GA 304 Images ©

Next to Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, GA 304 is mentioned in the footnotes of successive critical editions of the New Testament as one of the three Greek witnesses to the short ending (16:8). This 12th century minuscule codex is a commentary in the form of catena. The final biblical lemma (Mark 16:1-8) is written on the penultimate folio and the commentary continues onto the final recto, which closes with a colophon. The copyist signals the end of the commentary with a classic epigram that says: Ὥσπερ ξένοι χαίρουσι ἰδεῖ[ν πατρίδ]α, οὕτω καὶ ο γράφοντoς βιβλίο[υ τέλο]ς “As the travellers rejoice upon reaching their homeland, likewise the scribe is upon the end of this book.” This epigram declares the end of the Gospel of Mark’s commentary at this point. Interestingly, a closer look into the epigram in the manuscript shows an attempt to erase it, and then we can see that there was another attempt to rewrite the epigram as the first three words appear ὥσπερ ξένοι χαίρουσι [...]. This possibly reflects conflicting views of later owners or readers of the manuscript regarding the ending of Mark. Mina Monier, SNSF MARK16 project, SIB Lausanne (CH); © CC-BY 4.0