Minuscule 709
Encyclopedia
Minuscule 709 ε154 (von Soden), 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....

, 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 is lacunose. 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 as 737e.

Description

The codex contains the 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 140 parchment leaves (size ),
with some lacunae
Lacuna (manuscripts)
A lacunaPlural lacunae. From Latin lacūna , diminutive form of lacus . is a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or a musical work...

 in text (Matthew 1:1-20; Luke 15:5-24:53; John 1:1-9:11; 13:3-15:10; 16:21-20:25). The texts of Luke 3:25-4:11; 6:25-42 were supplied by a later hand.

The leaf 133 is a palimpsest
Palimpsest
A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος originally compounded from πάλιν and ψάω literally meaning “scraped...

 with the older text of Luke 6:25-42 (Minuscule 2601), overwriting not much earlier than itself.

The text is written in two columns per page, 30 lines per page. The ornamental headpieces and decorated initials.

The lists of the (lists of contents) are placed before each Gospel.

The text is divided according to the (chapters), which numbers are given the left margin, and their τιτλοι (titles) at the top (with the harmony); there is also a division according to the Ammonian Sections (in Mark 237, the last section in 16:15), with references to the Eusebian Canons, and with the harmony in the bottom margin. It contains lectionary markings, incipits, subscriptions, ρηματα, and numbered στιχοι.

Text

The Greek text of the codex 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...

. 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 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...

.

According to the Claremont Profile Method it represents textual group Λ
Codex Tischendorfianus III
Codex Tischendorfianus III – designated by siglum Λ or 039 , ε 77 – is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels on parchment...

 in Luke 1 and Luke 10. In Luke 20 the text of the manuscript is defective.

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.

Probably it was written in South Italy. It was also suggested that the scribe was Armenian (F. Madan). It was bought in Rhodos
Rhodos
In Greek mythology, Rhodos or Rhodus also known as Rhode was the goddess of the island of Rhodes and wife of Helios, she was the daughter of Aphrodite and Poseidon. -References:* Grimal, Pierre, , Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 9780631201021....

, in 1882.

It was added to the list of New Testament manuscripts by Scrivener (737) and Gregory (709). Gregory saw the manuscript in 1883.

At present the manuscript is housed at the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

 (Auct. T. inf. 1. 4) in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

.

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...


External links

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