Although over 100 witnesses to the Greek text are transcribed at Munster's INTF, I thought I would supplement that list by reviewing additional manuscripts of Revelation that are available online, mostly through CSNTM. I am very thankful for the work of both groups, and I believe a lot of work remains to be done in terms of making use of the manuscripts we have.
By the way, according to J.K. Elliot, "Recent Work on the Greek Manuscripts of Revelation and the Consequences for the 'Kurzgefasste Liste'" in The Journal of Theological Studies, NEW SERIES, Vol. 66, No. 2 (OCTOBER 2015), pp. 574-584 (link), there are around 289 minuscule copies of Revelation, in addition to seven papyri and twelve majuscules. That means that there are just over 300 witnesses to at least part of Revelation. Unfortunately, many of those witnesses (especially the papyri) are incomplete witnesses.
A few observations. First, the (mistaken) correction in 2038 suggests that scribes were struggling with the grammar of the original text (i.e. the dominant reading). This reinforces the idea that the reason for the variants on this reading are probably due to the same kind of issue that prompted Valla, Erasmus, and Beza to conjecture.
Second, the majority text reading dominated. Nevertheless, the breakdown was a bit different from the INTF collation.
From the collation below, which is supplemental to the approximately 100 witnesses transcribed in INTF (see the appendix).
- Variant 1: Baseline Majority Reading: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ὁ ὅσιος (+21 mss.)(about 30 in INTF)
- Variant 2: Add καὶ and omit article before ὅσιος: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὅσιος (+5 mss.)(about 6 in INTF)
- Variant 3: Add καὶ before ὁ ὅσιος: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ὅσιος (+4 mss.)(about 13 in INTF)
- Variant 3-1: Add καὶ before ὁ ὅσιος and add something after εἶ: Δίκαιος εἶ (?) ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ὅσιος (+ 1 ms)
- Variant 4: Wrong article before ἦν: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁς ἦν ὁ ὅσιος (+1 ms.)(about 3 in INTF)
- Variant 4-1: Wrong article before ἦν and no article before ὅσιος: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁς ἦν ὅσιος (+2 mss.)(about 20 in INTF)
- Variant 5: No article before ὅσιος: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ὅσιος (+1 ms.)(about 17 in INTF)
- Variant 6: Something added after εἶ: Δίκαιος εἶ (?) ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ὁ ὅσιος (+1 ms.)
- Other support for "ὅσιος" (+1 ms.)
- From Printed text (+2 ms.)
Third, I was unsurprised but disappointed not to find any manuscripts with "esomenos" in the main text. It would have been nice to vindicate those who claim that Beza had a manuscript.
Fourth, we cannot absolutely rule out that a manuscript exists with Beza's unique reading. There are at least two on-line manuscripts that are too late to be Beza's source, but might still have his reading. There are also two manuscripts at the British Library that are currently offline due to the efforts of hackers. There is one further manuscript that is offline due to the owner's request. Furthermore, there are at least some manuscripts that may not have been imaged and/or transcribed.
Fifth, we cannot absolutely rule out that a manuscript existed with Beza's unique reading. One of Stephanus' manuscripts of Revelation is currently identified as "lost," and might not be among the the extant manuscripts. A manuscript at Turin was badly damaged by a fire in 1904, and it appears that the portion including Revelation was destroyed. There may be other lost or destroyed manuscripts that were never accurately catalogued.
Sixth, it appears that Dresden has placed the images of several manuscripts online, which are still listed as "off-line" in CSNTM's data. Probably it would be a good time to update the data at CSNTM, if there are people to do that.
Seventh, sadly the tagging functionality of CSNTM's website seems to be broken. I would have loved to have provided numerous tags to their collection during my study, but I could not because that functionality is not working (at least not in Chrome).
I have grouped the variants in the manuscripts somewhat arbitrarily. Clearly, my preference is for the majority reading, which I think is the original reading.
Variant 1: Baseline Majority Reading: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ὁ ὅσιος
1. Manuscript GA 2926 ("formerly 1894, is based in part on Erasmus's or the Aldine editions" according to J. K. Elliot)
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Variant 2: Add καὶ and omit article before ὅσιος: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὅσιος
22. Manuscript GA 2029 ("Sixteenth century manuscript of Revelation on paper; 294 leaves, 1 column, 13 lines per column. Digital images are from microfilm." per CSNTM)
Transcription of the relevant portion:
... Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὅσιος ...
23. Manuscript GA 2028 ("Fifteenth century manuscript (dated to 1422) of Revelation on paper; 119 leaves, 1 column, 27 lines per column. Digital images are from microfilm. Location: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Shelf Number: Gr. 239" per CSNTM)
Transcription of the relevant portion:
... Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὅσιος ...
24. Manuscript GA 2044 ("Sixteenth century manuscript (dated to 1560) of Revelation on paper; 120 leaves, 1 column, 27 lines per column. The digital microfilm images were generously donated to CSNTM. Location: Vienna, Austria, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Shelf Number: Theol. gr. 69" per CSNTM)
Transcription of the relevant portion:
... Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὅσιος ...
This same manuscript had a surprisingly modest drawing of the woman clothed in scarlet:
25. Manuscript GA 2017 ("15th Century Minuscule manuscript of Revelation on parchment; 16 leaves, single column, 30–40 lines per column. ... Location: Dresden, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek)
Shelf Number: A. 124" per CSTNM)(CSNTM reports as offline, but actually Dresden is hosting)(full illuminated cap)(detail)
Transcription of the relevant portion:
First hand: ... Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὅσιο ...Corrector: ... Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὅσιος ...
26. Manuscript GA 2794 ("Twelfth-century minuscule on parchment containing the Gospels and Revelation. 152 leaves; 2 columns per page; 23 lines per column. These public domain images are made available by the Duke Repository. Location: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscripts Library, Duke, Durham, North Carolina Shelf Number: Greek MS 100" per CSNTM)
Transcription of the relevant portion:
... Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὅσιος ...
Variant 3: Add καὶ before ὁ ὅσιος: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ὅσιος
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Variant 3-1: Add καὶ before ὁ ὅσιος and add something after εἶ: Δίκαιος εἶ (?) ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ὅσιος
Variant 4: Wrong article before ἦν: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁς ἦν ὁ ὅσιος
Variant 4-1: Wrong article before ἦν and no article before ὅσιος: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁς ἦν ὅσιος
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Variant 5: No article before ὅσιος: Δίκαιος εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ὅσιος
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Variant 6: Something added after εἶ: Δίκαιος εἶ (?) ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ὁ ὅσιος
Other: Δίκαιος [[εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ὁ]] ὅσιος
As you can see, the page is a bit damaged at this point, and the text is somewhat blurred. Possibly it can still be recovered with the right imaging.
Printed Text Reading: Δίκαιος Κύριε εἶ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ὅσιος
38. Manuscript GA 2619 ("possibly copied from a printed edition." according to J. K. Elliot)
Transcription of the relevant portion:
Modern Greek
However, this manuscript is modern Greek and follows the chapter and versification of the printed text and bears a date (1684) that puts it a century too late to be of historical interest as being a possible source of Beza.
