Dr. David J. Trobisch has taught at the University of Heidelberg, Southwest Missouri State University and Yale Divinity School. He is presently the Throckmorton-Hayes Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine. His publications include Paul's Letter Collection: Exploring the Origins (1994 reprint 2001), The First Edition of the New Testament (2000) and a children's book, The Adventures of Pumpelhoober (2000)
Professor David J. Trobisch CV is posted at http://www.bts.edu/trobisch/CV/trobisch.htm
The Codex Boernerianus epistolarum Paulinarum Graeco-Latine was written toward the end of the 9th century by an Irish monk in the monastery of St. Gallen, Switzerland. It is the oldest occidental manuscript in the SLUB. It is permanently on display in the Book Museum** and is of enormous importance for theological research.
He is the Throckmorton-Hayes Professor
of New Testament Language and Literature at Bangor Theological Seminary in the
US and he found a new manuscript of the Psalms in the archives of the SLUB
(Library of the State of Saxony and University Library of Dresden). In addition
he is working with Codex Boernerianus, whose poor state of preservation is
unknown to researchers. The University Journal spoke with Professor D. J.
Trobisch about his new insights and his spectacular discovery.
UJ> What is so special about the Codex
Boernerianus?
DT> The New Testament is transmitted in a
huge number of handwritten copies, thus preserving thousands of text variants.
It is estimated that there are about 100,000 variants reflected in the existing
manuscripts of the New Testament. There are about 776 [actually more than 800]
surviving copies of the letters of Paul. The later a manuscript is written, the
higher the chances that it survived. This is the reason why most extant
manuscripts are of a rather late date. At this time (note of the editor: between
the 12th and the 14th century) the Greek Bible was under the control of the
bishops of Byzantium who would only allow the version to be distributed which
they authorized. That is why almost all of these late copies display the same
text. Scholars try to reconstruct the earliest text of the Bible but only very
few manuscripts represent editions older than the Byzantine edition. In the case
of the letters of Paul, only eight manuscripts survived. The Codex Boernerianus
is one of them. It reflects an edition, which was published during the second
century and competed with the text that is now printed in our modern New
Testaments.
Why were you looking for manuscripts of the
Bible in the SLUB?
My friend and colleague Matthias Klinghardt is
Professor of Biblical Theology at the University of Dresden. I specialize in the
study of New Testament manuscripts and was well aware that the Codex
Boernerianus is held here in the SLUB. Visiting my friend I wanted to see the
manuscript.
We were surprised to learn that the Codex
Boernerianus was damaged by water either from the flooding river or from fire
fighters [during the bombing of Dresden] in 1945. After 1945 New Testament
scholars have not looked at the original manuscript but have worked with a
photographic facsimile edition instead. This facsimile was made at the beginning
of the 20th century. We were completely surprised when we saw the manuscript for
the first time. Some pages are almost illegible but others are in fair
condition. I immediately contacted colleagues at Brigham Young University in
Utah, who specialize on photographing severely damaged manuscripts. Three weeks
later they [Prof. Dr. John W. Welch] were here and proposed to photograph the
codex using multi-spectral-photography.
How did Codex Boernerianus come to Saxony?
The manuscript was written during the ninth
century in a monastery in St.Gallen, Switzerland, and stayed there in the
library for some time. It was probably lent to someone attending the Council of
Basel in the 16th century who failed to return the manuscript. It surfaced again
in Holland, where it was bought at an auction by Christian Friedrich Boerner,
Professor of Theology in Leipzig. This manuscript was auctioned off once but
bought back by the family Boerner, who finally donated it to the Royal Library
of Saxony. It is in Saxony since 1778 and represents the oldest Bible manuscript
of the Dresden collection.
How do you explain the curious fact that no
one looked at the manuscript since 1945?
The facsimile edition is sufficient for
scholars, who are interested in producing critical editions of the New
Testament. However, I realized that the facsimile is not simply a photographic
edition. Often empty pages of old manuscripts were filled with copies of other
writings. This is the case with Codex Boernerianus as well. Empty pages at the
beginning and at the end were filled with a commentary to the gospel of Matthew.
When the facsimile was produced the editors only wanted to have the letters of
Paul in their edition, so they excluded these later additions from the facsimile
by retouching the pages. This, of course, does not satisfy scholarly standards
and is not the way facsimiles should be done. No one worked with the original
manuscript because the facsimile is accessible and much easier to use. It is a
beautiful book.
What results may come out of your research?
Only four copies of the edition represented in
Codex Boernerianus survived. One is in Paris, one in Cambridge, and one in St.
Petersburg. The objective is to compare these manuscripts and to verify that
they all derive from a common archetype. If this turns out to be correct, I hope
that 20 years from now modern Bible translations will document the variants of
this alternative edition of Paul in the footnotes. To improve our knowledge of
the oldest text is the goal of textual criticism.
At the same time I hope that this kind of
project will encourage other scholars to see if more early editions of Biblical
texts can be discovered. But not just the text of a manuscripts is of scholarly
interest, the additions and marginal notes are important and exciting as well.
For example, each time Paul mentions the anti-Christ in Codex Boernerianus the
scribe added the name "Johannes" in the margin. Studying the history
of the Catholic Church in the ninth century we discover there was a
controversial pope, who was in office for only one year, whose name was
Johannes. Observations like this help date the codex.
When we first contacted you, you mentioned
another manuscript as well.
After I had completed my preliminary survey of
Codex Boernerianus I decided to look at other manuscripts of the Bible, which
are here in Dresden. Two weeks ago the librarian brought me a manuscript written
on paper [medieval manuscripts are usually written on parchment]. Together with
this manuscript the library kept a folder with discarded sheets of paper.
Instead of carton bookbinders sometimes used a
pile of sheets recycled from discarded books, which they wrapped with leather to
form the book covers. My assumption is that when the book was newly bound
centuries ago, the bookbinder hesitated to throw away the pieces of paper he
found in the old book cover. He simply put them in a folder and the librarians
stored this folder next to the manuscript. I doubt that anyone really had a
close look at this "wastepaper."
Among those discarded sheets I found several
pages with Greek psalms. The first eight psalms are complete with only a few
words missing and after that the manuscript ends abruptly. No one seems to know
about this copy. Eight leaves, written on both sides, 16 pages - I have never
found anything like this before!
Why did no one discover the manuscript
earlier?
The codex was thoroughly examined by Ernst von
Dobschütz at the beginning of the 20th century. He received it as an Inter
Library Loan and used it in Strassburg. I suspect that the librarian sent him
only the manuscript he had ordered but not the separate folder. Since then no
one seems to have thoroughly examined the codex.
What can you say about the manuscript you
discovered? When was it written?
It is difficult to be precise about the date.
It is written on paper and therefore certainly was produced after the 10th
century. The hand writing is very easy to read and reminded me immediately of a
manuscript I worked with recently [in New York]. That manuscript is dated to the
13th century. I should be able to be more precise about the date within a few
weeks.
What is significant about this particular
discovery?
Some of the text variants of this manuscript
may be older than the dominant transmission of the text, the Byzantine edition.
The titles seem to be somewhat different. I will consult with specialists in
Heidelberg and Muenster next week.
If the manuscript reflects a pre-Byzantine
text it would represent one of those rare alternative editions. That would be
exciting. In that case this manuscript would be carefully consulted when a new
critical edition of the Greek Bible is put together, a project that is presently
well on its way and done by scholars in Goettingen.
Name of the interviewer: Dörte
Grabbert.
*Saeschische Landes und Universitaets
Bibliothek
** Book Museum: the library entertains a
museum with changing exhibits from their rare books and manuscript holdings.
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