Minuscule 661
Encyclopedia
Minuscule 661 ε 179 (von Soden), is a Greek language
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....

, on parchment. Palaeographically
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...

 it has been assigned to the 11th century. The manuscript has complex contents. Scrivener
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener
The Reverend Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener, LL.D. was an important text critic of the New Testament and a member of the English New Testament Revision Committee which produced the Revised Version of the Bible...

 labelled it by 639e.

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 234 parchment leaves (size ). The text is written in one column per page, 23 lines per page. It contains the tables of the before every Gospel, and the portrait of the Evangelist is placed only before Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...

. There are no Eusebian tables before the Gospels.

The text is divided according to the (chapters), and according to the Ammonian Sections (in Mark 234 sections, the last numbered section in 16:9). The numerals of the are given at the left margin, and their (titles) at the top of the pages. The Ammonian Sections are given with a references to the Eusebian Canons (written under Ammonian Sections).

The manuscript contains additional material at the end, "East Canon" for the years 1034-1037.

Text

The Greek text of the codex is 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...

. Hermann von Soden lists it to the textual family K1
Family K1
Family K1 is a small group of the New Testament manuscripts. It belongs to the Byzantine text-type as one of the textual families of this group. It has five uncials, and several early minuscules. It is one of the smallest subfamilies of the Byzantine text-type, but one of the oldest.- Description...

, which is according to him the oldest family of the Byzantine text-type. Kurt 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...

 did not examine the Greek text of the codex by his method of thousand readings, and therefore he did not place it in any Category
Categories of New Testament manuscripts
New Testament manuscripts in Greek are categorized into five groups, according to a scheme introduced in 1981 by Kurt and Barbara Aland in Der Text des Neuen Testaments. The categories are based on how each manuscript relates to the various text-types. Generally speaking, earlier Alexandrian...

. The text of the manuscript was not examined by using the Claremont Profile Method.

The texts of Matthew 16:2b–3 (the signs of the times), Christ's agony at Gethsemane
Christ's agony at Gethsemane
Christ's agony at Gethsemane is a passage in the Gospel of Luke , describing a prayer of Jesus, after which he receives strength from an angel, on the Mount of Olives prior to his betrayal and arrest...

 (Luke 22:43-44), John 5:3-4, and the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11) are marked with an asterisk
Asterisk
An asterisk is a typographical symbol or glyph. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often pronounce it as star...

 (※) as doubtful. The text of Mark 16:9-20
Mark 16
Mark 16 is the final chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It begins with the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome — there they encounter a man dressed in white who announces the Resurrection of Jesus.Verse 8 ends...

 has no numbered (chapters) at the margin, their (titles) at the top,nor Ammonian Sections and references to the Eusebian Canons.

Matthew 1:11
It reads Ιωσιας δε εγεννησεν τον Ιωακειμ, Ιωακειμ δε εγεννησεν τον Ιεχονιαν instead of Ιωσιας δε εγεννησεν τον Ιεχονιαν. The reading is supported by Codex Campianus
Codex Campianus
Codex Campianus designated by M or 021 , ε 72 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 9th century...

, Codex Koridethi
Codex Koridethi
The Codex Koridethi, also named Codex Coridethianus, designated by Θ, 038, or Theta , ε 050 , is a 9th century manuscript of the four Gospels. It is written in Greek with uncial script in two columns per page, in 25 lines per page...

, f1
Family 1
Family 1 is a group of Greek Gospel manuscripts, varying in date from the 12th to the 15th century. The group takes its name from the minuscule codex 1, now in the Basel University Library. "Family 1" is also known as "the Lake Group", symbolized as f1. Hermann von Soden calls the group Ih...

, 33
Minuscule 33
Minuscule 33 , δ 48 , formerly it was called Codex Colbertinus 2844, is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament on parchment, dated palaeographically to the 9th century. The manuscript is lacunose. It has marginalia...

, 258
Minuscule 258
Minuscule 258 , ε 388 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Paleographically it has been assigned to the 13th century.- Description :...

, 478
Minuscule 478
Minuscule 478 , α 1126 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 10th century. Scrivener labeled it by number 575...

, 791
Minuscule 791 (Gregory-Aland)
Minuscule 791 , ε464 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament written on paper. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 12th century. The manuscript has complex contents.- Description :...

, 954, 1216, 1230, 1354, 1604, 54
Lectionary 54
Lectionary 54, designated by siglum ℓ 54 . It is a Greek manuscript of the New Testament, on paper leaves. It is dated by a colophon to the year 1470.- Description :...

.

History

Scrivener and Gregory dated the manuscript to the 11th century. Currently the manuscript is dated by the INTF
Institute for New Testament Textual Research
The Institute for New Testament Textual Research at the University of Münster, Westphalia, Germany, is an institute for the investigation of the text of the New Testament. The INTF was founded in Münster in 1959 by Professor Kurt Aland , the first director of the Institute...

 to the 11th century.

The manuscript was brought from the East to Berlin. It was added to the list of New Testament manuscripts by Scrivener and Gregory. Gregory saw the manuscript in 1887. It was housed in Berlin in the Preußische Königliche Bibliothek
Berlin State Library
The Berlin State Library is a library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.-Buildings:The State Library runs several premises, three of which are open for users, namely House 1 in Unter den Linden 8, House 2 in Potsdamer Straße 33 and the newspaper archive...

 (then Prussian State Library, then Berlin State Library) with the shelf-number Gr. quarto 67.

The Prussian State Library sent many collections out of Berlin to be sheltered in Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

 for safekeeping during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. As the result of postwar border changes some of these collections were found in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 (among them minuscule 661). They were moved to the Jagiellonian University Library.

Currently the manuscript is housed at the Biblioteka Jagiellońska (Fonds der Berliner Handschriften, Graec. quarto 67), in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

.

See also

  • List of New Testament minuscules
  • Biblical manuscript
    Biblical manuscript
    A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblia ; manuscript comes from Latin manu and scriptum...

  • Textual criticism
    Textual criticism
    Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...


Further reading

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