Jeremiah Coogan: Marginal Matthew. Tὸ ἰουδαϊκόν in Medieval Manuscripts and Modern Editions

• Centre for Advanced Studies
• Fellows Brunch

A number of Greek Gospel manuscripts include material attributed to to
ioudaïkon, “the Jewish [version],” in the margins of Matthew. These
marginalia problematise editorial distinctions between text, variant, and
“paratext.” Yet modern editions of the New Testament omit the to
ioudaïkon marginalia from apparatus critici as extraneous to Matthew
itself. Instead, the marginalia have been printed as a separate text, a
collection of non-canonical fragments. This editorial approach is
problematic in two ways. First, by separating the marginalia from their
physical location and readerly context in the margins of Matthew,
editors create a newly fragmentary “Gospel” that may not have
previously existed. Not only does the location of this material in
Matthew’s margins enable its physical preservation, but the context and
significance of the marginalia are generated in their juxtaposition with
the running text. Second, this editorial practice obscures how marginalia
supplement and even rewrite Matthew for the reader of these
manuscripts. In the manuscripts, these marginalia create a particular
“Matthew” to be read—even, in a certain sense, a new “text.” Modern
editorial interventions reconfigure both marginalia and running text,
but by deleting to ioudaïkon from Matthew, something is lost on both
sides. By resisting editorial practices that reify a division between
canonical text and noncanonical margin, this paper focuses on the
complex interactions that occur on the page and in the experience of the
reader.