The Subscription in the Chester Beatty Manuscript of the Harclean Gospels

Abstract

Some manuscripts of the Harclean Gospels contain a subscription which gives certain important information concerning the origin of the Philoxenian and Harclean versions of the New Testament. According to the subscription the Syriac translation of the Four Gospels was made from the Greek text in the city of Mabûg in the year 507–508 after Christ. This was in the time of Mar Philoxenus the Confessor, who was bishop of Mabûg from 485 to 519 A.D. Later the translation was carefully compared with two (or three) approved and accurate Greek codices and revised accordingly. This was done in 615–616 A.D. by Thomas of Harqel (or Heracleia) in a convent situated at the Enaton near Alexandria. The subscription was written by Thomas himself.