Family Π is a group of New Testament manuscripts, and is one of the textual families which belongs to the majority Byzantine text-type. The name of the family, "Π" (pronounced in English as "pie"), is drawn from the symbol used for the manuscript known as Codex Petropolitanus. One of the most distinctive of the Byzantine sub-groups, it is the third largest and has the oldest Byzantine manuscripts belonging to it.
Textual critic Hermann von Soden designated this group by the symbol Ka. According to him, its text is not purely Byzantine.
Codices and manuscripts
The following manuscripts were included in this group by von Soden: Cyprius (K), Petropolitanus (Π), 72, 114, 116, 178, 265, 389, 1008, 1009, 1079, 1154, 1200, 1219, 1346, and 1398.[1] Biblical scholar Kirsopp Lake added to this group these manuscripts: 489, 537, 652, 775, 796, 904, 1478, 1500, 1546, 1561, 1781, 1816.[2] von Soden also associated Codex Alexandrinus with this group,[3]: 4 however biblical scholar Silva New demonstrated that though it shares several readings, Codex Alexandrinus is not related to the group.[3]: 6 Frederik Wisse lists about 150 witnesses of the family, but the majority of them belong to this family only in some parts of their text.[4] The Peshitta, in the Gospels, represents this family.
There are several manuscripts which are related to the family, such as Minuscule 706 and 2278. Based on a study on the Pericope Adultera, biblical scholar Tommy Wasserman found Family Π to include 581, 1272, 1306, 1571, 1627, 1690, 1699, and 2463.[5]
^ abLake, Silva (1937). Family Π and the Codex Alexandrinus. London: Christophers.
^ abcWisse, Frederik (1982). The Profile Method for the Classification and Evaluation of Manuscript Evidence. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans. pp. 103–105. ISBN0-8028-1918-4.