Manuscript
Codex Ambrosianus (the Syriac Old Testament)
Also known as Milan B. 21 inf. · 7a1 · the Ambrosian Peshitta
The earliest complete Old Testament in Syriac, and the manuscript the modern scholarly edition is built on.
translationssyriacpeshittaold-testament
Overview
Codex Ambrosianus (the Syriac Old Testament)(Sixth to seventh century AD)— Brought to Milan from the monastery of the Syrians, Egypt, in the seventeenth century
It carries the whole Old Testament in the Peshitta version, together with several books that Syriac tradition read alongside it, and it has been in Milan since the seventeenth century.
Its shelfmark, 7a1, is how it appears in the apparatus of the Leiden Peshitta — the critical edition that has been appearing volume by volume since 1966 and takes this manuscript as its base text.
Manuscript Details
- Date
- Sixth to seventh century AD
- Language
- Syriac
- Script
- Estrangela
- Material
- Parchment
- Current location
- Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan (B. 21 inf.)
- Discovery location
- Brought to Milan from the monastery of the Syrians, Egypt, in the seventeenth century
- Contains books
- The complete Old Testament in Syriac
- Tags
- translations · syriac · peshitta · old-testament
Significance
The Syriac Bible is a witness that stands outside the Greek and Latin worlds entirely — a separate early translation made from the Hebrew, which makes its agreements with the Hebrew text independent evidence rather than an echo.
The passages the manuscripts argue over
The places where the manuscripts differ — the ending of Mark, the woman caught in adultery, the three heavenly witnesses — with the case each way.