A or 02 in the Gregory-Aland numbering system.
Usually assigned to the early fifth century, c. 400-440 CE.
The whole Greek Bible plus 1, 2 Clement and Psalms of Solomon.
British Library, London (Royal MS 1 D V, VIII).
Original manuscript: British Library, Royal MS 1 D V, VIII.
I. Provenance and Journey to England
Codex Alexandrinus takes its name from Alexandria, the Egyptian metropolis where scholars once believed it was produced. The manuscript first surfaces in clearly documented history at the patriarchal library of Alexandria, and a note added to the manuscript in Arabic assigns it to the year 1096. From Egypt it passed to Constantinople, where Cyril Lucaris, Patriarch of Constantinople and a noted Calvinist sympathizer, held it in the early seventeenth century.
In 1624 Lucaris presented the codex to Sir Thomas Roe, the English ambassador at the Ottoman court, with the hope that it might strengthen ties between the Eastern and Protestant congregations. It arrived in England in 1627 and was deposited in the Bodleian Library before its transfer to King Charles I. Since 1757 it has belonged to the British Crown and is now preserved in the British Library.
"Codex Alexandrinus is the earliest manuscript which contains all the books of the Greek Bible together with the Greek Hebrew Bible.", Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the Greek Bible
II. Physical Description and Contents
The codex originally measured roughly 32 × 26 cm, with two columns of uncial script per page and approximately fifty lines per column. The writing is a handsome, square biblical uncial of the type common in early parchment codices. Today 773 leaves survive. The Hebrew Bible portion, preserving most of the Septuagint, accounts for the bulk of the volume. The Greek Bible follows in the familiar order: Gospels, Acts and Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epistles, and the Apocalypse.
Not every page is intact. The Gospel of Matthew is missing verses 1:1, 25:6. The Pastoral Epistles have gaps. And 2 Peter and 2, 3 John are damaged. The codex also contains the two letters of Clement of Rome and a fragment of the Psalms of Solomon, an inclusion that hints at the breadth of the Alexandrian Christian bookshelf.
III. Textual Character
Textual critics classify the Gospels of Alexandrinus as Byzantine, which means they usually agree with the majority of later medieval manuscripts. This does not make them late in origin. Rather, the Byzantine text-type appears to have been established earlier than some nineteenth-century scholars assumed. In Acts and the Epistles, however, Alexandrinus shows a stronger affinity with the Alexandrian text-type, sharing readings with Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus against the later majority.
This mixed profile is historically instructive. As Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland observe, Alexandrinus represents a stage of textual transmission in which older Egyptian readings and emerging Byzantine readings could coexist within a single codex. In Revelation, Alexandrinus is especially prized: it is one of the two earliest uncial witnesses to the book and often preserves readings superior to those of the Byzantine majority.
| Portion | Predominant Text-type | Notable Agreements |
|---|---|---|
| Gospels | Byzantine with earlier elements | Majority text, some Alexandrian readings |
| Acts & Catholic Epistles | Alexandrian | Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, early papyri |
| Pauline Epistles | Alexandrian | Vaticanus, papyri such as P46 |
| Revelation | Alexandrian | One of the two earliest uncial witnesses |
IV. Significance for Greek Bible Study
Because Alexandrinus is both early and complete, it provides a control point for the history of the canon. It includes the Apocalypse, the Catholic Epistles, and the Pauline corpus in a single volume, demonstrating that by the early fifth century these books were regarded as belonging together. The presence of 1, 2 Clement, though not part of our Greek Bible, reminds us that the boundary between canonical and useful early Christian literature was still being described in practice as well as in theory.
For textual critics, the codex is indispensable. Its Byzantine Gospel text helps reconstruct the history of that stream. Its Alexandrian Epistles and Revelation provide early support for readings adopted in modern critical editions such as Novum Testamentum Graece and the United Bible Societies Greek Bible. Daniel B. Wallace of the Center for the Study of Greek Bible Manuscripts has often noted that no single manuscript tells the whole story. Alexandrinus is one of the major voices in the chorus.
Alexandrinus stands at a watershed. Its production coincides with the shift from roll to codex, from local text-types to a more standardized Byzantine majority, and from the manuscript culture of late antiquity to the monastic scriptoria of the Middle Ages. In that sense it is not merely a witness to the biblical text but a physical artifact of the textual culture that transmitted it.
V. Where to View the Manuscript
The British Library's Codex Alexandrinus page offers a high-level description of the manuscript and its history. Selected images and scholarly metadata are available through the library's online catalogue. For detailed textual data, the Institute for Greek Bible Textual Research (INTF) at Münster registers the manuscript as A/02 in its digital catalogue.