last=Horne | author-link=Thomas Hartwell Horne | title=An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures | volume=1 | page=224 | year=1841 | publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. | location=London }}</ref> For the text in 1 Tim 3:16, the facsimile has {{overline|ΘΣ}} {{lang|grc|ἐφανερόθη}}, and [[Carl Gottfried Woide|Woide]] in his [[prolegomenon]] combats the opinion of [[Johann Jakob Wettstein|Wettstein]],{{r|Wettstein|pp=CDXCVIb-CIXCIXb}} who maintained that {{lang|grc|ος}} {{lang|grc|ἐφανερόθη}} was the original reading, and that the stroke, which in some lights can be seen across part of the Ο, arose from the middle-stroke part of a letter Ε being visible through the vellum.{{r|Tregelles|p=156}} Wettstein's assertion was also disputed by F.H. Scrivener, who found that "Ε cut the Ο indeed . . . but cut it too high to have been reasonably mistaken by a careful observer for the diameter of Θ."{{r|Scriv-Intro|pp=453–454}} Tregelles however agrees with Wettstein's reading of the codex, and states "as the result of repeated examinations, we can say distinctly that Woide was wrong, and Wetstein was right."{{r|Tregelles|p=156}}

Woide's edition contained some typesetting errors, such as in the [[Epistle to Ephesians]] – {{lang|grc|ἐκλήθηθε for ἐκλήθητε}} (4:1) and πραόθητος for πραότητος (4:2).{{r|Tregelles|p=156}} These errors were corrected in 1860 by B. H. Cowper, and E. H. Hansell, with three other manuscripts, in 1860.{{r|Gregory|p=30}}<ref>B. H. Cowper, "Notitia codicis Alexandrini, Recud. cur. notasque adjecit" (London, 1860).</ref> The Old Testament portion was also published in three folio volumes by Baber in 1816–1828.{{r|Nestle-Edie|p=58}} In 1879 and 1880, the entire codex was issued in photographic facsimile by the British Museum, under the supervision of [[Edward Maunde Thompson|E. M. Thompson]].{{r|Ehrman|Thompson}} Frederic G. Kenyon edited a photographic facsimile of the New Testament with reduced size in 1909. The text of the Old Testament followed four parts in 1915.{{r|FKenyon}}

===Textual criticism===
[[File:british library london.jpg|thumb|200px|The [[British Library]] in London]]
According to Bentley the codex is "the oldest and best in the world". Bentley assumed that by supplementing this manuscript with readings from other manuscripts and from the [[Latin Vulgate]], he could triangulate back to the single recension which he presumed existed at the time of the [[First Council of Nicaea]].<ref>{{Cite book | first=William L. | last=Petersen | contribution=What Text can New Testament Textual Criticism Ultimately Reach | editor1-first=Barbara | editor1-last=Aland | editor1-link=Barbara Aland | editor2-first=J. | editor2-last=Delobel | title=New Testament Textual Criticism, Exegesis and Church History | page=137 | year=1994 | publisher=Kok Pharos Publishing | location=Kampen | isbn=978-9039001059}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | first=Richard Claverhouse | last=Jebb | author-link=Richard Claverhouse Jebb | title=Richard Bentley | page=163 | year=1882 | publisher=Macmillan & Co. | location=London | url=https://archive.org/details/bentley_00jebbuoft/page/n5/mode/2up}}</ref> Wettstein highly esteemed the codex in 1730, but changed his opinion in 1751 and was no longer a great admirer of it. He came to the conviction that [[Mount Athos|Athos]] was the place of its origin, not Alexandria.<ref name="Wettstein">{{cite book | first=Johann Jakob | last=Wettstein  | author-link=Johann Jakob Wettstein | title=Novum Testamentum Graecum editionis receptae cum lectionibus variantibus codicum manuscripts | publisher=Ex Officina Dommeriana | year=1751 | location=Amsterdam | url=https://archive.org/stream/hekainediatheken00clem#page/10/mode/2up}}</ref>{{rp|10}} Michaelis also did not esteem it highly, either on account of its internal excellence or the value of its readings. The principal charge which has been produced against the manuscript, and which had been urged by Wettstein, was it had been altered from the Latin version.{{r|Horne224}} Michaelis countered that the transcriber who lived in Egypt would not have altered the Greek text from a Latin version, because Egypt belonged to the Greek diocese, and Latin was not understood there. Woide, who defended the Greek manuscripts in general, and the Codex Alexandrinus in particular, from the charge of having been corrupted from the Latin,{{r|Horne224}} discerned two hands in the New Testament.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04080c.htm Codex Alexandrinus] at the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.</ref>

[[Johann Jakob Griesbach|Griesbach]] agreed with Woide and expanded on Michaelis' point of view. If this manuscript has been corrupted from a version, it is more reasonable to suspect the Coptic, the version of the country in which it was written. Between this manuscript and both the Coptic and Syriac versions there is a remarkable coincidence.{{r|Horne224}} According to Griesbach the manuscript follows three different editions: the Byzantine in the Gospels, the Western in the Acts and General epistles, and the Alexandrian in the Pauline epistles. Griesbach designated the codex by letter '''A'''.{{r|Horne224}}

Tregelles explained the origin of the Arabic inscription, on which Cyril's statement appears to rest, by remarking that the text of the New Testament in the manuscript begins with Matthew 25:6, this lesson (Matthew 25:1–13) being that appointed by the Greek Church for the festival of St. Thecla.{{r|Scrivener|p=102}} {{r|Greg-Canon}}