Codex Alexandrinus
Summary
A fifth-century Greek Bible in four volumes — with two letters of Clement bound in at the end, and a lost book still listed in its own index.
- Copied c. AD 400–440 (fifth century).
- Written in greek on parchment.
- Kept at British Library, London (Royal MS 1 D. V–VIII, four volumes).
- Contains Septuagint (most), New Testament (most), 1 Clement.
- Named in 6 of the places your Bible carries a footnote.
Sources (3)
- F. G. Kenyon, The Codex Alexandrinus in Reduced Photographic Facsimile (British Museum, 1909–57) · accessed 2026-08-06The full facsimile. Public domain.
- Royal Collection Trust, record for Codex Alexandrinus · accessed 2026-08-06The record of the 1627 presentation to Charles I.
- Metzger & Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 4th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2005) · accessed 2026-08-06The standard handbook of New Testament textual criticism.
What it is
It carries most of the Greek Old Testament and most of the New, with gaps, and then keeps going: 1 Clement and 2 Clement are bound in after Revelation.
The index at the front lists one more book after those — the Psalms of Solomon. Those leaves were torn out and are gone. But the scribe's own list separates them from the rest by a space, which is contemporary evidence that the person who compiled this Bible did not rank that book with the others. Extra texts could be bound into a fifth-century Bible without being counted as Scripture.
It was brought to Alexandria in the early fourteenth century and presented to King Charles I in 1627.
Manuscript details
- Date
- c. AD 400–440 (fifth century)
- Language
- Greek
- Script
- Uncial (majuscule)
- Material
- Parchment
- Held at
- British Library, London (Royal MS 1 D. V–VIII, four volumes)
- Found at
- Alexandria; presented to King Charles I of England in 1627
- Contains
- Septuagint (most) · New Testament (most) · 1 Clement · 2 Clement · Psalms of Solomon (listed in the index; leaves lost)
Why it matters
Where this witness is read
The words used here: uncial, codex
- uncial
- a book hand of Greek capital letters, used for the oldest whole Bibles.
- codex
- a book with leaves and a spine, the form that replaced the scroll.
The KJV and the ASV translate the Hebrew Masoretic Text. Where Codex Alexandrinus reads differently, the footnote in your Bible is pointing here.
- Mark 16:9-20The Ending of Mark
- What Codex Alexandrinus reads
- Codex Alexandrinus (A) (5th century).Contains the long ending, 16:9-20, without any mark of doubt.
- John 7:53 - 8:11The Woman Caught in Adultery
- What Codex Alexandrinus reads
- Codex Alexandrinus (A) and Codex Ephraemi (C) (5th century).Both are damaged exactly here, so neither can be read directly, but in each case scholars have measured the missing leaves against the surviving handwriting, and there is not enough room for the passage. The gap is too small to have held it.
- 1 John 5:7-8The Three Heavenly Witnesses
- What Codex Alexandrinus reads
- Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus (4th-5th century).None of the great codices contains the passage.
- Acts 8:37The Ethiopian's confession, "If thou believest with all thine heart"
- What Codex Alexandrinus reads
- The earliest Greek manuscripts of Acts, including Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexandrinus (4th–5th centuries).No verse 37. Verse 36 is followed immediately by verse 38 and the descent into the water.
- Mark 1:41Compassion or anger? Jesus and the leper
- What Codex Alexandrinus reads
- Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, and the Byzantine majority (4th–15th centuries).*splanchnistheis*, "moved with compassion."
- 1 Timothy 3:16"God was manifest in the flesh" — two letters apart
- What Codex Alexandrinus reads
- Codex Alexandrinus (5th century).Disputed for centuries. A faint stroke is visible, and scholars have argued over whether it is a genuine bar making the word ΘΣ or ink showing through from the other side of the leaf. The manuscript is a witness whose testimony has to be argued about rather than simply read.