Abstract Ugo Rozzo quipped, “it should also be obvious that the paratext is not the text (even if it is a text).” His sentiment certainly is reflected in most Greek New Testament manuscripts: the page focuses on the scriptures, and paratexts serve the reader in navigating, understanding, and appreciating the sacred words. Determining paratextual relationships in Greek New Testament manuscripts with catenae is more complicated because of the presence of a second extensive text in the same codex. This article explores the relationship between the scriptures and the catenae in manuscripts of the gospels. It proposes that some catena manuscripts reverse the usual text-paratext relationship and decentralizes the biblical text, including it as a reference for the commentary. The format of the constituent elements within a manuscript does not alone suffice to determine the paratextual relationships in commentary manuscripts.
Andrew J. Patton (Sun,) studied this question.