DOCSLIB.ORG

In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2006)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2006) 92 Book Reviews / Novum Testamentum 50 (2008) 81-96 Michelle P. Brown (ed.), In the Beginning: Bibles before the Year 1000 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2006). 360 pp. ISBN 0934868037 (paperback), $24.95 . Larry W. Hurtado (ed.), Th e Freer Biblical Manuscripts: Fresh Studies on an American Treasure Trove (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006), x + 308 pp. ISBN 1589832086 $34.95, (= Text Critical Studies 6). Scot McKendrick, In a Monastery Library: Preserving Codex Sinaiticus and the Greek Written Heritage (London: Th e British Library), 48 pp. ISBN 0712349405, ₤6.95. In the Beginning: Bibles before the Year 1000 is an outstanding and attrac- tive introduction to and catalogue of an exhibition held at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in association with the Freer Gallery of Art and the Bodle- ian Library, Oxford from October 2006 to January 2007. Th e book (10 1/2 inches × 9 1/2) is lavishly illustrated throughout and also contains seventy- four full colour plates. Th e whole has been published to a very high profes- sional standard, and our thanks are extended to the editors, contributors and publishers. Th e exhibition marked the centenary of Charles Lang Freer’s visit to Egypt in 1906, where he purchased his first biblical manuscripts, which are now housed in the Freer Gallery. Th e Washington Codex of the Four Gospels (variously known as the Freer Gospels, Codex Washington(i)ensis or Codex Washingtonianus) is the most famous text. Among the others are the Washington Codex of Deuteronomy and Joshua, the Washington Manuscript of the Pauline Epistles, the Coptic Psalter, the Washington Codex of the Psalms, and the Washington Codex of the Minor Prophets; all were on display at the exhibition and of course figure in this catalogue. Th ese Freer manuscripts are justly famous in their own right and are valu- able texts, but at the exhibition they were surrounded by a cornucopia of other major manuscripts from around the world. As well as exhibits from the partner institution, the Bodleian, are treasures from St Catharine’s, Mount Sinai (including some of its new finds from the 1970s), from the British Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Chester Beatty Library, the National Library of Russia and elsewhere. (Strangely, only one Italian collection—the Laurenziana, Florence—contributed.) Seldom does one have the chance to see such manuscript riches. Th e reader of this cata- logue is enabled to share the enthusiasm of and authoritative comments by © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008 DOI: 10.1163/156853607X223453 Book Reviews / Novum Testamentum 50 (2008) 81-96 93 a number of experts on this representative selection of valuable manu- scripts from the first millennium A.D. Splendidly clear pictures of all of these manuscripts appear in the catalogue (pp. 104-244) and each manu- script is accompanied by an informative description (pp. 246-310). Th e exhibits are divided into sections, and we may appreciate from the following listing just how comprehensive this book is in its coverage: Scrolls and Codex a) “Th e Earliest Hebrew Scriptures” (plates 1-9), b) “Th e Earli- est Christian Scriptures” (10-20); Formation and Codification a) “Th e Evo- lution of the Bible” (21-25), b) “Th e Earliest Christian Bibles” (26-31); From Babel to Pentecost: ‘Sacred Languages’ and the Vernaculars, that is East- ern versions, the Arabic, Syriac, Slavic, Ethiopic, Armenian and Georgian (32-40); Spreading the Word a) “Th e Single-Volume Bible (41-43), b) “Th e Book as Desert: Th e Scribe as Evangelist” (44-45), showing how scribes sometimes saw their role in evangelizing, c) “From Eastern Deserts to Western Isles” (46-52), demonstrating the widespread dissemination of Bibles, especially psalters and lectionaries, d) “Early Christian Britain and Ireland” (53-61) with many examples of the distinctive texts that origi- nated in the British Isles; Th e Book as Icon (62-74), demonstrating the ways in which the illuminations and indeed the covers of the manuscripts show the book as an artefact to be venerated. Each of these sections containing the albums of plates is briefly intro- duced. Plate 44 (Codex Aureus) appears twice, once in sequence, where its portrait of Matthew is shown (and later, pp. 283-284, described) and again after plate 69, that time showing a double-page spread of text to enable a ready comparison with another purple Gospel codex, the codex Brixianus (Plate 70). Cross-references could usefully have been given on the pages of plates as well as in the comments. We meet important texts like the Second Isaiah Codex, the Aleppo Codex, the Egerton Gospel, the Magdalen fragments of Matthew (where the notes, wisely, ignore Th iede’s notorious controversies of a decade ago!), P45, P46, P.Oxy 1, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Claromontanus, the Alcuin Bible, the Codex Aureus, Bede’s Commentary on Proverbs, and the Rab- bula Gospels. But it is invidious to isolate these well-known manuscripts. All seventy four are important examples of their respective genres. I par- ticularly valued having BL add. 21932, an Armenian Gospelbook photo- graphed at the end of Mark, where it is patently obvious that the scribe hesitated whether to include the ‘longer ending’ or not, decided in the end not to do so, and utilized the space by writing out in an exaggerated way the closing verses of Mark 16:1-8. It is also good that we have examples of .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Charles Lang Freer and His Gallery of Art : Turn-Of-The-Century Politics and Aesthetics on the National Mall
    University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2007 Charles Lang Freer and his gallery of art : turn-of-the-century politics and aesthetics on the National Mall. Patricia L. Guardiola University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Guardiola, Patricia L., "Charles Lang Freer and his gallery of art : turn-of-the-century politics and aesthetics on the National Mall." (2007). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 543. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/543 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CHARLES LANG FREER AND HIS GALLERY OF ART: TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY POLITICS AND AESTHETICS ON THE NATIONAL MALL By Patricia L. Guardiola B.A., Bellarmine University, 2004 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Louisville In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements F or the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Fine Arts University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky August 2007 CHARLES LANG FREER AND HIS GALLERY OF ART: TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY POLITICS AND AESTHETICS ON THE NATIONAL MALL By Patricia L. Guardiola B.A., Bellarmine University, 2004 A Thesis Approved on June 8, 2007 By the following Thesis Committee: Thesis Director ii DEDICATION In memory of my grandfathers, Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
    This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. SCRIBAL HABITS IN CODEX SINAITICUS, VATICANUS, EPHRAEMI, BEZAE, AND WASHINGTONIANUS IN THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW GREGORY SCOTT PAULSON A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, NEW COLLEGE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY EDINBURGH, UK 2013 The thesis has been composed by the candidate and is the candidate’s own work. Gregory Scott Paulson, Ph.D. candidate ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page..................................................................................................... i Declaration................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Text of the Gospel of Mark: Lake Revisited
    BABELAO 3 (2014), p. 145-169 + Appendix, p. 171-289 © ABELAO (Belgium) The « Caesarean » Text of the Gospel of Mark: Lake Revisited By Didier Lafleur IRHT - Paris n the field of history and practice of New Testament textual criticism, two major stages were initiated during the last cen- tury by Kirsopp Lake. The first of these was the publication, Iin 19 02, of a survey concerning Codex 1 of the Gospels and its Allies, in the Texts and Studies series (7:3). The second stage was the pub- lication, in 1928, with Robert P. Blake and Silva New, of « The Caesarean Text of the Gospel of Mark » in the Harvard Theological Review (21:4). For the first time, the authors emphasized the exist- ence of such text on the basis of three major pieces of evidence: the Greek manuscripts, the patristic witnesses and the Oriental versions. Since then, the question of the « Caesarean » text-type has been a very disputed matter. It still remains an important tex- tual issue.1 1 This paper was first presented during the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting 2012, Chicago, November 18. 146 D. LAFLEUR Our plan is not to discuss here about the « Caesarean » text and its subsequent developments, but to mainly focus the genesis of Lake’s publication. The survey of his preliminary works will help us to better consider, after a short account of Lake’s biobibliography, the way he followed until the 1928 « Caesarean Text of the Gospel of Mark » and which methodology he used. We will then emphasize one of the three pieces of evidence quot- ed by the authors, the evidence of the Greek manuscripts as de- scribed in their tables of variants.
    [Show full text]
  • Making Sense of the End of Mark Pastor Russ Reaves Immanuel Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC January 27, 2009
    Making Sense of the End of Mark Pastor Russ Reaves Immanuel Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC January 27, 2009 Anyone who has ever read the Gospel of Mark carefully has likely noticed that most Bibles contain a footnote, a marginal note, or some other device or feature to indicate that there are questions about the authenticity of Mark 16:9-20. Almost every modern English version does in some way. Following are some examples of how this is done: • A bracketed heading before verses 9-20 which states, “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.” 1 • A footnote containing explanations similar to the following: “Some of the earliest manuscripts (or “mss.”) do not contain verses (or “vv.”) 9-20.” 2 • A footnote that reads, “Verses 9 through 20 are not found in the most ancient manuscripts, but may be considered an appendix giving additional facts.” 3 • A heading before verses 9-20 which reads, “An Ancient Appendix” or something similar. 4 • A footnote that offers a more detailed description of the situation, such as the following or similar: “Vv. (verses) 9-20 are bracketed in NU (an abbreviation for the Greek text known as Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament and United Bible Societies Greek New Testament ) as not original. They are lacking in Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus (two Greek manuscripts dating to the fourth century), although nearly all other mss. (manuscripts) of Mark contain them.” 5 • Bracketing around verses 9-20, with an explanatory notation in the footnotes stating, “Mark 16:9-20 [the portion in brackets] is contained only in later manuscripts,” or similar.
    [Show full text]
  • "GWIKS Lecture Series: Charles Lang Freer and the Collecting of Korean Art in the Early 20Th Century”
    GWIKS Lecture Series Thursday Mar. 8, 2018 "GWIKS Lecture Series: Charles Lang Freer and the Collecting of Korean Art in the Early 20th Century” Charlotte Horlyck Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellow of Art History at the Freer|Sackler 2:00 – 3:30 PM Elliott School of International Affairs Room 503 The George Washington University 1957 E St. NW, Washington, DC 20052 ABOUT THE TALK This talk centers on the Korean collection of Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), founder of the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art. Freer was a pioneering individual whose collection of Western and Asian art was among the most extensive of its time. This includes his collection of Korean artifact, which he began to acquire in 1896, culminating in around 450 objects, which are now housed in the Freer Gallery. The collection is significant not only for its quality and size, but because it exemplifies the rising interest in Korean art around the turn of the twentieth century. In the exploration of Freer's Korean pieces, some of the core issues that impacted and shaped the collecting of Korean art during this time will be addressed, including the availability of antiques, the development of scholarship on Korean cultural heritage, individual and institutional motivations for collecting Korean art, among other questions. SPEAKER Charlotte Horlyck was appointed Lecturer in Korean Art History at SOAS in 2007 and served as Chair of its Centre of Korean Studies from 2013 to 2017. Prior to taking up her position at SOAS, she curated the Korean collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
    [Show full text]
  • Ann C. Gunter
    Ann C. Gunter Bertha and Max Dressler Professor in the Humanities Professor of Art History, Classics, and in the Humanities Northwestern University Mailing address: Department of Art History 1800 Sherman Ave., Suite 4400 Evanston, IL 60201 Voice mail 847 467-0873 e-mail: [email protected] Education 1980 Columbia University Ph.D. 1976 Columbia University M.Phil. 1975 Columbia University M.A. 1973 Bryn Mawr College A.B. magna cum laude with departmental honors Professional Employment Bertha and Max Dressler Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University, 2013– Professor of Art History, Classics, and in the Humanities, Northwestern University, 2008– Head of Scholarly Publications and Programs, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2004–08 Assistant Curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution (1987–92); Associate Curator (1992–2004); Curator (2004–08) Visiting Assistant Professor, Art History Department, Emory University, Atlanta (1986–87) Visiting Assistant Professor, Departments of Art History and Classics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (1981–85) Lecturer, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley (Winter– Spring 1981) Director, American Research Institute in Turkey at Ankara (1978–79) Fellowships, Grants, and Awards Visiting Professor (Directrice d’études), École Pratique des Hautes Études, University of Paris (lecture series to be presented in May 2016) Fritz Thyssen Stiftung 2000–01
    [Show full text]
  • American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works 43Rd
    Egyptian Glass at the Freer Gallery of Art American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works 43rd Annual Meeting, May 13-16, 2015 Ellen Nigro, Ellen Chase, Blythe McCarthy Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution In 1909, Charles Lang Freer bought a collection of 1,388 ancient glass beads, vessels, and mosaic fragments in Cairo, Egypt from the antiquities dealer Giovanni Dattari. The objects are primarily XVIII Dynasty, Ptolemaic and Roman period Egyptian pieces, as well as many later Venetian and Islamic fragments. Although the collection varies in geographic origin and time period, all the pieces are colorful examples of fine craftsmanship, from intricate millifiori inlays to cast amulets and larger vessels. Until 2013, the collection was largely left unstudied and was inappropriately stored. As a result, the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is rehousing and researching the collection. This poster will focus on the storage project and the challenges associated with rehousing a large collection of small objects while touching on the historical and technical research. Technical Analysis The purpose of the technical study is to characterize the materials and techniques of the collection and to sort Research in the Freer Gallery Archives some of the objects by time and place according to the technical data. This study included the following techniques: Mr. Freer travelled to Egypt several times between • x-radiography of the vessels to assess the manufacture techniques 1907 and 1909, where he purchased this collection • qualitative x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to analyze lead content and colorants on a large number of of glass, as well as a number of faience pieces, objects within the collection manuscripts, and funerary objects.
    [Show full text]
  • The Titles of the Gospels in the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts Simon J
    The Titles of the Gospels in the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts Simon J. Gathercole (Faculty of Divinity, West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9BS, UK; [email protected]) Prolegomena The 27th Nestle-Aland hand edition of the New Testament is without doubt an extraordinary achievement, as are its many predecessors. As has sometimes been remarked, however, it does have certain flaws, and it is the purpose of the present article to identify and attempt to rectify one of these flaws. It is unfair, however, to single out Nestle-Aland, as the problem under discussion here is shared with other NT hand editions, such as the UBS and SBL texts.1 The is- sue to be addressed in this article is that of the presentation of the titles of the four gospels in the main text of the Novum Testamentum Graece as well as in its apparatus criticus. See also the Additional Note on NA28. The Nestle-Aland Titles The problems with the presentation of titles in Nestle-Aland boil down to six, sometimes overlapping, elements. First, information provided about gospel titles in NA27 is confined to the opening titles. Modern readers of course expect that a title will be provided at the beginning of a work, but this was not necessarily true in antiquity. Ancient book titles often appeared at the end of a text. Having discussed the placement of titles in rolls, Schubart notes in re early codices: ‘Wie dort [sc. in the roll], steht auch hier [sc. in the codex] der Hauptitel am Ende des Textes …’.2 The situation is actually more complicated than Schubart suggests3, but, all the same, end-titles are very significant, and at least just as common, probably even more common than opening titles.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reliability of New Testament Manuscripts
    The Reliability of New Testament Manuscripts Joseph Holden, PhD Norman Geisler, PhD Copyright Joseph Holden and Norman Geisler, 2012. All Rights Reserved. In this essay, we will survey the manuscripts of the New Testament, including the transmission process and the individual manuscripts produced by that process. We will also consider objections to the reliability of the New Testament. Special attention will be given to this point due to the recent publications that advocate there are errors in the New Testament, especially as put forth by Bart Ehrman. We will begin with a look at the transmission process since it has come under recent attack. The Transmission of the New Testament Function of Scribes and Scriptorium In the age of classical antiquity, scribes served an important function in the production of literary and non-literary works. Scribes were employed within Mesopotamia, Egypt, Palestine, and the Greco-Roman Empire. Professional scribes, who were trained craftsman, were commonly employed in the commercial book trade or for a library or government post. Many of these professional copyists had expertise in using fine book-hand or calligraphy. Still other scribes were amateur copyists or even educated slaves. Customarily, scribes were paid not only by the length of the text, but also by the type of hand used which affected the quality of the script. Thus, the work of professional scribes demanded higher pay but also produced higher quality work, which became very important in the explicability of historical texts. Scribes were responsible for copying literary and non-literary works including books, petitions, receipts, letters, and deeds.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Lang Freer and Indian Art
    THE FREER HOUSE 71 East Ferry, Detroit, MI 48202 An International Landmark... A World Class Lecture Series 313-664-2500 From Traveler to Aesthete: Charles Lang Freer and Indian Art by Brinda Kumar, PhD Assistant Curator Department of Modern and Contemporary Art Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Sunday, June 4, 2017, 2:00 pm LECTURE Detroit Institute of Arts Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall FREE with DIA admission 3:30-5 PM Reception & Tours Freer House 71 East Ferry Street, Detroit $10 General Admission Zayn al’-’Abidin $5 Students Artist Hanuman returns the $5 FAAC or Freer House Members mountain with the (pay at the door) four healing plants to the Himalayas. Co-Sponsor Folio from the Ramayana of Valmiki, Friends of Asian Arts & Cultures (FAAC), DIA vol. 2., South Asian, Mughal period, For information contact Rose Foster at: late 16th century, Freer Gallery of Art 313-664-2509 or [email protected] Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer’s passion for In- U.S. earlier that year, while his itinerary was in keeping with dia influenced the formation of one of the finest early col- similar travels by other American collectors such as Isabella lections of Asian art in America. Freer’s visionary aesthetic Stewart Gardner. ideas positioned Indian art as “fine art” in an era when it Although he visited India only once, Freer would con- was largely relegated in the West to being of only ethno- sider Indian art and culture to be “an important link in the graphic or decorative interest. chain” as he developed a collection of Asian and Near East- When Freer planned his first trip to Asia in 1894, his ern art.
    [Show full text]
  • TEXT-TYPES? Characteristics / Readings, Unique to Their Location, Resulting in Localized Text-Types Or Textual Families
    As individual New Testament books were received and circulated in the early Christian church, various copies were made and deployed NEW TESTAMENT throughout the ancient world. As manuscripts were circulated within particular geographical regions they began to take on particular TEXT-TYPES? characteristics / readings, unique to their location, resulting in localized text-types or textual families. The Alexandrian text-type is the form of The Western text-type is the form of the New Testament text witness in ALEXANDRIAN Greek New Testament that predominates WESTERN the Old Latin and Peshitta translations from the Greek, and also in in the earliest surviving documents, as well quotations from the 2nd and 3rd century Christian writers, including as the text-type used in Egyptian Coptic Cyprian, Tertullian, and Irenaeus. Alexandrian Codex Sinaiticus manuscripts. manuscripts are is considered to characteristic by be Western in its majuscule or the first eight uncial texts. Above chapters of is John 1:1 in Codex John’s Gospel Only one Greek uncial manuscript is considered to transmit a Western text The two oldest Sinaiticus in its for the four Gospels and the Book of Acts, the fifth century Codex Bezae; the and closest to EARLIER upper case sixth century Codex Clarmontanus is considered to transmit a western text complete copies majuscule texts for Paul’s letters and is followed by two ninth century uncials: F and G. of the New א Codex Sinaiticus - 01 330-360 AD Other early manuscripts of note Testament, are P66 and P75. Codex Sinaiticus Many, if not most, textual critics today believe that and Codex there were two major early text-types that can be Vaticanus,* are ascertained, the Alexandrian and Western.
    [Show full text]
  • The Eusebian Canon Tables As a Corpus-Organizing Paratext Within the Multiple-Text Manuscript of the Fourfold Gospel | 107
    Studies in Manuscript Cultures Edited by Michael Friedrich Harunaga Isaacson Jörg B. Quenzer Volume 17 The Emergence of Multiple-Text Manuscripts Edited by Alessandro Bausi Michael Friedrich Marilena Maniaci ISBN 978-3-11-064593-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-064598-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-064612-2 ISSN 2365-9696 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952103 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2019 Alessandro Bausi, Michael Friedrich, Marilena Maniaci, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston The book is published with open access at degruyter.com. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Contents The Editors Preface | VII Overviews Nalini Balbir Functions of Multiple-Text Manuscripts in India: The Jain Case | 3 Imre Galambos Multiple-Text Manuscripts in Medieval China | 37 Alessandro Gori Text Collections in the Arabic Manuscript Tradition of Harar: The Case of the Mawlid Collection and of šayḫ Hāšim’s al-Fatḥ al-Raḥmānī | 59 Nuria de Castilla ‘Dichos bien hermanados’. Towards a Typology of Mudéjar and Morisco Multiple-Text Manuscripts | 75 Innovations Matthew Crawford The Eusebian Canon Tables as a Corpus-Organizing Paratext within the Multiple-Text
    [Show full text]