Codex Vaticanus - Scribes and Correctors

Scribes and Correctors

According to Tischendorf the manuscript was written by three scribes (A, B, C), two of whom appear to have written the Old Testament and one the entire New Testament. Tischendorf's view was accepted by Frederic G. Kenyon, but contested by T. C. Skeat, who examined the codex more thoroughly. Skeat and other paleographers contested Tischendorf's theory of a third (C) scribe, instead asserting that two scribes worked on the Old Testament (A and B) and one of them (B) wrote the New Testament. Scribe A wrote:

Genesis – 1 Kings (pages 41–334)

Psalms – Tobias (pages 625–944)

Scribe B wrote:

1 Kings – 2 Esdra (pages 335–624)

Hosea – Daniel (pages 945–1234)

New Testament.

Two correctors worked on the manuscript, one (B2) contemporary with the scribes, the other (B3) in about the 10th or 11th century, although the theory of a first corrector, B1, proposed by Tischendorf was rejected by later scholars. According to Tischendorf, one of the scribes is identical to (and may have been) one of the scribes of the Codex Sinaiticus (scribe D), but there is insufficient evidence for his assertion. Skeat agreed that the writing style is very similar to that of Sinaiticus, but there is not enough evidence to accept identity of scribes; "the identity of the scribal tradition stands beyond dispute".

The original writing was retraced by a later scribe (usually dated to the 10th or 11th century), and the beauty of the original script was spoiled. Accents and breathing marks, as well as punctuation, have been added by a later hand. There are no enlarged initials, no divisions into chapters or sections such as are found in later manuscripts, but a different system of division peculiar to this manuscript. There are plenty of the itacistic faults, especially the exchange of ει for ι and αι for ε. The exchange of ει and ο for ω is less frequent.

The manuscript contains unusual small horizontally aligned double dots (so called "distigmai," formerly called "umlauts") in the margin of the columns and are scattered throughout the New Testament. There are 795 of these to be clearly found in the text, and perhaps another 40 that are undetermined. The date of these markings are disputed among scholars and are discussed in a link below. Two such distigmai can be seen in the left margin of the first column (top image). Tischendorf reflected upon their meaning, but without any resolution. He pointed on several places where these distigmai were used: at the ending of the Gospel of Mark, 1 Thess 2:14; 5:28; Heb 4:16; 8:1. The meaning of these distigmai was recognized in 1995 by Philip Payne. Payne discovered the first distigme while studying the section 1 Cor 14.34–35 of the codex. He suggested that distigmai indicate lines where another textual variant was known to the person who wrote the umlauts. Therefore, the distigmai mark places of textual uncertainty. The same distigmai were observed in Codex Fuldensis, especially in the section containing 1 Cor 14:34–35. The distigme of two codices indicate a variant of the Western manuscripts, which placed 1 Cor 14:34–35 after 1 Cor 14:40 (manuscripts: Claromontanus, Augiensis, Boernerianus, 88, itd, g, and some manuscripts of Vulgate).

On page 1512, next to Hebrews 1:3, the text contains an interesting marginal note, "Fool and knave, leave the old reading and do not change it!" – "ἀμαθέστατε καὶ κακέ, ἄφες τὸν παλαιόν, μὴ μεταποίει" which may suggest that inaccurate copying, either intentional or unintentional, was a recognized problem in scriptoriums.