Herklots mentions an interesting textual variation in Codex Bezae:
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1
There is also in England the famous Codex Bezae, which may
date from the Sixth or the Fifth Century. It is called after the
scholar Theodore Beza, by whom it was owned and used, and who
presented it to the University of Cambridge in 1581. It is now in
the University Library. Beza obtained it in Lyons in 1562, but no
one knows where it originally came from. It is the first example of
a Bible in two languages, with the Greek and Latin side by side.
This indicates that it originated in the West, where Latin was
the dominant language: the actual style of writing indicates that
it did not come from one of the great centres of scribal industry,
such as Alexandria or Rome. It is smaller that the other codices
described, each page measuring ten by eight inches. The writing is
in a single column, the Greek on the left-hand page and the Latin
on the right. It contains the Gospels and Acts only. What makes
it of particular interest is the considerable number of variations
it contains from other texts. In some places the Latin version has
been accommodated to the Greek: in others the reverse process
has taken place. There are, as might be expected, many minor
variations. But there are also additions and omissions of a kind
which is unique. This in Luke 6, in place of verse 5, it records this
incident, which is found nowhere else: 'On the same day, seeing
one working on the sabbath day, he said unto him, Man, if thou
knowest what thou doest, blessed art thou: but if thou knowest
not, thou art accursed and a transgressor of the law.' Was this an
invention, or a genuine saying of Jesus independently preserved?
Some would like to think that it was the latter.[1]
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1
H.G.G. Herklots.
How Our Bible Came To Us.
Oxford University Press, New York, 1957
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