Minuscule 639 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering, α 169 Soden). It is a Greek

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 ...

, on a parchment. It is dated palaeographically to the 11th century. The manuscript is lacunose.K. Aland, M. Welte, B. Köster, K. Junack, ''Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments'', Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1994, p. 85. Formerly it was labeled by 192^a and 246^p.

Description

The codex contains the text of the

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

Catholic epistles The catholic epistles (also called the general epistles) are seven epistles of the New Testament. Listed in order of their appearance in the New Testament, the catholic epistles are: Naming The use of the word ''catholic'' in the term catholic' ...

, and

Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ext ...

on 237 parchment leaves (20.5 by 15.5 cm) with some lacunae (Acts 21:6-23; 1 Peter 5:10-14). Some leaves were supplied on paper by a later hand. The text is written in one column per page, 22-24 lines per page in minuscule letters. The last folio, no. 237, is a

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off in preparation for reuse in the form of another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid ski ...

, the lower text was written in uncial letters, and belongs to the codex 0132. It contains Prolegomena, tables of the to the Catholic epistles, numbers of the (''chapters''), lectionary markings at the margin, subscriptions at the end of each book, and numbers of . Some lacking leaves were supplied in the 14th century on a paper, by one Micheal (Acts 1:1-3:20; 7:27-10:26; 10:38-11:19; 12:2-15:25). The order of books:

, and

Epistle to the Hebrews The Epistle to the Hebrews () is one of the books of the New Testament. The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle; most of the Ancient Greek manuscripts, the Old Syriac Peshitto and ...

is placed after

Epistle to Philemon The Epistle to Philemon is one of the books of the Christianity, Christian New Testament. It is a Prison literature, prison letter, authored by Paul the Apostle (the opening verse also mentions Saint Timothy, Timothy), to Saint Philemon, Philem ...

Text

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

. Aland placed it in Category V.

History

The manuscript was described by Kitchin.G.W. Kitchin
''Catalogus codicum mss. qui in bibliotheca Aedis Christi apud Oxonienses adserrantur''
Oxford 1867, S. 21a. It was added to the list of New Testament manuscripts by Scrivener. Formerly it was labeled by 192^a and 246^p. In 1908 Gregory gave the number 639 to it. The codex now is located in Christ Church College (Wake 37) at

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minuscule 0639 Greek New Testament minuscules 11th-century biblical manuscripts Palimpsests

Description

Text

History

See also

References