Codex Glazier (MS G.67): Coptic Acts
Codex Glazier is a remarkably intact late-fourth- or fifth-century parchment book of Acts 1:1–15:3 in Middle Egyptian Coptic, retaining early binding structures and a full-page cross image.
- Artifact date
- Fifth century AD
- Findspot
- Egypt, exact findspot unrecorded
- Current location
- Morgan Library & Museum, MS G.67
What archaeologists can actually examine
Codex Glazier, Morgan Library MS G.67, is a small parchment codex containing Acts 1:1–15:3 in the Middle Egyptian or Oxyrhynchite Coptic dialect. Its 109 leaves preserve the first half of Acts, from the ascension and Pentecost through the early Gentile mission and opening of the Jerusalem council. The text often aligns with readings associated with Codex Bezae and the so-called Western tradition, making it important for textual criticism. The book also retains much of an early binding and a full-page jeweled or interlace ankh-shaped cross with birds and plants. As a Coptic translation, it indirectly witnesses Greek wording and requires careful retroversion.
Acts 1:1–15:3 survives
The compact codex preserves a continuous Middle Egyptian Coptic text from the ascension through the opening journey to the Jerusalem council.
Much of the binding remains
Link-stitch sewing, acacia boards, goatskin spine covering, wrapping straps, and bone pegs make G.67 a major early bookbinding witness.
The text often agrees with Bezae
Distinctive readings connect the translation with the debated so-called Western stream of Acts, while Coptic retroversion demands caution.
Its date remains a range
The Morgan uses the fifth century, while recent assessment increasingly allows the late fourth or early fifth century on comparative grounds.
Follow the evidence from discovery to debate
Move through the find in a deliberate order: establish its provenance, examine the surviving object, place it in time, and then weigh the scholarly interpretation.
How the find came to light
The codex's ancient findspot is unrecorded. It appeared on the modern market and was purchased from dealer H. P. Kraus in December 1961 for collector William S. Glazier. After Glazier's death, his trustees deposited the manuscript at the Pierpont Morgan Library in 1963 and gave the collection outright in 1984. Scholars rapidly recognized the unusual Acts text and binding; a preliminary study was followed by Hans-Martin Schenke's definitive 1991 edition. Morgan conservators have since used X-ray microtomography to investigate sewing and hidden binding features without dismantling the fragile structure. Modern custody is secure, but the loss of archaeological provenance prevents identification of its ancient church, workshop, or burial context.
What you are looking at
MS G.67 comprises 109 parchment leaves, one column of sixteen lines per page, in a compact format about 121 by 107 millimeters. Greek uncial letterforms are supplemented with Coptic characters for Egyptian sounds. The binding preserves acacia-wood boards, link-stitch sewing, a reddish-brown tooled goatskin backstrip, leather hinging and wrapping strips, and bone anchoring pegs. A full-page miniature, now removed and matted, depicts an ansate or ankh-shaped cross flanked by birds and vegetation. Losses affect leaf edges, but parchment, ink, and much of the binding remain remarkably intact. The codex therefore joins textual, artistic, and bookbinding evidence in one unusually complete late antique object.
Where it belongs in history
The Morgan catalogue assigns the codex to Middle Egypt in the fifth century, while published opinions range from the late fourth through fifth or even later. The 4CARE database notes increasing preference for a late-fourth/early-fifth-century date. Palaeography, decoration, and binding comparison provide relative dating; there is no colophon naming a year. The Oxyrhynchite dialect places its language in Middle Egypt but does not establish that the book was found or made at Oxyrhynchus itself. Its compact format and intact wrapping system offer rare evidence for how a Christian biblical codex could be carried, closed, and protected at a time when Coptic literary production was developing regionally.
Consensus, questions, and debate
Eldon Jay Epp's landmark study argued that G.67 clarifies Codex Bezae's role as a Western witness in Acts, and later scholarship has continued to compare their distinctive readings. The category 'Western text' is itself debated because agreements do not necessarily arise from one geographically Western recension. Coptic translation technique also matters: a surprising rendering can reflect the Greek exemplar, Egyptian syntax, scribal adaptation, or ambiguity in retroversion. Schenke's full edition provides the necessary linguistic base. Dating remains unsettled within a relatively narrow late-antique range. The binding and illumination have separate art-historical value, but neither can by itself prove the manuscript's textual family or exact workshop.
The biblical record beside the artifact
The manuscript directly transmits Acts 1:1–15:3 in Coptic. It includes Pentecost in Acts 2, the Jerusalem community, Stephen's speech and death, Saul's conversion, Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10, missionary activity, and the dispute that leads into the Jerusalem council. These are not inferred themes but surviving translated passages. Variant readings can preserve evidence about the Greek exemplar behind the translation, especially where Glazier agrees with Codex Bezae. Yet the manuscript does not authenticate every narrated miracle or identify the archaeological location of an event. Its strongest contribution is to the material and textual history by which Acts circulated among Egyptian Christians.
Acts 10:34–48
34¶ Then Peter opened [his] mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
35But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
36The word which [God] sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
37That word, [I say], ye know, which was published throughout all Judæa, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;
38How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
39And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
40Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
41Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, [even] to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
42And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God [to be] the Judge of quick and dead.
43To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
44¶ While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
45And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
46For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
47Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
48And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
A responsible historical conclusion
Codex Glazier lets one ancient book answer several kinds of questions at once. Textual critics can examine an early Coptic Acts witness; linguists can study a Middle Egyptian dialect; conservators can inspect link-stitch sewing, wood boards, leather closures, and bone pegs; art historians can evaluate one of the earliest Coptic full-page miniatures. Its survival through Acts 15:3 gives sustained context rather than isolated verses, while the preserved binding brings readers close to the physical experience of opening and securing a late antique Bible. The codex matters not because every Bezan-like reading must be original, but because it preserves a coherent, materially embodied alternative stream of Acts.
Authoritative sources
Institutional catalogs, excavation reports, and academic publications let you examine the evidence beyond this summary.
Acts of the Apostles (MS G.67)
The Morgan Library & MuseumProvides accession, 109-leaf extent, dimensions, Acts range, Middle Egyptian dialect, date debate, binding, decoration, provenance, and bibliography.
Inside Story: Using X-ray Microtomography to See Hidden Features of a Manuscript Codex
The Morgan Library & Museum, Thaw Conservation CenterDocuments the exact binding components, condition, Oxyrhynchite script, link-stitch structure, and nondestructive technical examination.
Codex Glazier — Artefact 1738
4CARE, MF Norwegian School of TheologyRecords material, language, text, identifiers, bibliography, and the developing late-fourth/early-fifth-century dating assessment.
Coptic Manuscript G67 and the Rôle of Codex Bezae as a Western Witness in Acts
Journal of Biblical LiteratureFoundational analysis of G.67's textual affinities with Codex Bezae and the qualifications required when calling Acts readings Western.