While the five books of Codex Bezae have been shown to be a gathering of texts each with its own characteristics, the fact remains that, in the comparatively normal Matthew and John as well as in Acts, they share a character that marks them off from other copies. These texts have been handed down in a particular way. Can anything more definite be said about this type of textual transmission? Can we ascertain its characteristics?

The problems of exploring the theme are considerable. We suggested (in chapter 12) that only Mees' approach does justice to the whole of the manuscript's text. But the provision of a textual commentary on Codex Bezae is a task for another day. The method that we shall follow owes its shape to the way in which my researches developed. The beginning is to take the readings used by J. R. Harris to support his theory of wholesale Latinization of the Greek. If his theory is wrong, then we should have a totally random sample of readings which will reveal to us what other influences are at work.

Harris claimed to have found twenty-eight different kinds of Latinization, and produced something over 230 examples. Most are from Matthew, and only sixteen come from John. This imbalance will be made up once we have studied his examples.