Minuscule 2053 O^α31 (von Soden), is a Greek 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 138 parchment leaves (26.8 by 21 cm). Paleografically

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 13th century.

Description

The codex contains only the text of the Book of Revelation

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

 with the commentary on that Bοοk by Oecumenius

Œcumenius

Oecumenius , once believed to be a Bishop of Trikka in Thessaly writing about 990 , was reputed to be the author of several commentaries on books of the New Testament...

. The text is written in two columns per page, in 24 lines per page.

Text

The Greek text of the codex is a representative 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...

. Textual value is higher than Codex Sinaiticus

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...

 (in Revelation) and is comparable with manuscripts Codex Alexandrinus

Codex Alexandrinus

The Codex Alexandrinus is a 5th century manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early history of Christianity...

, Codex Ephraemi, Minuscule 2062

Minuscule 2062

Minuscule 2062 , Oα42 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on 29 paper leaves . Palaeografically it had been assigned to the 13th century.- Description :...

, and Minuscule 2344

Minuscule 2344

Minuscule 2344 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament.- Description :The codex contains the text of the Acts, CE, Paul, Rev, on 61 parchment leaves...

. It is one of the best witnesses for the Book of Revelation, sometimes even superior to the Papyrus 47. 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 I.
It was not examined by the Claremont Profile Method.

History

The manuscript was written in the 13th century in Messina.

The codex currently is housed at the Biblioteca Universitarià (99), in Messina.

Further reading

• Herman C. 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...
  
  , "Der Apokalypse Text in dem Kommentar-Codex Messina 99", AJP 35 (1914), pp. 179-191.