Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus

CODEX EPHRAEMI SYRI RESCRIPTUS (C), now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France, is the remains of a 5th-cent. Gr. MS of the whole Bible. About the twelfth cent. it was broken up and the 208 leaves which still survive were erased and rewritten with works of Ephraem the Syrian in Gr. translation; i.e., technically it is a palimpsest. It has proved difficult to read even with the use of chemical reagents. It contains parts of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Song of Songs, and the New Testament books other than 2 Thessalonians and 2 John. It appears difficult to determine the number of scribes and in some cases to distinguish the correction from the original.

The textual complexion of the MS, as far as one can venture a general rule, is that of a weaker brother of the Codices B and Aleph. The differences in text in the NT prob. arise from difference in date, and show a development within the textype represented in all. In Revelation, however, it is a close associate of A, attesting the best-known text form. In Revelation 13:18, the number of the Beast is given as 616, in agreement with the Armenian version, Irenaeus and Tyconius (but against the Codex A).