Minuscule 618 α 261 (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 12th century. The manuscript is lacunose. Tischendorf

Constantin von Tischendorf

Lobegott Friedrich Constantin Tischendorf was a noted German Biblical scholar. He deciphered the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, a 5th century Greek manuscript of the New Testament, in the 1840s, and rediscovered the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th century New Testament manuscript, in 1859.Tischendorf...

 labeled it by 142^a and 178^p.

Description

The codex contains the text of the Acts of the Apostles

Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...

, Catholic epistles, Pauline epistles

Pauline epistles

The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul as the first word, hence claiming authorship by Paul the Apostle. Among these letters are some of the earliest extant Christian documents...

 on 292 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...

. The text is written in one column per page, 21-22 lines per page.

It contains Prolegomena, subscriptions at the end of each book, and numbers of .

The order of books: Acts of the Apostles

Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...

, Catholic epistles, and Pauline epistles

Pauline epistles

The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul as the first word, hence claiming authorship by Paul the Apostle. Among these letters are some of the earliest extant Christian documents...

. Hebrews

Epistle to the Hebrews

The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the books in the New Testament. Its author is not known.The primary purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews is to exhort Christians to persevere in the face of persecution. The central thought of the entire Epistle is the doctrine of the Person of Christ and his...

 is placed after Epistle to Philemon

Epistle to Philemon

Paul's Epistle to Philemon, usually referred to simply as Philemon, is a prison letter to Philemon from Paul of Tarsus. Philemon was a leader in the Colossian church. This letter, which is one of the books of the New Testament, deals with forgiveness.Philemon was a wealthy Christian of the house...

.

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...

. 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 Scrivener it has valuable text, but with many errors. Its text often resembling codex 460

Minuscule 460

Minuscule 460 , α 397 , is a Greek-Latin-Arabic minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. The manuscript is lacunose...

.

History

The manuscript was added to the list of New Testament manuscripts by Johann Martin Augustin Scholz, who slightly examined its text in Book of Acts. C. R. Gregory saw the manuscript in 1886.

Formerly it was labeled by 142^a and 178^p. In 1908 Gregory gave the number 618 to it.

The manuscript currently is housed at the Biblioteca Estense

Biblioteca Estense

The Biblioteca Estense , established in Modena in the seventeenth century, is one of the most important libraries in Italy. The library is located in the Palazzo del Musei, Off Via Emilia, at Piazza Sant'Agostino 48.- Collection :...

 (G. 243, a.F.1.28. (III B 17)), at Modena

Modena

Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

.

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...