Bible Synapse
Codex Vaticanus
Manuscript · c. AD 300–350 · Bible manuscripts · also called Vat. gr. 1209
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. AD 300–350 (the copying (an estimate from the handwriting))
- Found
- Vatican Library, Rome (in its catalogue by 1481), 1481. How it reached Rome is unknown. It may be the Bible listed in the Vatican Library’s first catalogue of 1475, and it is certainly the three-column parchment Bible described in the catalogue of 1481.
- Now
- Vatican Apostolic Library, Vatican City (Vat. gr. 1209)
- Passages
- Mark 16:9–20, John 7:53 – John 8:11, 1 John 5:7
What it is
A Greek Bible on parchment, written in three columns to the page, holding nearly all of the Greek Old Testament and most of the New. The opening of Genesis and part of the Psalms were lost and replaced in the 15th century, and the New Testament breaks off at Hebrews 9:14, so 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Revelation are missing.
How it connects to the Bible
With Codex Sinaiticus it is one of the oldest near-complete copies of the Greek Bible, and editors of the Greek New Testament give its text great weight. Mark ends at 16:8, followed by an empty column, without verses 9–20, and John lacks the story of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53–8:11). A transcript of 1 John made in 1521 showed that it lacks the words about the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost in 1 John 5:7.
What scholars debate
Where it was made is unknown: Rome, Egypt (Alexandria) and Caesarea have all been proposed.