The precise character of the script of Codex Bezae has been a matter for some debate. The questions which arise are precisely those raised by other aspects of the manuscript. Is it from a Greek or a Latin environment, from the East or from the West?

The proper beginning of our investigation is with the fact that the manuscript is a bilingual. The particular requirements and restrictions of copying such a text, and the various influences of its antecedents, need to be recollected at every stage of examination.

In the analysis of the hand, an immediate area of confusion is in the general relationship between Greek and Latin scripts, and the unique relationship between the two columns of a bilingual copied by a single hand. That is to say, we have to separate points of contact due to the derivation of Latin from Greek scripts, and the inevitable similarity of forms produced by a particular hand.

The problem is less acute when we apply codicological analysis to the manuscript. It is therefore helpful, as well as in accord with standard practice, to begin our examination with aspects relating to book production.

THE CODEX

The present extent of Codex Bezae amounts to 406 leaves.