Manuscripts

Codex Vaticanus

Era: c. AD 325-350
Location: Vatican Library, Rome
Discovered: catalogued 1475

One of the two oldest essentially complete Greek Bibles in existence — copied roughly 250 years after the New Testament was written, and a foundational witness for every modern critical edition of the text.

The find

Codex Vaticanus (Vatican Library, Gr. 1209) is a 4th-century parchment Bible containing most of the Septuagint Old Testament and the New Testament (ending in Hebrews 9:14, with the rest lost). It has been in the Vatican Library since at least 1475 and is one of the two most important New Testament manuscripts alongside Codex Sinaiticus.

Why it matters

Together with Sinaiticus, Vaticanus pushes the textual base of the New Testament back to within about 250 years of the originals. That's closer than any other document from the ancient world, and dramatically closer than classical works like Tacitus or Caesar.

Cross-linked Scripture

Doctrine check

Sources

·Skeat, T.C. (1999). The Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex Vaticanus and Constantine. JTS 50
·Aland, K. & Aland, B. (1995). The Text of the New Testament, 2nd ed.
·Vatican Library: Codex Vaticanus (digital facsimile)
·Codex Vaticanus (Wikipedia)