page_title: Codex Alexandrinus
section_title: Textual features
hierarchical_section_title: Codex Alexandrinus / Textual features
caption_attribution_description: English: End of the Second Epistle of Peter and beginning of the First Epistle of John in the same column of the codex.
context_page_description: The Codex Alexandrinus is a fifth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. It is one of the four Great uncial codices. Along with the Codex Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible. Brian Walton assigned Alexandrinus the capital Latin letter A in the Polyglot Bible of 1657. This designation was maintained when the system was standardized by Wettstein in 1751. Thus, Alexandrinus held the first position in the manuscript list.
  It derives its name from Alexandria where it resided for a number of years before it was brought by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Cyril Lucaris from Alexandria to Constantinople. Then it was given to Charles I of England in the 17th century. Until the later purchase of Codex Sinaiticus, it was the best manuscript of the Greek Bible deposited in Britain. Today, it rests along with Codex Sinaiticus in one of the showcases in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery of the British Library. A full photographic reproduction of the New Testament volume is available on the British Library's website.
context_section_description: Textual critics have had a challenging task in classifying the Codex; the exact relationship to other known texts and families is still disputed. The Greek text of the codex is of mixed text-types. It is a representative of the Byzantine text-type in the Gospels – the oldest examples of the type – and the rest of the New Testament books are of the Alexandrian text-type, with some Western readings. Kurt Aland placed it in Category III in the Gospels, and in Category I in rest of the books of the New Testament. The Byzantine text of the Gospels has a number of Alexandrian features, it has some affinities to the textual Family Π. Soden associated the text of the gospels with Family Π, though it is not a pure member of this family. According to Streeter, it is the earliest Greek manuscript which gives us approximately the text of Lucian the Martyr, but a small proportion of the readings seem to be earlier.
  Alexandrinus follows the Alexandrian readings through the rest of the New Testament; however, the text goes from closely resembling Codex Sinaiticus in the Pauline epistles to more closely resembling the text of a number of papyri (⁷⁴ for Acts, ⁴⁷ for the Apocalypse). The text of Acts frequently agrees with the biblical quotations made by St. Athanasius. The gospels are cited as a "consistently cited witness of the third order" in the critical apparatus of the Novum Testamentum Graece, while the rest of the New Testament is of the "first order." In the Pauline Epistles it is closer to Sinaiticus than to Vaticanus. In the General Epistles it represents a different subtype than the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus. In the Book of Revelation it agrees with Codex Ephraemi against Sinaiticus and Papyrus 47. In the Book of Revelation and in several books of the Old Testament, it has the best text of all manuscripts. In the Old Testament its text often agrees with Codex Sinaiticus.
  Old Testament
  In Genesis 5:25 it reads ΕΚΑΤΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΟΓΔΟΗΚΟΝΤΑ ΕΠΤΑ ΕΤΗ ('187 years'), Vaticanus reads – ΕΚΑΤΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΞΗΚΟΝΤΑ ΕΠΤΑ ΕΤΗ ('167 years');
  In Deuteronomy 31:15 it reads εν στυλω ('in a pillar') for εν νεφελη ('in a cloud');
  In Joshua 11:42 it reads ελαβεν ('took') for επαταξεν ('struck');
  In Joshua 11:1 it reads μαδων ('maroon') for μαρρων ('mud');
  In Judges 18:30 it reads υιου Μωυση, Vaticanus reads – υιος Μανασση;
  In Ezra 10:22 (9:22 LXX) it reads Ωκειδηλος (Vaticanus – Ωκαιληδος) for Jozabad;
  In Psalm 9:35 it reads κοπον ('work') for πονον ('pain').
  New Testament
  Mark 16:9–20 is preserved in its traditional form in the Codex Alexandrinus.
  In Luke 4:17 Alexandrinus has textual variant ἀνοίξας ('opened') together with the manuscripts B, L, W, Ξ, 33, 892, 1195, 1241, ℓ 547, syrˢ, syrʰ, syrᵖᵃˡ, copˢᵃ, copᵇᵒ, against variant ἀναπτύξας (unrolled) supported by א, Dᶜ, K, Δ, Θ, Π, Ψ, f¹, f¹³, 28, 565, 700, 1009, 1010 and other manuscripts.
  In John 1:39, it has the unique reading ωρα ην ως εκτη ('about the sixth hour'), instead of ωρα ην ως δεκατη ('about the tenth hour'), as found in all other manuscripts.
  In Acts 8:39 instead of πνεῦμα κυρίου (spirit of the Lord) it has unusual textual variant πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπέπεσεν ἐπὶ τὸν εὐνοῦχον, ἄγγελος δέ κυρίου ἥρπασεν τὸν Φίλιππον ('the Holy Spirit fell on the eunuch, and an angel of the Lord caught up Philip') supported by several minuscule manuscripts: 94, 103, 307, 322, 323, 385, 453, 467, 945, 1739, 1765, 1891, 2298, 36ᵃ, itᵖ, vg, syrʰ.
  In Acts 11:20 the manuscript has textual variant Ἔλληνας ('Greeks') together with the manuscripts ⁷⁴, corrector c of Sinaiticus, and Codex Bezae, against Ἑλληνιστάς ('Hellenists') supported by the rest of manuscripts except Sinaiticus (εὐαγγελιστάς—'Evangelists'). In Acts 15:18 it has variant γνωστῶν ἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος τῷ κυρίῳ τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ supported only by ⁷⁴.
  In Acts 20:28 it reads του κυριου ('of the Lord') – instead of του θεου ('of the God') – along with the manuscripts ⁷⁴ C* D E Ψ 33 36 453 945 1739 1891.
  In Romans 2:5 it reads ανταποδοσεως ('reward') for αποκαλυψεως ('revelation').
  In Romans 8:1 it reads Ιησου κατα σαρκα περιπατουσιν, for Ιησου (as א, B, D*, G, 1739, 1881, i
caption: The end of the 2 Epistle of Peter and the beginning of the 1 Epistle of John in the same column
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