Codex Koridethi
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New Testament manuscript |
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| Name | Coridethianus |
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| Sign | Θ |
| Text | Gospels |
| Date | 9th century |
| Script | Greek |
| Found | 1853 |
| Now at | Georgian National Center of Manuscripts |
| Size | 29 x 24 cm |
| Type | Caesarean text-type / Byzantine text-type |
| Category | II |
The Codex Koridethi, also named Codex Coridethianus, designated by Θ, 038, or Theta (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 050 (Soden), is a 9th-century manuscript of the four Gospels. It is written in Greek with uncial script in two columns per page, in 25 lines per page. There are gaps in the text: Matthew 1:1–9, 1:21–4:4, and 4:17–5:4 are missing.
The letters are written in a rough, inelegant hand. The scribe who wrote the text is believed to have been unfamiliar with Greek.
The codex is located now in Tbilisi (Georgian National Center of Manuscripts, Gr. 28).
Many people think that the text gets its name from the town in which it was discovered. This is not correct. The Editio Princeps by Beermann and Gregory states:
Kala/Caucasia: In the year 1853 a certain Bartholomeé visited a long abandoned monastery in Kala, a little village in the Caucasian mountains near the Georgian/Russian border (some miles south east of the 5600m high Elbrus). There, in an old church, far off every civilisation, he discovered the MS. The MS rested there probably for several hundred years (Beermann: ca. 1300–1869).
Koridethi: Before this time the MS was in a town called Koridethi. This was a village near the Black Sea, near today's Batumi in Georgia. There should still be some ruins of a monastery. Notes in the Gospel indicate dates from ca. 965 CE on. At around this time, according to a note, the book has been rebound. The book was there until around 1300 CE.
Further south, Armenia: A Greek inscription mentions the city of Tephrice or Tephrike (Greek: Τεφρική): "I, Kurines, Comes of the comandant of the city Tephrice came to the castelles and went back to the fort of the Great Martyrs(?)." Even though the content and meaning is not completely clear, the city Tephrice is clear. The town was destroyed in 873. It was on a line between today's Sivas and Malatya in Turkey/Armenia. Beermann's conclusion therefore is (p. 581) that the codex must be older than 873 CE. Beermann speculates that the "fort of the Great Martyrs" (if correctly deciphered) might have been Martyropolis, a town near the Wan Lake, near today's Batman in Turkey.
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