Codex 0205. It is a Greek-Coptic (Sahidic) uncial

Uncial

Uncial is a majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters are written in either Greek, Latin, or Gothic.-Development:...

 manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 of the Epistle to Titus

Epistle to Titus

The Epistle of Paul to Titus, usually referred to simply as Titus, is one of the three Pastoral Epistles , traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the New Testament...

 and the Epistle to Philemon

Epistle to Philemon

Paul's Epistle to Philemon, usually referred to simply as Philemon, is a prison letter to Philemon from Paul of Tarsus. Philemon was a leader in the Colossian church. This letter, which is one of the books of the New Testament, deals with forgiveness.Philemon was a wealthy Christian of the house...

, dated paleographically

Palaeography

Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...

 to the 8th century (J. M. Plumley proposed 7th or 6th century).

Description

The uncial 0205 was possibly a complete codex of the Pauline epistles

Pauline epistles

The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul as the first word, hence claiming authorship by Paul the Apostle. Among these letters are some of the earliest extant Christian documents...

, of which only 2 leaves survived (32 cm by 22.5 cm). Each page contains two parallel columns with 35 lines, and 12-13 letters per line. The codex is written in Greek and Coptic, but it is not a genuine diglot manuscript. On the first page, the first column and the first seven lines of the second column contains Titus 2:15b-3:7 in Greek. At this point the Coptic text begins with Titus 2:11 and continues to the end book of Philemon. The Greek represents only 15% of the text of the manuscript.

The Greek text of this codex

Codex

A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...

 is a representative of the Alexandrian text-type

Alexandrian text-type

The Alexandrian text-type , associated with Alexandria, is one of several text-types used in New Testament textual criticism to describe and group the textual character of biblical manuscripts...

. Aland placed it in Category II.

Currently it is dated by the INTF to the 8th century.

The codex is located in the Cambridge University Library

Cambridge University Library

The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of Cambridge University in England. It comprises five separate libraries:* the University Library main building * the Medical Library...

 (Or. 1699 II x).

See also

• List of New Testament uncials
• Coptic versions of the Bible
  Coptic versions of the Bible
  There have been many Coptic versions of the Bible, including some of the earliest translations into any language. Several different versions were made in the ancient world, with different editions of the Old and New Testament in all four of the major dialects of Coptic: Bohairic , Fayyumic, Sahidic...
  
  
• Textual criticism
  Textual criticism
  Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
  
  

Further readings

• J. K. Elliott, A. Greek – Coptic (Sahidic) fragment of Titus - Philemon (0205), Novum Testamentum XXXVI, 2 (1994), pp. 183-195.