The textual tradition of explicit quotations in Codex Bezac cantabrigienesis of the acts of the apostles

Abstract

This dissertation examines to what extent the transmission history of Codex Bezae’s Greek text of Acts shows awareness of the explicit quotations’ Old Testament origin, and to what extent this awareness played a role in the final formation of this manuscript’s text. The dissertation limits itself to explicit quotations from the Psalms, Isaiah and the Minor Prophets. Each explicit Old Testament quotation of these three books is discussed in the order of their appearance in Codex Bezae. In these discussions, special attention is paid to the layout of the text of the manuscript, the introductory formula of each explicit quotation and the text of each quotation as it appears in the codex. The aim of this discussion is to discern whether the variant readings and layout of the manuscript (i.e., variant as opposed to other Greek New Testament manuscripts) show Old Testament awareness or possible influence from the OT as opposed to the “initial” text of the New Testament. The variant readings of Codex Bezae are therefore measured against the pertinent Old Testament traditions (Hebrew, Greek and Latin). The aim of this investigation is to determine whether Old Testament awareness played any role in the formation of the text of Codex Bezae, not necessarily to solve textual difficulties in the given explicit quotations. By paying close attention to the awareness of the Old Testament in the Bezan tradition, an opportunity is afforded to glimpse into the stages of the transmission history of this text, to learn more about its users and the users of the text of previous manuscripts in its tradition, and to discover more about how the Old Testament was perceived in the early stages of Christianity.