A new commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew has been identified by the CATENA Project.

Dr Georgi Parpulov and Dr Panagiotis Manafis, research fellows on the ERC-funded CATENA project have published an article identifying a new Greek catena on the Gospel of Matthew. Preserved in six leaves from a ninth-century manuscript bound into another codex now held at the Monastery of St Nikanor in Zavorda, Greece, the catena is an ancestor of the commentaries identified as CPG C111 and CPG C112 in the Clavis Patrum Graecorum.

Published today in open access in the Parekbolai journal, the article describes the pages of the manuscript (with one colour illustration) and provides the full text of previously-unknown extracts from early Christian writers incorporated into the commentary. These include texts from Origen, Theodore of Heraclea, and Cyril of Alexandria. The discovery sheds new light on the genesis of various Matthaean commentaries in catena format.

This manuscript is one of several new discoveries made in the course of work towards the first-ever catalogue of Greek New Testament Catena Manuscripts, published by Dr Parpulov in May 2021.