The Old Syriac Element in the Text of Codex Bezae

This pioneer-work of F. H. Chase (1853-1925) offers an interpretation of the famous Codex Bezae (D 05), a Greek-Latin bilingual of the 5th century, which is the key manuscript of the so-called "Western text". This Codex attracted much attention by its eccentric Greek text, and for generations, textual critics devoted a lot of research on the origin, development, and influence of this text. Chase offers a thorough Syriac approach to solve the secret of Codex Bezae. The eccentric character of its Greek text, he explains, is due to continuous accommodation to a Syriac text of "Old Syriac" type. All passages under examination are taken from the Book of Acts, although no "Old Syriac" manuscript of Acts was discovered until today. Chase assigns the Syriacisation of the Codex Bezae to a date earlier than that of the Syriac Peshitta by external and internal evidence, thus deducing the "Old Syriac" base of the Syriacisation, and a second-century origin of the Bezan text of Acts. Chase's book is an independent contribution to the textual criticism of the New Testament. It reminds scholars not to neglect the Syriac perspective on textual problems and will remain useful by the materials it compiles.