In particular a common text type has been proposed to be found: in the ninth/tenth century Codex Koridethi; in Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2 (a Greek manuscript of the Gospels used sparingly by Erasmus in his 1516 printed Koine New Testament); and in those Gospel quotations found in the third century works of Origen, which were written after he had settled in Caesarea.[1][2] The early translations of the Gospels in Armenian and Georgian also appear to witness to many of the proposed characteristic Caesarean readings, as do the small group of minuscule manuscripts classed as Family 1 and Family 13. However, some text critics such as Kurt and Barbara Aland have disputed the existence of a Caesarean text-type.[3]
Description
A particularly distinctive common reading of the proposed text-type is in Matthew 27:16-17, where the bandit released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus is named as "Jesus Barabbas" rather than—with all other surviving witnesses—just "Barabbas". Origen notes particularly that the form "Jesus Barabbas" was common in manuscripts in Caesarea, whereas he had not found this reading in his previous residence in Alexandria. Otherwise the Caesarean readings have a mildly paraphrastic tendency that seems to place them between the more concise Alexandrian, and the more expansive Western text-types. None of the surviving Caesarean manuscripts is claimed to witness a pure type of text, as all appear to have been to some degree assimilated with readings from the Byzantine text-type.
Some writers have questioned the validity of this grouping, claiming that the classification is the result of poor research. Insofar as the Caesarean text-type does exist, then it does so only in the Gospels, with most studies focusing on readings in Mark; the text-type is not so well defined in Matthew, Luke and John. The proposed Caesarean witnesses do not appear to have any common distinctive readings in the rest of the New Testament. Some of the Caesarean manuscripts have the so-called Jerusalem Colophon.
The Caesarean text-type was discovered and named by Burnett Hillman Streeter in 1924.[2] According to some scholars such as Kurt and Barbara Aland, it is only a hypothetical text-type.[3] There are no pure Caesarean manuscripts. In many cases, it is difficult to decide the original reading of the group, for instance in Mark 1:16:[1]: LIII
H. von Soden — Iota (Jerusalem) (I), in part (most strong "Caesarean" witnesses are found in Soden's Iα group, with family 1 being his Iη and family 13 being Iι).
Kirsopp Lake, an outstanding British textual critic, developed the hypothesis of the relationship between ƒ1, ƒ13, Θ, 565, 700, and 28.[4] Streeter carried Lake's work further by pointing to Caesarea as the original location of the family.[5]
The earliest potential witnesses to something alike the Caesarean manuscripts are Papyrus 45 (𝔓45) and some of the (now non-existent) manuscripts used by Origen. According to biblical scholar Teofilio Ayuso, 𝔓45 and the quotations of Origen count as "proto-Caesarean", however the full Caesarean text only appears later in manuscripts such as Koridethi (Θ) and the early Armenian and Georgian manuscripts.[7] Notwithstanding this association of 𝔓45 and a "proto" or "pre-Caesarean" text-type, biblical scholar Larry Hurtado quashed any sort of affiliation between 𝔓45 and the Caesarean text-type. He argued only that 𝔓45 and Codex Washingtonianus (W) had a close relationship in the Gospel of Mark, but not with any other witness considered to represent the Caesarean text-type. Therefore, Hurtado states "the 'pre-Caesarean' witnesses are not Caesarean at all," and accordingly 𝔓45 and W "[do] not belong to any major text-type."[8][9]
και υποστρεψας ο εκατονταρχος εις τον οικον αυτου εν αυτη τη ωρα ευρεν τον παιδα υγιαινοντα (and when the centurion returned to his house in that hour, he found the slave well) - א C (N) Θ (0250) ƒ1 (33.1241.) g1syrh
