Self-Portrait of a Bible: The Ezra Image of Codex Amiatinus

Watson, Francis Benedict

doi:10.3390/rel13060530

Self-Portrait of a Bible: The Ezra Image of Codex Amiatinus

Watson, Francis Benedict

Authors

Professor Francis Watson francis.watson@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

Dating from the early 8th century and created in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, Codex Amiatinus is the oldest intact single-volume Bible in any language. Within its extensive prefatory material is an image of Ezra, the scribe who according to legend rewrote the whole of the Old Testament, while behind him stands a large open book cupboard in which nine volumes of the scriptures are displayed. In this paper, I will argue that this image depicts a tension between two versions of the Old Testament that the compilers of the codex have had to resolve. In the image, this Bible represents itself as the product of the decisions that have gone into its making.

Citation

Watson, F. B. (2022). Self-Portrait of a Bible: The Ezra Image of Codex Amiatinus. Religions, 13(6), Article 530. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060530

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 3, 2022
Online Publication Date	Jun 8, 2022
Publication Date	2022
Deposit Date	Jul 18, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Jul 18, 2022
Journal	Religions
Publisher	MDPI
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	13
Issue	6
Article Number	530
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060530

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited