Manuscript
Codex Claromontanus
Also known as Claromontanus · D-paul (Gregory-Aland 06) · 06 · BnF Grec 107
Paul's letters with Greek and Latin side by side — and a list, tucked between two books, of which writings its owner counted as Scripture.
great-codicesnew-testamentpauline-epistlescanon
Overview
Codex Claromontanus(Fifth to sixth century AD (c. 400–550))— Monastery of Clermont, near Beauvais, France
The letters run in facing columns, Greek on one page and Latin opposite, the same arrangement as Codex Bezae uses for the Gospels.
Between Philemon and Hebrews the manuscript carries something else: a catalogue of biblical books with the number of lines in each. It is one of the earliest surviving canon lists, and it does not match a modern table of contents — it omits Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Hebrews from the Pauline sequence, and adds the Shepherd of Hermas, the Acts of Paul and the Apocalypse of Peter.
It belonged to the monastery of Clermont near Beauvais, which is where the name comes from, and passed to Theodore Beza before entering the French royal library.
Manuscript Details
- Date
- Fifth to sixth century AD (c. 400–550)
- Language
- Greek and Latin (facing pages)
- Script
- Uncial (majuscule)
- Material
- Parchment
- Current location
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (Grec 107)
- Discovery location
- Monastery of Clermont, near Beauvais, France
- Contains books
- Pauline epistles · Hebrews · an early canon list (the Catalogus Claromontanus)
- Tags
- great-codices · new-testament · pauline-epistles · canon
Significance
It shows the canon still being worked out, in writing, inside a Bible. Somebody copied out a list of the books he considered Scripture — and it is not quite ours. MannaFest prints that rather than smoothing it over: the list is evidence that the church's settling took time and left records.
The passages the manuscripts argue over
The places where the manuscripts differ — the ending of Mark, the woman caught in adultery, the three heavenly witnesses — with the case each way.