ana translation

xlvi
INTRODUCTION
as being the only known Syriac MS (brought from the East, and not
written in Europe, as Cod. 16 was see below, p. Iv) which contains the
entire New Testament as recognized by all non-Syrian Churches ;
for
it not merely includes all seven Catholic Epistles in their normal order,
but after the Fourth Gospel it places the Apocalypse, in a version
nowhere else extant. I have elsewhere* endeavoured to show that
this Apocalypse, as well as our Four Epistles, is the work of Polycarpus.
If this be so, Cod. 12 may be described (as above, p. xxx)
as the Peshitta N.T. supplemented by the Philoxenian, so as to
conform to the Greek canon.
It claims to have been written in "the
monastery of Jacob the Egyptian Recluse and of Bar-Shabba, j beside
Salach in Tur-'Abdin in the Sultanate of Hesna d' Kipha." Its script
is of the same well-marked character as that of Cod. 9, and it
may be
confidently assigned to the same period. As compared with Cod. 9 it
is somewhat superior in text when measured by the standard of Cod. 1,
with which it agrees closely,
in one case too closely, repeating the
error of 2 Pet. iii. 7 (^i;Cf)|).
But in this comparison
Cod. 9 is at
a disadvantage, being damaged in many places, whereas the strong
vellum of Cod. 12 is in sound preservation. This MS is one of the
forty-two
collated for Mr. Gwilliam's standard edition of the Peshitta
Gospels, Tetraeuangelium Sanctum, where it is numbered 12, as here.
Cod. 14. (Paris, Biblioth. Nat., Suppl 27, Catal 29.)
Of this MS (which originally contained the entire New Testament,
excepting, probably, the Apocalypse), many leaves are wanting from
both ends. In it, as in 9, the Four Epistles are placed after the
Three. It now gives no note of time or place, but it
may
be confidently
set down as Tur'abdinese of the twelfth century, like Codd. 9
and 12. Not only does its script show the same characteristics, but it
is one of a large group of Biblical MSS (on vellum) in the same division
(Supplement) of the great Library to which it belongs, all closely alike
in script, evidently the work of one and the same school of caligraphy,
nearly all of them dated shortly before or after A.D. 1200, and signed
by scribes who call themselves monks of some monastery of Tur-
'Abdin. Its text for the most part agrees with that of the two
* See references in note $, p. xlv supr. ; also Appendix III, p. 154 infr.
t The colophon which contains this statement is given in full in Apoc. Syr.
Crawford (cited in same note t), PP- 32, 98.