Codex Alexandrinus is, in the modern inventory of biblical manuscripts, one of the four great uncial codices of the 4th and 5th centuries, and it is, on substantial points of the textual criticism of the New Testament, the principal witness to the 5th-century state of the manuscript tradition. The manuscript is, in many respects, the most accessible of the great codices to the modern English-speaking reader, since it has been in the British Library (and its predecessor, the British Museum’s manuscript collection) since the 17th century, and it has been an object of scholarly work for nearly four centuries. The manuscript contains, in its surviving form, substantially the whole of the Septuagint, the entire New Testament, and a substantial collection of non-canonical Christian material, all written in the literary uncial script of the 5th century on the best vellum of the period.
The manuscript is, in its physical and textual character, a substantial piece of evidence for the state of the textual tradition in the 5th century. The manuscript’s text is, in the standard classification of the New Testament textual types, generally treated as a representative of the Alexandrian text-type, although the manuscript contains a substantial number of readings that are not represented in either of the two older witnesses (Sinaiticus and Vaticanus). The manuscript’s text is, on the modern assessment, best described as a 5th-century representative of the Alexandrian text-type, with a substantial number of late readings that reflect the incipient Byzantine text-type of the 5th century.
The manuscript is, in its collection of non-canonical Christian material, one of the principal witnesses to the early Christian literary tradition outside the canonical books. The manuscript contains, in its surviving form, the entirety of the First Epistle of Clement (which is also preserved, in part, in Codex Sinaiticus), substantially all of the Shepherd of Hermas (which is also preserved in part in Sinaiticus), substantially all of the Psalms of Solomon, and substantial portions of the spurious acts and other non-canonical Christian literature of the 4th and 5th centuries. The manuscript’s collection of non-canonical material is, in many respects, more substantial than the non-canonical collections of Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.
The essay traces the Codex Alexandrinus through five threads. The first is the scriptorium story: who wrote it, when, where, and under what commission. The second is the textual-history story: how the manuscript relates to the other great codices, what it tells us about the state of the text in the 5th century, and what role it has played in the textual criticism of the New Testament since the Renaissance. The third is the British-Museum story: the manuscript’s history in Constantinople, in Alexandria, in Cyprus, and in London, and the manuscript’s transfer to the British Museum in the 17th century as a gift of Cyril Lucaris to Charles I. The fourth is the textual-content story: how the manuscript’s non-canonical content has been important for the modern study of early Christian literature, and how the manuscript’s text of the Septuagint is, alongside the Leningrad Codex, the principal witness to the late-antique Septuagint state. The fifth is the modern-digital story: how the British Library has digitised the manuscript and made it freely available, and how the digital edition has expanded the manuscript’s scholarly use over the past decade.
The scriptorium and the date of Alexandrinus
Codex Alexandrinus was, on the paleographic and codicological evidence, written in a scriptorium associated with the Egyptian Alexandrian tradition in the early 5th century. The principal evidence for the attribution is the manuscript’s text, which is, in substantial measure, a representative of the Alexandrian textual tradition of the 2nd to 4th centuries, and on the paleographic evidence of the manuscript’s letter-forms. The paleographic evidence places the manuscript in the early 5th century, with most modern estimates converging on the 420s or 430s as the most plausible date of completion.
The scribes of the manuscript are, on the codicological evidence, probably two in number, and the principal scribe, designated as scribe A in the modern editorial system, wrote the bulk of the Old Testament and substantially the whole of the New Testament. The second scribe, scribe B, wrote the historical books of the Old Testament and a small portion of the New Testament. The distribution of the work between the two scribes is, on the codicological evidence, less even than in the case of Sinaiticus, and the principal scribe’s training and textual decisions dominate the manuscript’s textual profile. The quality of the principal scribe’s work is, on the paleographic evidence, among the highest in the manuscript tradition of the period.
The location of the scriptorium is, on the best codicological and historical evidence, most plausibly Alexandria. The Egyptian Alexandrian attribution is supported by the textual evidence (the manuscript’s textual profile agrees substantially with the Alexandrian tradition) and by the historical evidence of the Egyptian intellectual life of the 5th century (the school of Alexandria was, in the 5th century, one of the principal intellectual centres of the eastern Mediterranean). The Cypriot and the Constantinopolitan attributions that have been proposed in some modern scholarship are, on the evidence, weaker than the Egyptian attribution, and the modern consensus is the Egyptian attribution.
Alexandrinus in New Testament textual criticism
Codex Alexandrinus is, in the standard critical apparatus of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, the principal 5th-century witness to the New Testament text. The manuscript is, in the apparatus, cited together with Sinaiticus and Vaticanus for substantial portions of the text, and the manuscript is cited uniquely in a substantial number of places. The 5th-century dating of the manuscript makes it a useful counter-example to the 4th-century witnesses, and the manuscript’s textual profile is, accordingly, central to the textual critic’s understanding of the 4th- to 5th-century evolution of the New Testament text.
The Alexandrinus text differs from the 4th-century witnesses in a substantial number of places. The most famous of the differences is the presence of the pericope adulterae, the story of the woman caught in adultery that appears in the Gospel of John after John 7:52 in the majority of Greek manuscripts. The pericope is, in Alexandrinus, present in the standard location in the text of John, with no critical mark or editorial comment, and the manuscript’s full inclusion of the pericope is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the conclusion that the pericope was, by the 5th century, well established in the Greek manuscript tradition. The editorial handling of the pericope in the modern critical editions reflects the Alexandrinus evidence alongside the 4th-century absence in Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.
Alexandrinus also contains a substantial number of unique readings, readings that are not attested elsewhere in the Greek manuscript tradition and that the textual critic has to evaluate on a case-by-case basis. Some of the unique readings are scribal errors and are accordingly marked in the apparatus as probable typos. Some are, on the contrary, the most-attractive readings in the textual tradition: readings that resolve a difficulty in the more standard text, that agree with the most ancient of the patristic citations, and that are, on the basis of transcriptional probability, more likely to be the original than to be the secondary.
The Alexandrinus text is also a principal witness to the Septuagint tradition. The manuscript contains, in its surviving form, substantially the whole of the Septuagint in the form of the historical books, the poetical books, the prophetic books, and substantial portions of the deuterocanonical books. The manuscript is, on the modern assessment, the oldest substantially complete Septuagint witness outside Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, and the manuscript’s testimony to the Septuagint is one of the principal sources for the textual criticism of the Old Testament Greek text.
The Lucaris gift and the British Museum acquisition
The most famous episode in the manuscript’s modern curatorial history is the 1627 gift of the manuscript to Charles I by Cyril Lucaris, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. The gift was, on the historical record, an act of religious-political patronage by Lucaris, who was a strong candidate for the election to the Patriarchate of Constantinople and who had, on the political logic of the early 17th-century eastern Mediterranean, a substantial interest in cultivating the good will of the Anglican monarchy of England.
The transfer of the manuscript was, on the historical record, complicated and contested. The manuscript had been in the library of the Patriarchate of Alexandria since the 5th century at the latest, and the gift to Charles I was, accordingly, an unusual act of religious property transfer. The transfer was processed through the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time, who carried the manuscript from Alexandria to London. The manuscript arrived in London in 1627 and was deposited, on Lucaris’s instructions, in the royal library that was, in 1759, incorporated into the British Museum and, in 1973, into the British Library.
The transfer of the manuscript from Alexandria to London was, on the historical record, an act of substantial religious-political significance. The Alexandrian Patriarchate had, since the 5th century, been a principal centre of Christian scholarship, and the transfer of the manuscript was, accordingly, the transfer of one of the principal pieces of the Christian literary heritage of the late-antique Mediterranean to a Protestant monarchy. The transfer was, on the Patriarchate’s later position, an improper religious property transfer that should be undone, and the Patriarchate has, on several occasions in the 20th century, raised the question of the original transfer. The British Library’s position has, however, been that the transfer was completed in 1627, that the British Library is the legitimate owner of the manuscript, and that the Patriarchate’s claim would, if upheld, have a destabilising effect on the international museum and library market.
The manuscript’s British-curatorial history has been one of continuous scholarly use. The manuscript was, in the 17th century, an object of intense scholarly interest, and the 18th-century scholarly work on the manuscript by the British Museum’s librarian, Richard Bentley, established the manuscript as one of the principal witnesses to the textual criticism of the New Testament. The 19th-century scholarly work on the manuscript culminated in the publication of a substantial facsimile edition of the New Testament portion of the manuscript by the British Museum’s scholar, Fenton Hort, and the New Testament portion of the manuscript has, since the 19th-century facsimile, been an object of continuous scholarly attention.
Alexandrinus and the non-canonical Christian material
The non-canonical Christian material in the Codex Alexandrinus is, on the modern assessment, one of the most valuable features of the manuscript. The manuscript contains, in its surviving form, the entirety of the First Epistle of Clement, substantially all of the Shepherd of Hermas, substantially all of the Psalms of Solomon, and substantial portions of the spurious acts and other non-canonical Christian literature of the 4th and 5th centuries. The non-canonical material is, on the codicological evidence, contemporary with the canonical material, and the manuscript is, accordingly, one of the principal witnesses to the early Christian literary tradition outside the canonical books.
The First Epistle of Clement in Codex Alexandrinus is, on the textual evidence, the oldest substantially complete witness to the text. The manuscript’s text of the First Epistle was, in the 19th century, the principal Greek witness to the text, and the manuscript’s text remained the principal Greek witness until the discovery of Codex Sinaiticus in the 19th century. The Alexandrinus text of the First Epistle is, on the modern critical apparatus, cited alongside the Sinaiticus text for substantial portions of the text, and the editorial handling of the First Epistle in the modern critical editions reflects the Alexandrinus evidence.
The Shepherd of Hermas in Codex Alexandrinus is, on the textual evidence, a principal witness to the text of the Shepherd. The manuscript’s text of the Shepherd is, in the modern critical editions, cited alongside the Sinaiticus text, and the manuscript’s text is, in the 2020s, one of the principal sources for the textual criticism of the Shepherd. The Shepherd of Hermas is one of the most important of the early Christian non-canonical texts, and the Alexandrinus text is one of the principal sources for the modern critical edition of the Shepherd.
The Psalms of Solomon in Codex Alexandrinus is, on the textual evidence, the oldest substantially complete witness to the text. The manuscript’s text of the Psalms is, in the modern critical editions, the principal source for the textual criticism of the Psalms, and the manuscript’s text is, in the 2020s, the principal reference text for the Septuagint tradition of the Psalms. The Psalms of Solomon are, on the textual evidence, a Jewish text of the 1st century BCE, written in Hebrew or Aramaic and translated into Greek, and the Alexandrinus text is, on the modern assessment, the most important witness to the Greek text of the Psalms.
The digital edition and the continuing significance of Alexandrinus
The British Library’s digital facsimile of Codex Alexandrinus, which was made freely available in 2015 as part of the British Library’s digital manuscript programme, is, in the 2020s, the principal route by which the manuscript enters the textual criticism and the cultural history of the Bible. The digital edition includes the manuscript’s complete text at high resolution, the manuscript’s substantial marginal apparatus, and the modern palaeographic, codicological, and textual commentary on the manuscript’s contents. The digital edition is freely available to researchers and to the public.
The digital edition has substantially expanded the use of the manuscript in scholarly textual criticism. The traditional use of the manuscript required travel to the British Library, and the British Library’s substantial holdings of biblical manuscripts have, since the late 17th century, been a principal training ground for textual critics of the New Testament. The digital edition has made it possible for the manuscript to be used as a scholarly text in institutions that have no direct access to the manuscript, and the consequences for the rate and the depth of modern work on the manuscript have been substantial.
The continuing significance of the manuscript for the textual criticism of the New Testament is, on the modern evidence, principal and durable. The manuscript is, in the modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament, the principal 5th-century witness to the textual tradition. The manuscript’s text is, in the standard critical apparatus, cited together with the 4th-century witnesses for substantial portions of the text, and the manuscript’s text is cited uniquely in a substantial number of places.
The long-term interpretation of the manuscript is, accordingly, going to be substantially shaped by the digital edition and by the ongoing cooperation between the British Library and the institutions that have participated in the digital manuscript programme. The digital edition is, in the 2020s, the principal route by which the manuscript enters the textual criticism of the next generation of scholars. The library’s continuing investment in the programme is the principal route by which the manuscript’s curatorial history is being unfolded for the scholarly and the public. The manuscript’s role as a principal witness to the textual state of the 5th century is, on the evidence, durable and stable, and the manuscript’s role in the formation of the textual criticism of the New Testament is, on the modern evidence, principal and ongoing.
References
- Codex Alexandrinus — British Library, Royal MS 1 D V.
- Codex Alexandrinus — Grokipedia, 2026.
- Codex Alexandrinus — Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2026.
- Hurtado, L., The Earliest Christian Artifacts — Eerdmans, 2006.
- Lake, K., and Lake, S., Codex Alexandrinus — British Museum, 1908-1934.
- Codex Alexandrinus at the British Library — British Library Learning.
- Jellicoe, S., Studies in the Septuagint Origins — JBL Press, 1968.
- Skypointers project: Alexandrinus digital facsimile — British Library, 2015.
- Barker, H., Greek Manuscript Traditions and Text-Critical Studies of the New Testament — Garland Press, 1976.