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Evaluating Scribal Freedom and Fidelity: Number-Writing Techniques in Codex Washingtonianus (W 032)

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Evaluating Scribal Freedom and Fidelity: Number-Writing Techniques in Codex Washingtonianus (W 032) Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 52 (2015) 225-238 Evaluating Scribal Freedom and Fidelity: Number-Writing Techniques in Codex Washingtonianus (W 032) Zachary J. Cole University of Edinburgh Abstract The mysterious relationship of Codex Washingtonianus (W 032) to its parent text(s) has been a matter of some debate among textual critics, primarily because of the manuscript’s startling block mixture of “text-types.” This study brings to light an overlooked scribal fea- ture that suggests W is a strict copy of its exemplar(s) rather than the customized text of a scrupulous redactor. Specifically, the scribe’s method of writing numerals, whether by numerical symbol or long- hand word, conspicuously changes at each point where there is a shift in textual affinity – a pattern that could hardly have been introduced independently by the scribe and almost certainly reflects the contents of the source-texts. 1. Introduction The recent collection of essays titledThe Freer Biblical Manuscripts: Fresh Studies of an American Treasure Trove marks a renewal of interest in Codex Washingtonianus (W 032) – a fascinating late fourth-/fifth-century codex of the canonical Gospels filled with many intriguing riddles.1 One such riddle concerns the puzzling relationship of W to its exemplar(s). Specifically, Codex W exhibits a curiously diverse assortment of text-types in block mixture, in- cluding Alexandrian (B-text), Western (D-text), Byzantine (A-text), and – ac- 1 L.W. Hurtado (ed.), The Freer Biblical Manuscripts: Fresh Studies of an American Treasure Trove (Atlanta 2006). Note the absence of other treatments of W in J.K. Elliott, A Bibliography of Greek New Testament Manuscripts (2nd ed.: Cambridge 2000) 63-65; see also Supplements I-III by the same author, NovT 46 (2004) 376-400; NovT 49 (2007) 370-401; NovT 52 (2012) 272-297, respectively. 226 Zachary J. Cole cording to some – Caesarean (C-text) portions.2 This dramatic textual variety raises the important question of how Codex W was created. For instance, does this patchwork composition suggest that the scribe used several exemplars and by selecting desired wording crafted a new, custom text? Or, rather, is W a strict copy of the only exemplar(s) that were available? Evaluating the work of a scribe whose source-texts are no longer extant is a notoriously difficult task,3 and it is therefore not surprising that scholars disagree about the precise relationship of W to its parent text(s). The purpose of this study is to bring to light one key piece of evidence that suggests the Freer Gospels Codex reflects the work of a scribe who intended to reproduce closely the available exemplar text(s) rather than one who intended to create a new literary product. That piece of evidence is the scribal use (and nonuse) of alphabetic numeral abbreviations within the body text of W. As it will be shown, the scribe’s unique employment of numerical abbreviations in W falls into a remarkable pattern that coincides precisely with the aforemen- tioned changes in text-type throughout the codex; that is, each block of text contains not only a unique textual affinity, but also a unique scribal technique of number-writing. It will be shown that such changes could hardly have been introduced independently by the scribe of W, and they therefore almost cer- tainly reflect the contents of the exemplar text(s).4 2 I take the terminology of A-text, B-text, etc., from E.J. Epp, “Textual Clusters: Their Past and Future in New Testament Textual Criticism,” in The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis, ed. B.D. Ehrman and M.W. Holmes (2nd ed.: Leiden and Boston 2014) 519-577. 3 For an illuminating discussion of New Testament manuscripts that do have known exemplars, see D.C. Parker, An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts (Cambridge 2008) 133-141, 259-261. While Parker does not focus on number- writing techniques, his discussion of duplicate copies is relevant insofar as it illustrates the complexities involved in a given copying event. The few duplicate manuscripts that are extant reveal that individual scribes were interested in copying different features with varying degrees of care; we cannot expect uniformity in scribal behavior, nor can we be sure what textual/physical features a scribe would carry over without alteration. 4 The issue of scribal freedom within Graeco-Roman bookrolls is addressed by W.A. Johnson, Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus (Toronto 2004) esp. 15-57. A leading question in the book is the extent to which certain features of the bookroll were de- pendent upon scribal convention, preference, and/or exemplar texts. Interestingly, Johnson observes that, in terms of manuscript format, scribes did not usually copy their exemplars line-by-line, but typically preferred their own text layout. In addition, regarding punctuation, the findings were mixed; scribes generally copied some of the “bare-bones” punctuation markers (such as paragraphoi) but left most of the lectional aids and “lesser divisions of the syntax” to be added by later readers. Although numeri- Evaluating Scribal Freedom and Fidelity 227 2. A Veritable Patchwork: Various Text-Types in the Freer Gospels When Henry Sanders published the editio princeps of W, he surmised that the codex represented a patchwork of otherwise unrelated manuscript frag- ments left over from the destruction of the Diocletian persecution (303-311 CE).5 This patchwork composition is observable in two notable ways: (1) the first quire of John (1:1-5:11) is clearly the work of a different, and more recent, copyist, and (2) several text-types are discernible in block mixture throughout the manuscript. Sanders divided the codex into no less than seven distinct parts and specified a source for each: (1) Matt 1:1-28:20: Antioch (2) John 5:12-21:25: Hesychian (3) John 1:1-5:11: mostly Heschyian with some Coptic influence (4) Luke 1:1-8:12: Hesychian (5) Luke 8:13-24:53: Antioch (6) Mark 1:1-5:30: from a Greek-Latin bilingual (7) Mark 5:31-16:20: from a trilingual with decided Latin-Syriac and less Coptic tendencies6 Sanders observed that W reflects these different textual sources in spite of its uniform appearance. The only portion that is visually distinct is, as just noted, the first quire of John, which bears not only a different scribal hand, darker ink, and unique diacritical notations on initial vowels, but even the parchment itself is noticeably unlike that in the rest of the codex; it is recog- nized as a replacement quire for a lost original (hereafter sW ).7 Today, scholars have simplified and updated the designation of each text block while retaining the core of Sanders’ argument. Bruce Metzger and Bart Ehrman, for example, summarize it as follows: cal shorthand was not typically used in Graeco-Roman rolls, the present study seeks to complement Johnson’s by focusing on one scribe’s preferred technique of number- writing. 5 H.A. Sanders (ed.), The New Testament Manuscripts in the Freer Collection, Part 1: The Washington Manuscript of the Four Gospels (New York 1912) 133. 6 Sanders (n. 5) 133-139. 7 Sanders proposed a more complicated theory about the origin of the first quire of John; see Sanders (n. 5) 5-16 and 135-136. For a current view, see U.B. Schmid, “Reas- sessing the Palaeography and Codicology of the Freer Gospel Manuscript,” in Hurtado (n. 1) 227-249. 228 Zachary J. Cole (1) Matt: Byzantine throughout (2) John: Alexandrian/Western in 1:1-5:11; Alexandrian in 5:12- 21:25 (3) Luke: Alexandrian in 1:1-8:12; Byzantine in 8:13-24:53 (4) Mark: Western in 1:1-5:30; Caesarean/similar to P45 in 5:31- 16:208 Scholars have indeed recognized that this textual diversity in the Wash- ington Codex bears significant implications for understanding how the scribe handled his or her exemplar(s). Whether the scribe’s aim was to make a strict duplicate of the Vorlage(n) or a completely revised text is an open question. For instance, a recent study of W 032 begins with the following query, Was the original scribe slavishly faithful to a number of exemplars, or did the scribe rather act as a self-conscious redactor, modifying all the Gospel texts to suit the needs of the community who supported the scribal work?9 Quite naturally, it would seem, a scribe who had several different exem- plars at his or her disposal – as it appears our scribe had – consequently pos- sessed the luxury of constructing a text of his or her own design. The problem with this suggestion, however, is the nature of the textual variety found in Washingtonianus. The manuscript is not mixed in terms of alteration between 8 B.M. Metzger and B.D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th ed. (Oxford 2005) 80. The designation “Caesarean” is now seen to be problematic. Formerly, this was a common view; see, e.g., K. Lake and R. Blake, “The Text of the Gospels and the Koridethi Codex,” HTR 16 (1923) 267-286; B.H. Streeter, “The Washington MS. of the Gospels,” HTR 19 (1926) 165-172; K. Lake, R. Blake, and S. New, “The Caesarean Text of the Gospel of Mark,” HTR 21 (1928) 207- 404; P. Hedley, “The Egyptian Texts of the Gospels and Acts,”CQR 118 (1934) 23-39. But see L.W. Hurtado, Text-Critical Methodology and the Pre-Caesarean Text: Codex W in the Gospel of Mark (Grand Rapids 1981), who concludes that the text of Mark in W is similar to that of P45, but certainly not Caesarean or “pre-Caesarean”; there has been, to my knowledge, no answer to Hurtado.
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