FREER, TESTI by. — Greek biblical manuscripts (of the Septuagint and of the New Testament), belonging to the collection of Ch. L. F. (d. 25 September 1919) in Detroit (U.S.A.) and now preserved in Washington (Smithsonian Institution). Of particular importance is ms. W (and 014), 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 × 145; 205 × 15), two of them blank at the end of Giovanni, written in a single column of 30 lines, each containing 27–30 letters. The text is divided into paragraphs and appears to have been corrected by four correctors. There are about a dozen omissions. It contains the four Gospels in the following order: Matteo, Giovanni, Luca, Marco. It lacks only Io. 14, 25–16, 7 and Mc. 15, 13–38. The script is uncial, inclined to the right, and that of the first quire (Io. 1, 1–5, 11) appears older. The date of composition is disputed (4th–6th century [Gregory]; 4th–5th [H. A. Sanders]; 4th [Grenfell]; 5th [Kenyon]). It presents a hybrid text: Mt.–Lc. 8, 13–24 approach A (Antiochene) (in Matteo, of 1505 variants, 1205 agree with A; the others with B and D; in Luca, 1112 with A, 189 with D, and 98 with B). Io. 5, 12–end and Lc. 1, 1–8, 12 agree with B (in the Hesychian recension of Giovanni, 987 agree with B and 8 with A; in Io. 5–10, B predominates at first, then N. Luca, 347 agree with D, 126 with D, and 4 with A). Mc. 1, 1–5, 30 agrees with the Old Latin versions, especially with e; Mc. 5, 31–end, to a lesser degree (186 with the Old Latin versions, 116 with D, 24 with N, and 16 with B). Io. 1–5, 11 agrees with the Old Latin versions, as does Mc. 1, 1–5,
30. Thus A, mixed with D and B, predominates in Mt
Lc. 8, 13–end; B, mixed with D and A, in Lc. 1, 8–12 and Io. 5, 12–end; D in Mc. 1, 5–30 and Io. 1, 5–11; the Caesarean text in Mc. 5, 31–end. P. 45 (Chester-Beatty) approaches W in Marco e Luca. W bears witness to the spread of the Western text (D) in Egypt and confirms the view that the readings considered characteristic of the Old Latin versions derive from an earlier Greek text, and not from corruption or paraphrase of II. A characteristic of W is the long ending after Mc. 16, 14, called “the Freer Logion,” in a fuller form than in s. Girolamo (Adv. pelag., II, 15; PL 23, 576). It is reproduced in the notes of critical editions of the New Testament. Although not authentic, it has very ancient origins (the first half of the 2nd century, according to Gregory). W also contains I Cor. 10, 29 and fragments of the Epistole ai Corinti, ai Galati, agli Efesini, ai Colossesi, ai Tessalonicesi, agli Ebrei, a Timoleo, a Tito, a Filemone. Originally it consisted of 208–212 leaves and may be dated to the 5th–6th centuries. It reproduces 1910 as ACP 17, 37.Bust.: H. A. Sanders, Facsimile of the Washington Ms. of the Poor Gospels in the F. Collection, Michigan 1912; id., The N. T. Ms. in the F. Collection, Nuova-York 1912; id., The Washington Ms. of the Epistles of Paul, ivi 1918; E-J. Goodspeed, The Washington Ms. of the Gospels, in American Journal of Theology, 17 (1913), pp. 240–49, 395–411, 399–613; 18 (1914), pp. 131–146, 268–81; M.-I. Lagrange - St. Lyonnet, Critique textuelle, II, La critique vaticanelle, Parigi 1935; B. Botte, s. V. in D.B. III, coll. 525–30; G. Bonaccorsi, Nuovi manoscritti biblici e la finale di s. Marco, in Rivista storico-critica delle scienze teologiche, 4 (1908), pp. 521–537, etc. Bonaventura Mariani