(also known as Codex B) Codex Vat icanus is considered t o be t he most aut horit at ive of t he M inorit y Text s, alt hough

it is responsible for over 36,000 changes t hat appear t oday in t he new versions. This manuscript was "found" in 1481 in t he Vat ican library in Rome, where it is current ly held, and from whence it received it s name. It is writ t en on expensive vellum, a fine parchment originally from t he skin of calf or ant elope. Some aut horit ies claim t hat it was one of a bat ch of 50 Bibles ordered from Egypt by t he R oman E mperor Const ant ine; hence it s beaut iful appearance and t he expensive skins which were used for it s pages. But alas! t his manuscript , like it s corrupt Egypt ian part ner Codex Sinait icus (Aleph) is also riddled wit h omissions, insert ions and amendment s . The corrupt and unreliable nat ure of Codex B is best summed up by one who has t horoughly examined t hem, John W Burgon: "The impurity of the text exhibited by
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t horoughly examined t hem, John W Burgon: "The impurity of the text exhibited by these codices is not a question of opinion but fact...In the Gospels alone, Codex B(Vatican) leaves out words or whole clauses no less than 1,491 times. It bears traces of careless transcriptions on every page" According t o The West minst er Dict ionary of t he Bible, "It should be noted . . . that there is no prominent Biblical (manuscripts) in which there occur such gross cases of misspelling, faulty grammar, and omission, as in (Codex) B."

Consider these facts and oddities relating to the Codex Vaticanus:

1. It was correct ed by revisers in t he 8t h, 10t h, and 15t h cent uries (W. Eugene Scot t , Codex Vat icanus, 1996). 2. The ent ire manuscript has been mut ilat ed...every let t er has been run over wit h a pen, making exact ident ificat ion of many of t he charact ers impossible. Dr. David Brown observes: "I question the 'great witness' value of any manuscript that has been overwritten, doctored, changed and added to for more than 10 centuries ." (The Great Unicals). 3. In t he Gospels it leaves out 749 ent ire sent ences and 452 clauses, plus 237 ot her words, all of which are found in hundreds of ot her Greek manuscript s. The t ot al number of words omit t ed in Codex B in t h e Gospels alone is 2,877 as compared wit h t he majorit y of manuscript s (B urgon, The Revision Revised, p. 75). 4. Vat icanus omit s M ark 16:9-20, but a blank space is left for t hat sect ion of Script ure. The following t est imony is by John Burgon, who examined Vat icanus personally: To say that in the Vatican Codex (B), which is unquestionably the oldest we possess, St. Marks Gospel ends abruptly at the eighth verse of the sixteenth chapter, and that the customary subscription (Kata Mapkon) follows, is true; but it is far from being the whole truth. It requires to be stated in addition that the scribe, whose plan is found to have been to begin every fresh book of the Bible at the top of the next ensuing column to that which contained the concluding words of the preceding book, has at the close of St. Marks Gospel deviated from his else invariable practice. HE HAS LEFT IN THIS PLACE ONE COLUMN ENTIRELY VACANT. IT IS THE ONLY VACANT COLUMN IN THE WHOLE MANUSCRIPT -- A BLANK SPACE ABUNDANTLY SUFFICIENT TO CONTAIN THE TWELVE VERSES WHICH HE NEVERTHELESS WITHHELD. WHY DID HE LEAVE THAT COLUMN VACANT? What can have induced the scribe on this solitary occasion to depart from his established rule? The phenomenon (I believe I was the first to call distinct attention to it) is in the highest degree significant, and admits only one interpretation. The older
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distinct attention to it) is in the highest degree significant, and admits only one interpretation. The older manuscript from which Codex B was copied must have infallibly contained the twelve verses in dispute. The copyist was instructed to leave them out -- and he obeyed; but he prudently left a blank space in memoriam rei. Never was a blank more intelligible! Never was silence more eloquent! By this simple expedient, strange to relate, the Vatican Codex is made to refute itself even while it seems to be bearing testimony against the concluding verses of St. Marks Gospel, by withholding them; for it forbids the inference which, under ordinary circumstances, must have been drawn from that omission. It does more. By leaving room for the verses it omits, it brings into prominent notice at the end of fifteen centuries and a half, a more ancient witness than itself. (Burgon, The Last Twelve Verses of t he Gospel of St . M ark Vindicat ed, 1871, pp. 86-87) 5. Similar t o Codex Sinait icus, Codex Vat icanus ident ifies it self as a product of gnost ic corrupt ion in John 1:18, where the only begotten Son is changed t o the only begotten God , t hus perpet uat ing t he ancient Arian heresy t hat disassociat es t he Son of God Jesus Christ from God Himself by claiming t hat t he Word was not t he same as t he Son. Johns Gospel ident ifies t he Son direct ly wit h t he Word (John 1:1, 18), but by changing "Son" t o "God " in verse 18, t his direct associat ion is broken. 6. Linguist ic scholars have observed t hat Codex Vat icanus is reminiscent of classical and Plat onic Greek, not Koine Greek of t he New Test ament (see Adolf Deissman's Light of t he Ancient East ) . Nest le admit t ed t hat he had t o change his Greek t ext (when using Vat icanus and Sinait icus) t o make it "appear" like Koine Greek. 7. Codex Vat icanus cont ains t he false Roman Cat holic apocryphal books such as Judit h, Tobias, and Baruch, while it omit s t he past oral epist les (I Timot hy t hrough Tit us), t he Book of Revelat ion, and it cut s off t he Book of Hebrews at Hebrews 9:14 (a very convenient st opping point for t he Cat holic Church, since God forbids t heir priest hood in Hebrews 10 and exposes t he mass as t ot ally useless as well!).

Home Is Older Better?

Does it Really Matter? Other Translations

Manuscripts Codex Sinaiticus Receptus Westcott & Hort Altered Verses Constantine Catholics & the Jesuits

Codex Vaticanus Origen

Textus Tischendorf

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