Codex Vaticanus

Overview

Codex Vaticanus is not a term found in the text of Scripture. It is the name of one of the ancient manuscripts (handwritten copies) of the Bible. It takes its name from the Vatican Library in Rome, where it is kept. Scholars designate it by the siglum B or the number 03. It is written in Greek uncial (capital) letters on parchment, a writing material made from thinly processed animal skin. It is generally dated to the fourth century, though scholars differ on the precise date.

Contents

The Old Testament follows the Septuagint, a Greek translation, and is followed by the New Testament. Over the centuries some portions have been lost, and the following sections do not survive:

• Old Testament: most of the opening portion of Genesis and part of the Psalms
• New Testament: everything from the latter part of Hebrews onward. As a result, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Revelation are not preserved in the original manuscript.

Background and Significance

The Vatican Library is known to have held this manuscript by the fifteenth century. Its value became widely recognized in the nineteenth century as scholars studied it. Today it is regarded, together with Codex Sinaiticus from roughly the same period, as one of the most important sources for the study of the New Testament text. In textual criticism, the discipline that seeks to recover the text closest to the original, the readings of this manuscript are given particular weight. Modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament and many modern-language translations are built on such research.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

This manuscript lacks several passages found in later manuscripts. The best-known examples are Mark 16:9–20 and John 7:53–8:11 (the account of the woman taken in adultery). The Gospel of Mark ends at 16:8, and a blank column is reported to follow it. Scholars disagree on how this blank column should be interpreted.

Assessments of the manuscript also differ. Many seminaries and biblical scholars regard it as among the earliest and most reliable witnesses. By contrast, supporters of the so-called Textus Receptus, which underlies the King James Bible, and especially those who hold the King James Bible to be the only correct translation, contend that this manuscript omits or alters the text. They also object that the manuscript has been held by a Roman Catholic institution. This debate forms one strand of the Bible translation controversy.

Within evangelical circles that affirm biblical inerrancy, the confession of inerrancy is generally applied to the original autographs, and many hold that differences among manuscripts are matters to be addressed through textual criticism.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Codex Vaticanus is mentioned mainly in seminary courses on the biblical languages and manuscript studies and in discussions of Bible translation. Korean Bibles such as the New Korean Revised Version and the Revised New Korean Standard Version place Mark 16:9–20 and John 7:53–8:11 in brackets or add marginal notes. These markings indicate that "some manuscripts do not contain this passage." When church members notice such markings while reading the Bible and wonder about them, Codex Vaticanus is one of the manuscripts cited to explain the background.