FREER, TEXTS OF. — Greek biblical manuscripts (of the Septuagint and the New Testament, part of the collection of Ch. L. F. [d. 25 Sept. 1919]) in Detroit (U.S.A.) and now preserved in Washington (Smithsonian Institution). Of particular importance is the ms. W (2014), purchased by F. at al-Gizah (Egypt) in 1906, reproduced in phototype and studied by N. A. Sanders.
It is a parchment codex of 26 quires and 374 pages (mm. 215 x 145; 205 x 13), of which two at the end of John are blank, written in a single column of 30 lines, with 27-30 letters per line. The text is divided into paragraphs and appears to have been corrected by four scribes. There are about a dozen omissions. It contains the Gospels in the order: Matthew, John, Luke, Mark. Only Mk 16:14, 25-16:7, and Jn 15:13-38 are missing. The handwriting is uniform, slanting to the right, and that of the first quire (Jn 1:1-5:11) appears older. The date of composition is disputed (4th-6th cent. [Gregory]; 4th-5th cent. [H. A. Sanders]; 4th cent. [Grenfell]; 5th cent. [Kenyon]). It presents a mixed text: in Lk 8:13-24 it approaches the Antiochene text (in Matthew, out of 135 variants, 120 agree with A; the others with B and D; in Luke, 112 with A, 189 with D, 98 with B). Jn 5:12-13, 6; Lk 1:1-8:12 agree with B (the so-called Hesychian text; John 687 with B and 8 with A; in Jn 5-10 B prevails first, then X. Luke: 347 with B, 126 with D + with A). Mk 1:1-5:30 agrees with the Old Latin, especially with e; Mk 5:31-13: in lesser measure (185 with the Old Latin, 116 with D, 24 with X and 16 with B). Jn 1:1-5:11 agrees with the Old Latin as Mk 1:1-5:30. Thus A mixed with D + B predominates in Mk 1:1-5:13; B mixed with D + A in Lk 1:8-12 and Jn 5:12-13; D in Mk 5:30 and Jn 1:5-11; the "cessare non" in Mk 5:31-13. The P + 3 (Chester-Beatty) approaches W for Mark and Luke. W attests to the spread of the Western text (D) in Egypt and supports the view that the readings considered characteristic of the Old Latin derive from an earlier Greek text, not from corruption or paraphrase of II. A characteristic of W is the long ending after Mk 16:14, called the Freer Logion, in a form broader than that in St. Jerome (*Adv. Pelag.*, II, 15; PL 23, 576). It is reproduced in the critical notes of New Testament editions. Though not authentic, it has very ancient origins (first half of the 2nd cent., according to Gregory). W also contains 1 Cor 10:20; fragments of the Epistles to the Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Hebrews, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Originally it consisted of 208-12 leaves and may be dated to the 5th-6th cent. It reproduces the 8-10 as ACP 17, 37.