Codex Washingtonianus - History

History

The codex was purchased by Charles Lang Freer on a trip to Egypt in November 1906. Metzger states: "It is only Greek Gospel manuscript of early date of which we know provenance. Though the exact spot in Egypt where it was found is not known, there are indications that it came from a monastery in the neighbourhood of the Pyramids." The writing is closely related to the Codex Panopolitanus (Papyrus Cairensis 10759), Henoch manuscript, found in Akhmim in 1886.

There is a subscription at the end of the Gospel of Mark, written in semi-cursive from the 5th century: "Holy Christ, be thou with thy servant Timothy and all of his." The similar note appears in Minuscule 579. Hermann von Soden cited a number of similar subscriptions in other manuscripts.

It is located in the Smithsonian Institution at the Freer Gallery of Art (06. 274) in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and some of it can be viewed on-line. Complete images of the codex are available from the Rights and Reproductions office at the Freer Gallery of Art.

The manuscript is dated by the INTF to the 4th or 5th century.

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