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Khaburis Codex (alternate spelling Khaboris, Khabouris) is a 10th-century Classical Syriac manuscript which contain the complete Peshitta New Testament.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2014) |
Khaburis Codex (alternate spelling Khaboris, Khabouris) is a 10th-century Classical Syriac manuscript which contain the complete Peshitta New Testament.
There have been claims that the earlier document's colophon identifies it as being a 'copy' rendered from a manuscript dating 164 AD, internally documented as 100 years after the great persecution of the Christians by Nero, in 64 AD.
The Khaboris codex was obtained by Norman Malek-Yonan and attorney Dan MacDougald in 1966 for $25,000. It "was purchased from the library of an ancient Assyrian monastery atop one of the mountains of Assyria, near the River Habbor, or in Aramaic, Khabur, hence the name 'Khaburis'." [1] It seems both men went overseas looking for a more intact Aramaic version of the New Testament following Malek-Yonan's experiences surrounding the Yonan Codex in the 1950s. [2] Malek-Yonan's prior codex had been repaired with newer materials at some point in its history. He claimed the Yonan Codexb had been in his family since the 4th century. In his account of the controversial history surrounding the Yonan codexb, Christian Greek-primacist Bruce Metzger tells of dating it to the 7th century at its earliest. [3]
The stories of the Yonan Codexa and the Khaboris Codexb are linked by the involvement of Dan MacDougald. On page 115 of the Society of Biblical Literature's reprint of The Saga of the Yonan Codex, Metzger tells of getting news of the Yonan Codex in the late 1970s. He writes,
"Curiously enough, several year [sic] later while I was attending sessions of the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Dr. Paul L. Garber, professor of Bible at Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, casually inquired of me whether I had ever heard of the Yonan Codexa. This led to a most astonishing disclosure. A medieval copy (Khabourisb) of the manuscript, Garber told me, was in the possession of the Emotional Maturity Instruction Center, Decatur, Georgia. The center had transliterated the Syriac text of the Beatitudes in Christ's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–12) and was making a copy of this available for four dollars with the assurance that, by concentrating each day on these sentences in Aramaic, one's personality would become adjusted and more mature. In fact, according to Garber the center had even persuaded magistrates in Atlanta to buy copies of the transliteration for use in attempting to quell obstreperous prisoners!" [3]
A Western Queens Gazette article from August 8, 2004 states that Dan MacDougald was the one who started the Emotional Maturity Instruction course referred to by Metzger. According to Timms, Norman Malek-Yonan died in the 1970s. Apparently MacDougald had purchased the Khaboris codex from Yonan, and started a few organizations dealing with psychology in the 1970s. After the 1999 dating by the University of Arizona, the Khaboris Codexb transitioned into the hands of Dr. Michael Ryce at the Heartland institute. Ryce co-authored an updated version of the Emotional Maturity Instruction course with MacDougald called Laws of Living. This course continues to be taught, annually, by Ryce at Heartland, his teaching center in the Ozark Mountains of Southern Missouri.
The Heartland's website states on a page about the Khaboris Codexb, "Before Dan MacDougald passed away, he left the Khabourisb in the stewardship of the Western-Rite Syrian Orthodox Church, in order that the validation, documentation, conservation, translation, publication and exhibition could be completed. Work continues on these processes, as well as development of several related books." [2] The manuscripts appears to have remained physically at the Heartland institute. A page titled "The Khabouris Manuscript Ceremony at Heartland" has several small images of a woman posing with the "b" codex. At some point during this time, someone there seems to have taken low-resolution digital photos of all 500 plus pages of the codex. [4]
At some point around 2004 the codex was sent to New York have high-resolution photos taken by Eric Rivera, director of the Khabouris Institute, working at the Better Light Company, a digital imaging company. Their website has a description of Rivera's work and a few high-quality image samples. During this time the Khabouris Manuscriptb was on display for public view as an exhibit in the Queensborough Community College Art Gallery in Bayside, New York. [5] This likely generated the Western Queens Gazette article referenced above. Rivera mentions working on the manuscript in 2005, after which it appears to have been stolen. The Heartland website states, "The Khabouris Manuscript(b) was removed from QCC (without our prior knowledge) and was taken to London for auction by Sotheby's back in June 2007. The sale was not completed at that time; however, we have lost track of where the actual Manuscript is now located." [6] It appears to have been purchased by Arizona collector James Melikian.
On December 11, 2007 the Phoenix Art Museum hosted a display of old manuscripts, including the Khaboris Codexb. The article announcing the display described it as being part of the James Melikian collection. [7] Melikian, a resident of Phoenix, is Armenian and has cultural interests in collecting ancient Oriental Christian artifacts. He talks about this in the January 12, 2008 edition of the Armenian Reporter. In the article, which covered the Phoenix Art show, the author describes Melikian showing the Khaboris Codexb to visitors in a private viewing. [8] Presumably the Khaboris Codexb is still in the Melikian private gallery. Melikian states in his inventory listing that his copy is a different manuscript than the one owned by the Library of Congress. [9]
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The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Malabar Independent Syrian Church, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syro-Malabar Church.
George Mamishisho Lamsa was an Assyrian author. He was born in Mar Bishu in what is now the extreme east of Turkey. A native Aramaic speaker, he translated the Aramaic Peshitta Old and New Testaments into English. He popularized the claim of the Assyrian Church of the East that the New Testament was written in Aramaic and then translated into Greek, contrary to academic consensus.
The Aramaic original New Testament theory is the belief that the Christian New Testament was originally written in Aramaic.
The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts was published by George M. Lamsa in 1933. It was derived, both Old and New Testaments, from the Syriac Peshitta, the Bible used by the Assyrian Church of the East and other Syriac Christian traditions.
One of the apocryphal books, the Psalms of Solomon is a group of eighteen psalms written in the first or second centuries BC that are not part of any current scriptural canon.
The Syriac Sinaiticus or Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus (syrs), known also as the Sinaitic Palimpsest, of Saint Catherine's Monastery, or Old Syriac Gospels is a late-4th- or early-5th-century manuscript of 179 folios, containing a nearly complete translation of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament into Syriac, which have been overwritten by a vita (biography) of female saints and martyrs with a date corresponding to AD 697. This palimpsest is the oldest copy of the Gospels in Syriac, one of two surviving manuscripts that are conventionally dated to before the Peshitta, the standard Syriac translation.
A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. Biblical manuscripts vary in size from tiny scrolls containing individual verses of the Jewish scriptures to huge polyglot codices containing both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the New Testament, as well as extracanonical works.
The Curetonian Gospels, designated by the siglum syrcur, are contained in a manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament in Old Syriac. Together with the Sinaiticus Palimpsest the Curetonian Gospels form the Old Syriac Version, and are known as the Evangelion Dampharshe in the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Codex Vaticanus, designated by S or 028, ε 1027, formerly called Codex Guelpherbytanus, is a Greek manuscript of the four Gospels which can be dated to a specific year instead of an estimated range. The colophon of the codex lists the date as 949. This manuscript is one of the four oldest New Testament manuscripts dated in this manner, and the only dated uncial.
The Jerusalem Colophon is a colophon found in a number of New Testament manuscripts, including Λ (039), 20, 153, 157, 164, 215, 262, 300, 376, 428, 565, 566, 686, 718, 728, 748, 829, 899, 901, 922, 980, 1032, 1071, 1118, 1121, 1124, 1187, 1198, 1355, 1422, 1521, 1545, 1555, 1682, 2145, and 2245. The full version of the colophon is
εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ματθαῖον ἐγράφη καὶ ὰντεβλήθη ἐκ τῶν Ἱεροσολύμοις παλαιῶν ἀντιγράφων τῶν ἐν τῷ Ἁγίῳ Ὃρει ἀποκειμένων ἐν στίχοις ͵βφιδ. κεφφ. τνε.
Codex Cyprius, designated by Ke or 017, ε71, or Codex Colbertinus 5149, is a Greek uncial manuscript of the four Gospels, written on parchment. It is one of the few uncial manuscripts with the complete text of the four Gospels, and it is one of the more important late uncial manuscripts. It was brought from Cyprus to Paris.
Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic. Portions of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic and there are Aramaic phrases in the New Testament. Syriac translations of the New Testament were among the first and date from the 2nd century. The whole Bible was translated by the 5th century. Besides Syriac, there are Bible translations into other Aramaic dialects.
Codex Phillipps 1388, Syriac manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. It contains the text of the four Gospels. Palaeographically it had been assigned to the 5th/6th centuries. It is one of the oldest manuscripts of Peshitta with some Old Syriac readings.
British Library, Add MS 14479, is a Syriac manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. It is dated by a colophon to the year 534. It is one of the oldest manuscripts of Peshitta and the earliest dated Peshitta Apostolos.
British Library, Add MS 14448, designated by number 64 on the list of Wright, is a Syriac manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment, according to the Peshitta version. It is dated by a Colophon to the year 699 or 700. The manuscript is a lacunose. Gregory labelled it by 14e, 9a, and 8p . The codex is in the British Library as Add MS 14448.
Lectionary 303 (Gregory-Aland), designated by siglum ℓ303 in the Gregory-Aland numbering, is a 12th-century Greek manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. The manuscript has complex contents.
The Crawford Aramaic New Testament manuscript is a 12th-century Aramaic manuscript containing 27 books of the New Testament. This manuscript is notable because its final book, the Book of Revelation, is the sole surviving manuscript of any Aramaic version of the otherwise missing Book of Revelation from the Peshitta Syriac New Testament. Five books were translated into Syriac later for the Harklean New Testament.
Minuscule 1071. It is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the four Gospels. It is dated to the 12th century.
What makes this opportunity particularly compelling is the fact that this manuscript, based on preliminary information gleaned from its colophon page, is a handwritten duplicate of an original canon written as early as 165 AD. If continuing research corroborates this, the Khabouris codex would predate (by more than a century) the oldest known Greek canons of the New Testament, and could provide a more original source of the commonly accepted Aramaic New Testament canon. If its source proves to originate from the third or fourth century, it would still place the codex among the most original New Testament copies in existence today.
