Minuscule 20 A¹³⁸ (Soden). It is a Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 minuscule manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 of the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

, dated paleographically

Palaeography

Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...

 to the 11th century. The manuscript has complex contents and full marginalia

Marginalia

Marginalia are scribbles, comments, and illuminations in the margins of a book.- Biblical manuscripts :Biblical manuscripts have liturgical notes at the margin, for liturgical use. Numbers of texts' divisions are given at the margin...

. It was prepared for the church reading.

Description

The codex contains a complete text of the four Gospel

Gospel

A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...

s on 274 thick parchment leaves . The text is written in 1 column per page, biblical text in 36 lines per page, text of commentary in 51 lines per page. According to F. H. A. Scrivener it is carelessly written.

The text is divided according to the (chapters), whose numbers are given at the margin, and their (titles of chapters) at the top of the pages. There is also another division according to the Ammonian Sections, with references to the Eusebian Canons (written below Ammonian Section numbers).

It contains tables of the (tables of contents) before each Gospel, lectionary markings at the margin (for liturgical use), subscriptions at the end of each Gospel, numbers of στιχοι

Stichometry

Stichometry is a term applied to the measurement of ancient texts by στίχοι or verses of a fixed standard length.It was the custom of the Greeks and Romans to estimate the length of their literary works by measured lines...

, pictures, and catenae

Catena (Biblical commentary)

A catena is a form of biblical commentary, verse by verse, made up entirely of excerpts from earlier Biblical commentators, each introduced with the name of the author, and with such minor adjustments of words to allow the whole to form a continuous commentary.The texts are mainly compiled from...

. It has the commentaries of (Chrysostomos

John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...

 in Matthew, Luke, and John, Victorinus in Mark).
It contains the famous Jerusalem Colophon

Jerusalem Colophon

The Jerusalem Colophon is a colophon found in a number of New Testament manuscripts, including Λ , 20, 153, 157, 164, 215, 262, 300, 376, 428, 565, 566, 686, 718, 728, 748, 829, 899, 901, 922, 980, 1032, 1071, 1118, 1121, 1124, 1187, 1198, 1355, 1422, 1521, 1545, 1555, 1682, 2145, and 2245...

.

The text of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11) is placed at the end Gospel of John, after 21:25.

Text

The Greek text of the codex according to Aland is a representative of the Byzantine text-type

Byzantine text-type

The Byzantine text-type is one of several text-types used in textual criticism to describe the textual character of Greek New Testament manuscripts. It is the form found in the largest number of surviving manuscripts, though not in the oldest...

, but according to David Alan Black

David Alan Black

David Alan Black, born 1952, professor of New Testament at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, textual critic.In 1975 he finished his studies at the Biola University. In 1983 he received a D.Theol...

 of the Alexandrian text-type

Alexandrian text-type

The Alexandrian text-type , associated with Alexandria, is one of several text-types used in New Testament textual criticism to describe and group the textual character of biblical manuscripts...

. Aland

Kurt Aland

Kurt Aland was a German Theologian and Professor of New Testament Research and Church History. He founded the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster and served as its first director for many years...

 placed it in Category V.

It was not examined by using the Claremont Profile Method.

Possibly it is a mixture of Text-types.

History

The codex was brought from the East in 1669. It was added to the list of the New Testament manuscripts by J. J. Wettstein (20). It was collated by Scholz and W. F. Rose. It was examined and described by Paulin Martin

Paulin Martin

Paulin Martin was a French Catholic Biblical scholar.-Life:...

. C. R. Gregory saw the manuscript in 1885.

It is currently housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

 (Gr. 1889) at Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.