The ms.Ambrosiano O 39 sup. is amanuscript of theHexapla ofOrigen dated to the late ninth century C.E. written in acodex form. This is apalimpsest, meaning that the current text is written on leaves which had been written on before and cleaned.
The manuscript is designated with the number 1098 in thelist of the septuagint manuscripts as the classification ofAlfred Rahlfs and with the number 587 inEmidio Martini andDomenico Bassi's catalogue of theGreek manuscripts in theBiblioteca Ambrosiana.[1]
The palimpsest contains about 150 verses of the Psalms.[2]
The codex is written in five columns per page, unlike other portions of the Hexapla it does not contain one column written inHebrew language. The first column is a sequential transliteration from the Hebrew to Greek text, in the second probably a translation ofAquila, the third is a version ofSymmachus, the fourth contain a text of theSeptuaginta and the fifth column contains the Greek version of Quinta.[3]
This is the latest known manuscript that has the Septuagint text with the tetragrammaton. Thetetragrammaton occur in square Hebrew characters in all the five columns in the following places within theBook of Psalms: 18:30, 31, 41, 46; 28:6,7,8; 29:1 (x2), 2 (x2), 3 (x2); 30:1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 10, 12; 31:1, 5, 6, 9, 21, 23 (x2), 24; 32:10, 11; 35:1, 22, 24, 27; 36:5; 46:7, 8, 11; 89:49 (in the columns 1, 2 and 4), 51, 52.
A facsimile and a textual transcription was published in 1958 byGiovanni Mercati in a publication entitled:Psalterii Hexapli Reliquiae... Pars prima. Codex Rescriptus Bybliothecae Ambrosianae O 39 sup. Phototypice Expressus et Transcriptus.[4]
The manuscript is kept in theBiblioteca Ambrosiana, located atMilan (O. 39 sup.).
Metzger, Bruce Manning (1981).Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: an introduction to Greek palaeography. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 108, 109.ISBN 0-19-502924-0.
