Minuscule 579 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), ε 376 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

minuscule Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally '' minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing system ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s, written on

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

. Using the study of comparative writing styles (

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

), it has been dated to the 13th century. It was formerly labelled as 80^e (in the manuscript list of biblical scholar Frederick H.A. Scrivener). The manuscript has some missing portions of text.

Description

The manuscript is a

codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

(forerunner to the modern book), containing the near-complete text of the four

s, with some gaps (

Mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

3:28-4:8, and

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

20:15-21:25 are no longer in the manuscript, due to missing pages) on 152

leaves (full page size is 23.3 cm by 16.2 cm). The text is written in one column per page, 28-39 lines per page. Words are written continuously without any separation, but includes accents (used to indicate voiced pitch changes) and breathings (utilised to designate vowel emphasis). It contains lists of the tables of contents (' / ''kephalaia'') before each Gospel, numbers of the chapters (also called ') in the margin, and the titles (' / ''titloi'') at the top of the pages. It has the Ammonian sections (an early system of dividing the four Gospels into different sections; 233 sections in Mark, up to ), but no references to the

Eusebian Canons Eusebian canons, Eusebian sections or Eusebian apparatus, also known as Ammonian sections, are the system of dividing the four Gospels used between late antiquity and the Middle Ages. The divisions into Chapters and verses of the Bible, chapters ...

(a development of the Ammonian sections). Quotations from the Old Testament are rarely indicated. It has the same system of chapter divisions as found in Codex Vaticanus (B) and Codex Zacynthius (Ξ).

Text

The Greek text of the codex is a representative of the

Alexandrian text-type In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Alexandrian text-type is one of the main text types. It is the text type favored by the majority of modern textual critics and it is the basis for most modern (after 1900) Bible translations. Over 5,8 ...

and Luke. The text-types are groups of different New Testament manuscripts which share specific or generally related readings, which then differ from each other group, and thus the conflicting readings can separate out the groups. These are then used to determine the original text as published; there are three main groups with names: Alexandrian,

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

. For the text of Mark and Luke contained in the manuscript, biblical scholar and text-critic

Kurt Aland Kurt Aland (28 March 1915 – 13 April 1994) was a German theologian and Biblical studies, biblical scholar who specialized in New Testament textual criticism. He founded the ''Institute for New Testament Textual Research, Institut für neutest ...

placed it in Category II in his New Testament manuscript text classification system. Category II manuscripts are described as being manuscripts "of a special quality, i.e., manuscripts with a considerable proportion of the early text, but which are marked by alien influences. These influences are usually of smoother, improved readings, and in later periods by infiltration by the Byzantine text." The relationship between minuscule 579's text of Luke and the

was confirmed by the

Claremont Profile Method The Claremont Profile Method is a method for classifying ancient manuscripts of the Bible. It was elaborated by Ernest Cadman Colwell and his students. Professor Frederik Wisse attempted to establish an accurate and rapid procedure for the classi ...

(a specific analysis method of textual data), though in Luke 10 and Luke 20 it is a weak representative of this text-type. In Matthew its text belongs to the late

group. The text of Matthew 16:2b–3 (''Signs of the Times'') is placed after verse 9. It has two endings to the Gospel of Mark, as also seen in codices Codex Athous Lavrensis (Ψ), Uncial 099, Uncial 0112, minuscule 274 (contained within the margin), and Lectionary 1602 (ℓ ''1602'')). It lacks the text of Luke 22:43-44 A26/ref> and the phrase (''But Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do"'') in Luke 23:34. In John 8:6 it inserts (''taking no notice'') after (''in the ground'') along with Codex Cyprius (K) and numerous manuscripts among the

Byzantine text-type In the textual criticism of the New Testament, the Byzantine text-type (also called Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main Textual criticism#New Testament, text types. ...

History

The manuscript once belonged to classical scholar Johann Georg Graevius, and was collated by Dutch scholar Anthony Bynaeus in 1691 (as minuscule 80). It passed into the hands of J. van der Hagen, who showed it to textual-critic

Johann Jakob Wettstein Johann Jakob Wettstein (also Wetstein; 5 March 1693 – 23 March 1754) was a Swiss theologian, best known as a New Testament critic. Biography Youth and study Johann Jakob Wettstein was born in Basel. Among his tutors in theology was Samuel We ...

in 1739. It was bought by Ambrose Didot and sold to Monsieur Lesoef. The manuscript was examined and described by Catholic biblical scholar

Paulin Martin Jean-Pierre-Paulin MartinSometimes referred to as Jean P.P. Martin. (20 July 1840 at Lacam-d'Ourcet, Lot – 14 January 1890 at Amélie-les-Bains, Pyrénées-Orientales), often referred to as Abbé Paulin Martin, or simply Abbé Martin or ...

C. R. Gregory C. or c. may refer to: * Century, sometimes abbreviated as ''c.'' or ''C.'', a period of 100 years * Letter C, the third letter in the alphabet. * Cent (currency), abbreviated ''c.'' or ''¢'', a monetary unit that equals of the basic unit of man ...

saw the manuscript in 1884. It is currently housed in at the

National Library of France National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(Gr. 97), at

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

References

External links

*
Minuscule 579
at the ''Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism''
Online images from Microfilm of Minuscule 579
at the CSNTM.
Online images from Microfilm of Minuscule 579
at the

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Minuscule 0579 Greek New Testament minuscules 13th-century biblical manuscripts Bibliothèque nationale de France collections

Description

Text

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links