Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher
#9
Shlama all--

While I am not going to weigh in on the subject of this Kodex's age, I did see something in my other research that seemed to relate to it. I was excerpting WIlliam Norton's work ("A Translation, in English Daily Used, of the Peshito-Syriac Text, and of the Received Greek Text of Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, and 1 John") for use in the appendices for Mari/PEACE and came across this quote on page 29:

A MANUSCRIPT OF THE FOUR GOSPELS IN SYRIAC, BEARING DATE A. D. 78, is mentioned by J. S. Asseman, in his Bibliotheca. The manuscript was preserved at Baghdad on the river Tigris; at the end it had these words under written; "This sacred book was finished on Wedneday, the 18th day of the month Conun, in the year 389," that is of the Greeks, which was A. D. 78, "by the hand of the Apostle Achaeus, a fellow labourer of Mar Maris, and a disciple of the Apostle Mar Thaddeus, whom we intreat to pray for us." This prayer implies that the statement was written after the time of Achaeus (who is probably the person called also Aggaeus), and Dr. Glocester Ridley says that Achaeus died A. D. 48. For this and other reasons J. D. Michaelis says that the statement "is of no authority." (Marsh's Michaelis, 1823, vol. ii., pg. 31).

THE GREAT NUMBER OF CONVERTS made by Thaddeus, needed to be supplied immediately with WRITTEN DIVINE RECORDS IN SYRIAC, to teach them what to believe and what to do. Greek books would not have been suitable, for their language was Syriac. The ancient Syriac copy of "The Teaching of Thaddeus," from which the above extracts are taken, states that not only King Abgar, and many of the people of that city, were converted, but many also throughout "all Mesopotamia, and the regions round about it." It says that Thaddeus "received all those who trusted in the Anointed, and immersed them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit of Holiness"; that the king gave money with which a house of worship was built; that in it they "offered praises all the days of their lives;" that in the worship conducted there, the teachers "read in the Old Covenant and in the New, and in the Prophets, and in the Acts of the Apostles every day."

By the New Covenant seems to be meant the Gospels; for the New Covenant is distinguished from the Acts of the Apostles, and a little afterwards it is said that many people assembled from day to day, and came to the prayers of the service, and the [reading of the] Old Covenant and of the New in four parts. (See Syriac, pp. 13, 15). The Syriac of this narrative is like that of the Peshito itself; a fact which corroborates the statement that the Peshito was made by the care of Thaddeus.

SOME DOUBT, however, attaches to some of the above statements, because, "The Teaching of Thaddeus" has at the end, received forged additions. Dr. Glocester Ridley says that Achaeus (sometimes called Aggaeus), a disciple of Thaddeus, died A. D. 48. Serapion was bishop of Antioch about A. D. 192-214; Zephyrinus was bishop of Rome 202-217. Yet in this record it is said that when Aggaeus died, "Palut received the hand of priesthood from Serapion, bishop of Antioch, which hand Serapion received from Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome, from the succession of the hand of priesthood of Simon Cephas." So that though the above extracts do not seem to be corrupted, some of them may be so.

And so, if this quote is genuine and correct about such a mss being out there, it might be exactly the kind of Aramaic progenitor that we would expect a Kodex W to come from. I have though no other documentation as where the Aramaic mss is, of it is has been destoyed or lost since its notation. I think though that the western skepticism towards the "Doctrine of Addai" though has little bearing as to whether this codex of the NT is valid or has factual info about itself.

As a Nazarene though I find this date, 78, to be of pecular interest. Reason being, that is only 5 years after the death of the legendary Rabbi Gamaliel (yes THAT one, the teacher of Rav Shaul), whom the Talmud says wrote a parody on the Gospel of Matthew. The date also concords with the COE idea of the canon being certified only through the hands of living apostles and their known associates. While Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter, Paul and James were all gone sometime in the 60's, more than enough of other writers and their assistants (John for instance) wre around to keep certifying the canon. My ROUGH estimation of when the COE might have stopped accepting books for inclusion would be just a few years later, about 80 CE. If John wrote Rev in CE 96, even though he was technically still alive, it didn't reach the COE's door in time for this certification process. So that seems to be the time when the last of the COE canon was added to.

Whatever the case may be, I thought you all might find that interesting!

Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth
Reply


Messages In This Thread
About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by *Albion* - 01-07-2008, 08:22 PM
Re: About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by Dawid - 01-08-2008, 12:04 PM
Re: About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by gbausc - 01-09-2008, 04:22 AM
Re: About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by Dawid - 01-09-2008, 11:36 AM
Re: About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by yaaqub - 01-09-2008, 12:46 PM
Re: About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by gbausc - 01-09-2008, 09:36 PM
Re: About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by yaaqub - 01-09-2008, 09:56 PM
Re: About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by Andrew Gabriel Roth - 01-14-2008, 05:53 PM
Re: About Kodex W, For Dave Bauscher - by yaaqub - 01-14-2008, 06:07 PM

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)