LUX VERITAS

LUX VERITAS

Library of Sacred Texts

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Manuscripts

Codex Vaticanus

Vatican

5 chapters · read and listen

Chapters

12345

Reading note

Also from the 4th century, kept in the Vatican Library. Together with Sinaiticus, it is the basis of the Greek texts used in modern translations. Selection read in the King James Version text of Luke (1611, public domain); Portuguese and Spanish are Lux Veritas translations from it. It is not a transcription of the manuscript.

Source: King James Version (London: Robert Barker, 1611), excerpts from Luke, King James Version translators (1611) · public domain

About this book: context, authorship and themes ↓

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Authorship, date, and setting

Codex Vaticanus, known as B or 03 and kept at the Vatican Library as Vat. gr. 1209, is a fourth-century Greek parchment manuscript. Its scribes are unnamed. The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts describes its surviving New Testament text and missing portions. This collection page provides only a small Portuguese selection associated with the codex, not a complete reproduction of its Greek leaves.

Structure of the five local excerpts

The five local items are headed Luke 1 through Luke 5. Each contains only the beginning of its chapter: the prologue and the opening scene with Zechariah in 1; the census and birth in 2; the historical opening and John's preaching in 3; the initial temptation in 4; and Jesus at the lake in 5. This is the site's editorial arrangement, not the manuscript's full physical structure.

Themes and key passages

Luke 1:1–4 introduces an orderly account addressed to Theophilus. The birth in 2:1–7 places the story under an imperial decree. Luke 3:1–6 names rulers before John's voice in the wilderness. In 4:1–4 Jesus faces the first temptation; 5:1–5 introduces Simon and the command to cast the nets. These references describe only the excerpts available here; the Portuguese translation should not be mistaken for a diplomatic transcription of Vaticanus's Greek.

Summary by parts

Luke 1–2: The narrator dedicates his account to Theophilus. Zechariah serves in the temple, while the next chapter's opening turns to the census and Jesus' birth.

Luke 3–4: The opening names political and religious authorities and places John in the wilderness. In the next excerpt, Jesus returns from the Jordan and faces the tempter.

Luke 5: A crowd gathers by the lake to hear Jesus, who enters Simon's boat and asks him to cast the nets again.

Reception and transmission

CSNTM catalogs Vaticanus as a fourth-century majuscule witness in three columns and states that the images on its site derive from an 1868 facsimile. Its record distinguishes surviving ancient text from later pages and notes gaps including the Pastorals, Philemon, and Revelation. Those facts concern the entire codex. The five local Luke excerpts are reading samples and do not represent the manuscript's extent.

Sources

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