| New Testament manuscript | |
.jpg) Page fromCodex Laudianus (Acts 15:22-24) | |
| Name | Laudianus |
|---|---|
| Sign | Ea |
| Text | Book of Acts |
| Date | c. ~550 |
| Script | Latin -Greek diglot |
| Now at | Bodleian Library,Oxford |
| Size | 27 × 22 cm (10.6 × 8.7 in) |
| Type | Western text-type |
| Category | II |
| Note | It contains Acts 8:37 |
Codex Laudianus, designated byEa or08 (in theGregory-Aland numbering), α 1001 (von Soden), calledLaudianus after the former owner, ArchbishopWilliam Laud. It is adiglotLatin —Greekuncialmanuscript of theNew Testament,palaeographically assigned to the 6th century. The manuscript contains theActs of the Apostles.
The manuscript is adiglot, with Greek and Latin in parallel columns on the same page, with the Latin in the left-hand column. Thecodex contains 227 parchment leaves, sized 27 × 22 cm (10.6 × 8.7 in), with almost the complete text of theBook of Acts (lacuna in 26:29-28:26). It is the earliest known manuscript to containActs 8:37.
The text is written in two columns per page, 24 and more lines per page.[1] It is arranged in very short lines of only one to three words each.[2] The text is writtencolonmetrically.[2]
The Greek text of this codex exhibits a mixture of text-types, usually theByzantine, but there are manyWestern and someAlexandrian readings. According toKurt Aland it agrees with the Byzantine text-type 36 times, and 21 times with the Byzantine when it has the same reading as the Alexandrian text. It agrees 22 times with the Alexandrian text against the Byzantine. It has 22 independent or distinctive readings (Sonderlesarten).Aland placed it inCategory II.[1]
It contains Acts 8:37, as do the manuscripts323,453,945,1739,1891,2818, and several others. Most other Greek manuscripts do not contain Acts 8:37[3][4]
In Acts 12:25, the Latin text of the codex readsfrom Jerusalem to Antioch, along with429, 945,1739, p, syrp, copsa geo; The Majority Text reads εις Ιερουσαλημ (to Jerusalem);[5]
In Acts 16:10, it reads θεος along withP74,Sinaiticus,Alexandrinus,Vaticanus,Ephraemi, 044,33,81,181,326,630, 945, 1739, ar, e, l, vg, copbo, geo; other manuscripts read κυριος - D, P,049,056,0142,88,104,330,436,451,614,629, 1241, 1505, 1877, 2127, 2412, 2492, 2495, Byz, c, d,gig, syrp,h, copsa.[6]
In Acts 18:26, it reads την οδον του κυριου along with manuscripts 1505, 2495, and lectionary 598.[7]
InActs 20:28, it reads του κυριου (of the Lord) along with the manuscripts:Papyrus 74,C*,D,Ψ,33,36,453, 945,1739, and1891.[8][n 1]
It was probably written inSardinia, during the Byzantine occupation, and therefore after 534 (terminus a quo). It was written before 716 (terminus ad quem), as it was used byBeda Venerabilis in hisExpositio Actuum Apostolorum Retractata.
"It was brought to England probably byTheodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 668, or byCeolfrid, Abbot ofWearmouth and Jarrow, in the early part of the eighth century. It was probably deposited in one of the great monasteries in the north of England."[9] It probably came to the continent with English missionaries in the 8th century and came into the possession ofHornbach Abbey in the Rhineland.[10][11]
In theThirty Years' War, it came into the possession ofWilliam Laud, who donated the manuscript to theBodleian Library inOxford in 1636, where it is still located (shelfmark: MS. Laud Gr. 35).
Thomas Hearne published a transcription of its text in 1715, but not a very good one. This was followed by a transcription done by Hansell in 1864, and then byConstantin von Tischendorf in 1870.[12]
The manuscript was examined byJohann Jakob Griesbach, Ropes, Motzo, Poole, Clark, Lagrange, and Walther.