Misplaced Pages

Minuscule 157

New Testament manuscript
facsimile
Name	Urbino-Vaticanus Gr. 2
Text	Gospels
Date	1122
Script	Greek
Now at	Vatican Library
Size	18.6 cm by 13.6 cm
Type	mixed
Category	III
Hand	beautifully written
Note	full marginalia

Minuscule 157 is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament Gospels, written on parchment. It is designated as 157 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and ε207 in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts. According to the colophon it is dated to the year 1122. The date had been wrongly deciphered formally as 1128 (Gregory, Thompson). It has complex contents and full marginal notations.

Description

The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book) containing the complete text of the four Gospels on 325 parchment leaves (sized 18.6 cm by 13.6 cm). The text is written in one column per page, with 22 lines per page. The text is divided according to the chapters (known as κεφαλαια / kephalaia), whose tables of contents are given before each Gospel (also known as κεφαλαια / kephalaia), the chapter numbers are noted in the page marginss, and their titles (known as τιτλοι / titloi) are written at the top of the pages. There is no division according to the Eusebian Canons (an early system of dividing the four Gospels into different sections), though the Eusebian Canon tables are placed at the beginning. Corrections in the manuscript can be mostly ascribed to the original copyist, who upon noticing a mistake whitened it out with paint, and then continued on with their copying of the correct letter or word. Any remaining "glaring" errors are likely a reflection of the manuscript which was being copied from (known as the exemplar).

It contains the Epistle to Carpian, prolegomena, lectionary equipment, subscriptions at the end of each Gospel, ornaments and pictures in vermilion and gold. The Gospel of John is preceded by a portrait of John the Evangelist with Prochorus.

It has the famous Jerusalem Colophon ("copied and corrected from the ancient manuscripts of Jerusalem preserved on the Holy Mountain"), at the end of each Gospel. According to biblical scholar Frederick H. A. Scrivener, it is very beautifully written. This sentiment is echoed by Biblical Scholar Herman C. Hoskier, who describes it as a "most beautiful manuscript" and which was "prepared with the utmost care".

Text

Although the manuscript was made for the Byzantine Emperor, its text is not considered to be the standard Byzantine text-type, but appears to be a mixture of text-types with a strong Alexandrian element. 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. Its readings often agree with Codex Bezae (D), with some affinities to the Diatessaron (an early harmonisation of the four canonical Gospels into one continuous work), and to the Gnostic Heretic Marcion's text of Luke (see Gospel of Marcion).

Textual critic Hermann von Soden lists it among the group I (along with codices 235, 245, 291, 713, and 1012). Textual critic Kurt Aland placed it in Category III of his New Testament manuscript classification system. Category III manuscripts are described as having "a small but not a negligible proportion of early readings, with a considerable encroachment of readings, and significant readings from other sources as yet unidentified." According to the Claremont Profile Method (a specific analysis method of textual data), it represents K in Luke 1; in Luke 10 it is mixed with some relationship to the Alexandrian text; in Luke 20 it has the Alexandrian text.

In Matthew 6:13 it has an unusual ending to the Lord's Prayer:

ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα, τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. ἀμήν (For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.)

This ending is only found in two other manuscripts: Minuscule 225 and 418. In Matthew 13:15 it reads: Ἰωσῆ (Joses); the reading is supported by the manuscripts Minuscule 118 700* 1071 syr bo. It does not include the text of Matthew 16:2b–3 or of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11).

History

It was written in 1122 for the Byzantine Emperor John Porphyrogenitus (1118-1143). The manuscript belonged to the Ducal Library at Urbino, and was brought to Rome by Pope Clement VII (1523-1534).

In 1788 scholar Andreas Birch made a facsimile of the manuscript. According to Birch, it is the most important manuscript of the New Testament except for Codex Vaticanus. It was examined by scholar Johann Scholz, and collated by biblical scholar Herman C. Hoskier. Biblical scholar Caspar René Gregory saw it in 1886. Scrivener noted that this codex often agrees with codices Vaticanus (B), Bezae (D), Regius (L), 69, 106, and especially with Minuscule 1.

It is currently housed at the Vatican Library (shelf number Urbinas gr. 2), in Rome, Italy.

See also

• List of New Testament minuscules
• Biblical manuscript
• Textual criticism

References

1. Gregory, Caspar René (1908). Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testament (in German). Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs. p. 53.
2. ^ Aland, Kurt; Welte, M.; Köster, B.; Junack, K. (1994). Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments. Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter. p. 56.
3. ^ Gregory, Caspar René (1900). Textkritik des Neuen Testaments (in German). Vol. 1. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs. p. 160.
4. ^ Hoskier, Herman Charles (1912). "Evan. 157 (Rome. Vat. Urb. 2). I". The Journal of Theological Studies. 14 (53). London: Oxford University Press: 78. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
5. ^ Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose; Edward Miller (1894). A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament. Vol. 1 (4 ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. p. 214.
6. 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.
7. Koeste, Helmut (1995). Introduction to the New Testament. Vol. 2. New York: Walter de Gruyter. p. 31.
8. ^ 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. 129. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
9. Wisse, Frederik (1982). The Profile Method for the Classification and Evaluation of Manuscript Evidence, as Applied to the Continuous Greek Text of the Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 56. ISBN 0-8028-1918-4.
10. ^ Aland, Kurt; Black, Matthew; Martini, Carlo Maria; Metzger, Bruce Manning; Wikgren, Allen, eds. (1983). The Greek New Testament (3rd ed.). Stuttgart: United Bible Societies. p. 61. ISBN 9783438051103. (UBS3)

Further reading

• Hoskier, Herman C. (1913). "Evan. 157 (Rome. Vat. Urb. 2). II". The Journal of Theological Studies. 14 (54). London: Oxford University Press: 242–293. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
• Hoskier, Herman C. (1913). "Evan. 157 (Rome. Vat. Urb. 2). III". The Journal of Theological Studies. 14 (55). London: Oxford University Press: 359–384. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
• Streeter, Burnett Hillman. "Codices 157, 1071 and the Caesarean Text". Quantulacumque: Studies Presented to Kirsopp Lake by Pupils, Colleagues and Friends. London: Christophers. pp. 149–150.
• Thompson, Edward Maunde (1912). An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 246, 248 (plate 68).

External links

• Minuscule 157 at the Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism
• Online images of minuscule 157 (Digital Microfilm) at the CSNTM.
• Online photographic images of minuscule 157 at the Vatican Digital Library.

• Greek New Testament minuscules
• 12th-century biblical manuscripts
• Manuscripts of the Vatican Library