The Capitulatio Vaticana and Its Predecessors in the New Testament

Abstract

Chapter 7 continues the search for antecedents of the CapVat divisions, now in NT sources. In a little-known list of chapters found in ten medieval manuscripts, confirmation is found for the existence of the First Chapters, at least for Acts, in Caesarea by at least about the end of the third century, associated with the work of Pamphilus. While the only replication of a NT book with the CapVat divisions remains the eighth-century Codex Zacynthius, legitimate precursors of the CapVat divisions may now be identified in the unnumbered ekthetic breaks in P75 (John especially), and, as far as they go, in the divisions of P64+67 in Matthew. Most likely, other early Gospel papyri preserve more variant forms. For Paul, an unexpected correlation with the CapVat divisions turns up in some of Tertullian’s exegetical comments on 1 Corinthians 7 in his ad Uxorem (c.207), where he is relying upon a Greek copy.