|
|
|
 |
| Browse Biblical Manuscripts |
|
|
|
PAGES
OF HISTORY
During his first visit to Egypt in 1906, Charles Lang Freer was
offered a small group of biblical manuscripts for purchase. Freer
was intrigued enough to venture outside his usual collecting interests
and, despite knowing little of their value or significance, he acquired
the manuscripts. His instincts were good. In subsequent years he
obtained additional manuscripts from Egypt, some in fragmentary
condition and written in Greek and Coptic, the Egyptian language
used from the third century. The manuscripts are written on sheets
made of parchment or papyrus and are in codex form, with folded
sheets forming leaves like the modern book. As a group, these manuscripts
form one of the most important collections of biblical manuscripts
outside Europe.
BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPTS AT A GLANCE
Number of objects: more than six
Historical range: 3rd–6th century
HIGHLIGHTS
• the third-oldest Greek parchment manuscript of the Gospels
in the world (late 4th–early 5th century), known as the Washington
Gospels (Codex Washingtonianus) or the Freer Manuscript of the Gospels;
it is enclosed between painted wooden book covers dating to the
7th century
• an early 5th-century Greek parchment codex containing the
books of Deuteronomy and Joshua
• an early 5th-century incomplete Greek parchment codex of
the Psalms
• a 6th-century century fragmentary Greek parchment codex
of the Epistles of Paul
• a 5th-century Coptic parchment codex of the Psalms
• a fragmentary mid-3rd-century Greek papyrus codex of the
Minor Prophets
|
|
|
|
|
|
