Minuscule 18 δ 411 (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....

. According to the colophon

Colophon (publishing)

In publishing, a colophon is either:* A brief description of publication or production notes relevant to the edition, in modern books usually located at the reverse of the title page, but can also sometimes be located at the end of the book, or...

 it was written in the year 1364 CE. The manuscript has complex contents. It has 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...

.

Description

It is one of few copies of the whole 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....

 and the Book of Psalms. The text is written on 444 parchment leaves (28.9 by 21.3) in one column per page with 23 lines per page in large uncial letters.

The text is divided according to the (chapters), whose numbers are given at the margin, but there is no τιτλοι (titles of chapters) at the top of the pages. The text of the Gospels is not divided according to the Ammonian Sections, with references to the Eusebian Canons.

It contains prolegomena, tables of the (tables of contents) preceded each sacred book, lectionary markings at the margin (for liturgical use), αναγνωσεις (lessons), subscriptions at the end of each book, 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...

, synaxaria

Synaxarium

Synaxarion, Synexarion, pl. Synaxaria —Latin: Synaxarium, Synexarium—the name given in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches to a compilation of hagiographies corresponding roughly to the martyrology of the Roman Church.There are two kinds of synaxaria:*Simple...

, Menologion, and Euthalian Apparatus

Euthalian Apparatus

The Euthalian Apparatus is a collection of additional editorial material, such as divisions of text, lists, and summaries, to the New Testament's Book of Acts, Catholic epistles, and Pauline epistles. This additional material appears at the beginnings of books, in the margin of the text, and at the...

.

It is one of the few copies of the whole New Testament. The order of books is: Gospels, Acts, Catholic epistles, Pauline epistles, Apocalypse.

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...

. Hermann von Soden classified it to the textual family K^r

Family Kr

Family Kr is a large group of the New Testament manuscripts. It belongs to the Byzantine text-type as one of the textual families of this group. It has no uncials, no early minuscules, it has only hundreds of minuscules.- Description :...

. 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. According to the Claremont Profile Method it represents the textual family Family K^r

Family Kr

Family Kr is a large group of the New Testament manuscripts. It belongs to the Byzantine text-type as one of the textual families of this group. It has no uncials, no early minuscules, it has only hundreds of minuscules.- Description :...

 in Luke 1 and Luke 20. In Luke 10 no profile was made.

In Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 10:12, at the margin to αυτην, stays note with reading λεγοντες ειρηνη τω οικω τουτω. The reading is used by manuscripts: Sinaiticus*^{, 2}

Codex Sinaiticus

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. It is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of...

, Bezae

Codex Bezae

The Codex Bezae Cantabrigensis, designated by siglum Dea or 05 , δ 5 , is a codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century written in an uncial hand on vellum. It contains, in both Greek and Latin, most of the four Gospels and Acts, with a small fragment of the 3 John...

, Regius

Codex Regius (New Testament)

Codex Regius designated by siglum Le or 019 , ε 56 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated paleographically to the 8th century. The manuscript is lacunose. It has marginalia....

, Washingtonianus

Codex Washingtonianus

The Codex Washingtonianus or Codex Washingtonensis, designated by W or 032 , ε 014 , also called the Washington Manuscript of the Gospels, and The Freer Gospel, contains the four biblical gospels and was written in Greek on vellum in the fourth or fifth century...

, 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...

, f ¹

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...

, 22

Minuscule 22

Minuscule 22 , ε 288 , known also as Codex Colbertinus 2467. It is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, written on vellum. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 12th century. Formerly it was assigned to the 11th century...

, 1010, (1424), it vg^cl.

History

The colophon, at the end of the codex, on the page 444 informs: Η παρουσια θεια βιβλος εγραφη μεν, και ετελεστη κατα την μεγαλην πολιν εν τη σεβοτατη των μαγγανων μονη κατα το ςωοβ ετος. εδοθη δε και αφιερωθη παρ εμου νικηφορου του μυζιθρα της λακεδαιμονος καστρω περιεχουσα το ιερον ευαγγελιον και τον πραξαποστολον και το ψαλτηριον μετα της αυτου προθεωριας και της του θεολογου αποκαλυψεως. According to this colophon the manuscript was written in the year 6872, it means in 1364 CE, by Nicephorus Cannavus at Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

. Nicephorus, son of Kannabe, presented it to the monastery to Myzithra.

The manuscript was bought in 1687 in Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

.

It was examined by Wettstein

Johann Jakob Wettstein

Johann Jakob Wettstein was a Swiss theologian, best known as a New Testament critic.-Youth and study:...

, Griesbach

Johann Jakob Griesbach

Johann Jakob Griesbach , German biblical textual critic, was born at Butzbach, a small town in the state of Hesse, where his father, Konrad Kaspar , was pastor...

, Scholz, Paulin Martin

Paulin Martin

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

, C. R. Gregory (1884), Reiche, and Hoskier

Herman C. Hoskier

Herman Charles Hoskier , was a biblical scholar, British textual critic, and son of a merchant banker, Herman Hoskier .Hoskier, as textual critic, supported the Byzantine text-type against the Alexandrian text-type...

 (only Apocalypse).

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. 47) 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...

.

See also

• List of New Testament minuscules
• 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...
  
  
• 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...
  
  

Further reading

• Herman C. Hoskier, Concerning the Text of the Apocalypse 1 (London 1929), pp. 150-157.

External links

• Minuscule 18 at the Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism