“Codex” by Douglas T.

Mangum
Draft article for the Dictionary of Bible Translation
Submitted: 28 January 2014

Codex. The codex is the predecessor of the modern book. The earliest codices were made of

sheets of parchment or papyrus, folded in half and sewn together along the fold. The codex is

significant for the transmission and translation of the Bible because several ancient codices

provide very early copies of the biblical text. These early copies are the primary sources that

textual critics use in developing critical texts of the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament

such as Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS 1977) and the UBS Greek New Testament (GNT

1966). Critical texts, not ancient manuscripts, serve as the original language source texts for most

modern Bible translation projects. BHS is a diplomatic edition, meaning the main text derives

from a single copy. The UBS GNT is an eclectic edition, meaning the main text is a mix of

readings from various manuscripts.

Important biblical codices. The single most important codex for the translation of the

Hebrew Bible has been the Leningrad Codex, a Masoretic manuscript dating to around 1009 CE.

This codex is the oldest complete copy of the Hebrew Bible, so the text was used as the basis for

the diplomatic edition of BHS. The Aleppo Codex is a slightly older Masoretic manuscript,

dating to around 915, and is generally recognized as a superior witness to the Masoretic text

tradition. Unfortunately, a large portion of the codex was damaged by fire when the synagogue

where it was kept was burned during anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo in 1947.

There are three important codices of the Greek Bible that provide important witnesses to

the text of the NT and the LXX. Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus both date to the 4 c. CE

and contain most of the OT and NT. Codex Vaticanus was used as the base text for Westcott and

Hort’s edition of the Greek NT (1881). The third major codex of the Greek Bible is the Codex

Alexandrinus, dating to the early 5 c. CE. Codex Alexandrinus has been influential in biblical text

criticism because it was the first of these three ancient codices to come to the attention of

scholars.
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When scholars compiled readings for the Greek text that would come to be in the UBS

GNT, they relied on these three major codices and consulted other early codices containing parts

of the NT including Codex Bezae (4–5 c.), Codex Claromontanus (5–6 c.), and Codex

Washingtonianus (4–5 c).

The most substantial copies of the biblical text to survive from ancient times were

preserved in the format of the codex. Fragments of papyri and nearly complete scrolls of various

biblical books have been discovered that predate these major codices (notably the Dead Sea

Scrolls), but the transition in literary technology from roll to codex in late antiquity greatly

facilitated the preservation of large collections of texts.

Christian adoption of the codex. The transition from scroll to codex in the ancient world

appears to have been heavily influenced by the adoption of the codex in early Christian circles.

The earliest reference to the use of the codex for publishing literary works is found in the

writings of the Roman poet Martial (84–86 CE). Martial extols the benefits of greater portability

and easier storage for the codex format (Roberts and Skeat 1987, 25). Martial’s concern for

touting the benefits of the codex suggests that he is recommending the format to a Roman

audience largely unfamiliar with it as a type of book. In fact, the use of the codex would not

achieve roughly equal distribution with the scroll in Greco-Roman literature for about 200 years

after Martial. The codex is not attested in widespread use until the 4 c. CE. The distribution is

different for early Christian literature where a distinct preference for the codex format appears as

early as the 2 c. (42–44).

The codex seems to have been a Roman invention based on earlier Greek wooden writing

tablets. The writing tablets were made from two or more flat wooden pieces bound through holes

pierced in the wood. The writing surface of the tablet was sometimes coated with wax or the

wood was written on directly with ink or chalk. These tablets were used for temporary texts such

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as bills, letters, school exercises, or memos. The codex was invented when the bound wooden

slabs of the writing tablet were replaced with bound folded sheets of parchment or papyrus.

Unfortunately, no ancient record exists to explain explicitly why people began using

codices for literary works. The gap of several centuries between this format’s earliest appearance

and its popular adoption suggests a slow shift in the way books were produced and distributed.

One clear development in the adoption of the codex is that “Christians had a stronger and more

effective preference for the codex at an earlier time than did non-Christians” (Gamble 1995, 54).

The reasons for early adoption of the codex for Christian literature are unknown. Several

purported advantages of the codex format are usually put forward as explanation (Roberts and

Skeat, 45–50): the codex was cheaper, required less storage space, expanded to contain more text

in one volume, and offered more convenient handling over the scroll.

At first glance, these advantages appear compelling, but it is unlikely that an ancient user

faced with the choice between a codex and a familiar scroll would have recognized these

“problems” that the codex format solved. Even though the codex uses both sides of the

parchment or papyrus sheet, the production cost of a codex is not 50% less than a comparable

scroll. The additional costs of cutting and binding sheets results in a savings typically estimated

at only 25% less than a comparable scroll (Gamble, 55). Also, if Christian scribes were

concerned with economic savings, we might expect their manuscripts to reflect this in features

such as narrow margins and small scripts to use the writing surface to maximum effect.

The advantages of compact storage and greater information capacity are important for

libraries and larger collections such as the whole Bible or even the entire NT. However, these

advantages do not directly explain the Christian use of codices since NT writings seem to have

circulated individually at first. Christians shared individual Gospels and Pauline letters. Massive

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codices such as those of the 4 c. CE containing the entire OT and NT in Greek appeared long

after the codex was well-established for Christian texts.

Finally, the advantage of convenient handling seems particularly anachronistic—a reader

habitually accustomed to unrolling and rerolling a scroll would not give a second thought to the

perceived inconvenience. Further, convenience of use does not explain the specific Christian

preference for the codex. The inconvenience of needing two hands to manage a scroll and the

need to rewind it back to the beginning when finished would have applied equally for users of

Christian and non-Christian literature. Along the same lines, the explanation that codices

provided a more convenient means of referring to particular biblical passages also falls flat since

in practice each codex had different pagination.

The early and quick adoption of the codex in Christian circles compared to the late and

slow integration of the codex in secular circles has led to the hypothesis that some influential text

from early Christianity may have circulated as a codex and the authority of the text somehow

extended to the format itself—giving the codex a uniquely authoritative and official status for

distinctly Christian texts (Gamble 1995, 56). Roberts and Skeat suggest some form of an early

Gospel may have influenced the format preferred for Christian books (54–59). Gamble argues

that an early collection of Paul’s letters may have had just such a status among the early

Christian communities (54–65).

By the end of the 4 c., the codex had been widely adopted as the standard format for

books throughout Europe. Bible translators produced new versions of the biblical text that have

been preserved in codex format such as the Codex Argenteus, a 6-c. copy of the Bible in Gothic,

the Codex Amiatinus, the oldest nearly complete copy of the Vulgate (early 8 c.), and the Codex

Marianus, an 11-c. copy of the Gospels in Old Church Slavonic.

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The invention of the codex has had a lasting impact on Bible translation because the

Bible codex has proven to be the best format for preserving ancient copies of the biblical source

text. The early preference for this format among Christians may have facilitated greater textual

preservation and aided the early spread of the gospel as many of the earliest translations of the

NT circulated in codex form. Additional reading: Diringer 1982; Hurtado 2006; D. Schmidt

2002; E. Turner 1977.

Douglas T. Mangum

References
Diringer, David. 1982. The Book Before Printing: Ancient, Medieval and Oriental. New York: Dover.
Gamble, Harry Y. 1995. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven:
Yale University Press.
Hurtado, Larry W. 2006. The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Roberts, C. H., and T. C. Skeat. 1987. The Birth of the Codex. London: Oxford University Press.
Schmidt, D. D. 2002. “The Greek New Testament as a Codex.” Pages 469–84 in The Canon Debate. Edited by Lee
Martin McDonald and John A. Sanders. Peabody, MA.: Hendrickson.
Turner, Eric. 1977. The Typology of the Early Codex. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

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