Revisiting GA 205 and 2886 in the Gospel of Mark: History, Reception, and Text

Abstract For most of the twentieth century, modern New Testament textual critics considered GA 2886 to be a copy of GA 205. However, recent and diverse research on the topic has nearly eliminated that view. Indeed, the two leading theories now are that either 2886 was the exemplar for 205 or that the two were copied from the same exemplar. This paper reexamines the histories of these codices under the care of their owner, Cardinal Bessarion, updates the history of scholarly interpretation on the topic, and provides a textual analysis based on a full collation of Family 1 manuscripts in the Gospel of Mark. Based on this evidence, the present study concludes that 2886 is indeed the exemplar for 205.