Minuscule 424

Minuscule 424
New Testament manuscript
TextActs, Catholic Epistles,
Pauline Epistles, and Revelation
Date11th century
ScriptGreek
Now atAustrian National Library
Size18.2 cm by 14 cm
Typemixed (epist.; Rev),
Byzantine (Acts)
CategoryIII, V

Minuscule 424 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), Ο12 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts),[1] is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament containing the book of Acts, the Pauline Epistles, the Catholic Epistles, and Revelation, written on parchment. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been assigned to the 11th century.[2] It was formerly designated by the number 66a (Acts), 67p (Epistles), and 34r (Revelation).

Description

The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book), containing the text of the Acts of the Apostles, Catholic epistles, Pauline epistles, and Revelation on 353 parchment leaves (18.2 cm by 14 cm). The text is written in one column per page, with 22 lines per page.[2]

It contains Prolegomena (to the Acts and Pauline epistles), the Synaxarion (a list of daily lessons in the church's calendar), Menologion (a calendar of Saint's days), subscriptions at the end of each book, and pictures. The Catholic epistles have subscriptions with the numbers of lines (known as στιχοι / stichoi).[3] Three different hands have made corrections.[4] According to Biblical scholar Frederick H. A. Scrivener, textual critic Johann J. Griesbach considered the corrections "as far more valuable than the text."[4]

According to the subscription at the end of the Epistle to the Romans, the letter was: επιστολη προς Ρωμαιους εγραφη δια Φοιβης διακονου της εν Κεγχρειαις εκκλησιας. (Epistle to the Romans, written by Phoebe, deaconess of the church in Cenchrea).[5]

The codex was corrected against one or more other manuscripts which had a closely related textual relationship, hence displaying many alternative readings to the initial copyist.[6]

Text

The Greek text of Acts in the codex is considered a representative of the Byzantine text-type, but in the Epistles it has been subjected to a thorough revision to bring it into conformity with the text of the exemplar of Minuscule 1739. 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, and Byzantine.[7] Biblical scholar Kurt Aland placed it in Category V of his New Testament classification system for the book of Acts. The text of the Epistles has a higher value; Aland therefore placed it in Category III.[8] Category III manuscripts are described as having "a small but not a negligible proportion of early readings, with a considerable encroachment of [Byzantine] readings, and significant readings from other sources as yet unidentified."[8]: 335  Category V manuscripts are "Manuscripts with a purely or predominantly Byzantine text."[8]: 336  Its readings often agree with those seen in the manuscript Minuscule 1739.

In Acts 24:6b-8a it has unique reading: εκρατησαμεν και κατα τον ημετερον νομον ηβουληθημεν κριναι κατα τον ημετερον νομον ελθων δε ο χιλιαρχος Λυσιας βια πολλη εκ των χειρων ημων αφιλετο και προς δε απεστειλε κελευσας τους κατηγορους αυτου ερχεσθαι προς σε.[9]: 513 

In a marginal note at 1 John 5:6, corrector c has added the reading: δι' ὕδατος καὶ αἵματος καὶ πνεύματος (through water and blood and spirit), a reading also seen in the manuscripts Codex Sinaiticus (א‎), Codex Alexandrinus (A), Minuscule 104, 614, 1739c, 2412, 2495, ℓ 598m, syrh, Sahidic, Boharic, and in the writings of Origen.[9]: 823 [n 1] Scholar Bart D. Ehrman considers this textual variant as an Orthodox corrupted reading.[10]

A transcription of the text of Acts in the manuscript is available from the INTF Virtual Manuscript Room.

History

The manuscript once belonged to Arsenius, Archbishop of Momembasia, then to Sebastian Tengnagel and John Sambue.[4] It was examined by Treschow, Francis Karl Alter, Andreas Birch, and Johann J. Griesbach all who noted the variant readings.[4] Alter used it in his edition of the Greek New Testament (vol. 2, 415-558). Biblical scholar Caspar René Gregory saw it in 1887.[3] It was previously designated by 66a, 67p and 34r.[3] In 1908, Gregory assigned it the number 424.[1]

The manuscript is currently housed at the Austrian National Library (Theol. gr. 302) in Vienna.[2]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ For the other variants of this verse see: Textual variants in the First Epistle of John.

References

  1. ^ a b Gregory, Caspar René (1908). Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testament. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs. p. 63.
  2. ^ a b c Aland, Kurt; M. Welte; B. Köster; K. Junack (1994). Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter. p. 72. ISBN 3-11-011986-2.
  3. ^ a b c Gregory, Caspar René (1900). Textkritik des Neuen Testaments. Vol. 1. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs. p. 268.
  4. ^ a b c d Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose; Edward Miller (1861). A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament (4 ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. p. 290.
  5. ^ Aland, Kurt; Black, Matthew; Martini, Carlo Maria; Metzger, Bruce M.; Wikgren, Allen, eds. (1981). Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (26 ed.). Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelstiftung. p. 440. ISBN 3-438-051001. (NA26)
  6. ^ Wasserman, Tommy. "New Traces of an Old Text: The Corrections of Gregory-Aland 424 in the Book of Acts". In Farnes, Alan Taylor; Mackie, Scott D.; Runia, David T. (eds.). Ancient Texts, Papyri, and Manuscripts: Studies in Honor of James R. Royse. Leiden: Brill. p. 199. ISBN 978-90-04-46557-2.
  7. ^ Metzger, Bruce Manning; Ehrman, Bart D. (2005). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 205–230. ISBN 0-19-516667-1.
  8. ^ a b c Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
  9. ^ a b Aland, Kurt; Black, Matthew; Martini, Carlo Maria; Metzger, Bruce Manning; Wikgren, Allen, eds. (1983). The Greek New Testament (3rd ed.). Stuttgart: United Bible Societies. ISBN 9783438051103. (UBS3)
  10. ^ Ehrman, Bart D (1993). The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0199739783.

Further reading

  • Andreas Christian Hwiid, Libellus criticus de indole codicis ms. Graeci Novi Testamenti bibliothecae Caesareo-Vindobonensis Lambecii XXXIV. Accessit textus Latinus ss Antehieronymianus ex codice Laudiano, Kopenhagen 1785.
  • J. Neville Birdsall, A Byzantine Calendar from the Menology of two Biblical Mss, Analecta Bollandiana 84 (Brussels, 1966), pp. 29–57.