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The Reading Culture of Early Christianity

Uncover the rich history and textual relevance of Minuscule 983, a significant New Testament manuscript. This article delves into its unique physical attributes, its place within textual families, and its journey through time. A must-read for those keen on exploring the fascinating world of biblical manuscripts.

Minuscule 983, known in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and ε3017 in the von Soden numbering, is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament on parchment from the 12th century. This manuscript is part of a group of New Testament manuscripts known as Family 13 (ƒ13). However, access to the manuscript has been limited due to an ongoing dispute between the monastery where it is housed and the Greek government.

The Physical Attributes of Minuscule 983

The manuscript is a codex, a precursor to the modern book, containing the text of the four Gospels on 208 parchment leaves, each measuring 21.5 cm by 15.5 cm. The text is written in two columns per page, with 25 lines per page. The manuscript is generally complete, except for a large gap in the Gospel of John (John 11:33-19:9).

The manuscript is adorned with large initial letters that begin each Gospel, and smaller ones that mark out the paragraphs. Lectionary marks, which indicate the beginning (αρψη / arche) and ending (τελος / telos) of weekly church reading portions, are present throughout the manuscript, as well as the Eusebian canon numbers, an early system of dividing the four Gospels into different sections. The three common Greek accents, used to indicate voiced pitch changes, are employed, and breathing marks, used to designate vowel emphasis, are abundant.

The chapters, known as κεφαλαια / kephalaia, are written in the upper margins above each column, though sometimes in the bottom margin too. Subscriptions are written at the end of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, along with the number of lines (known as στιχοι / stichoi), and phrases (known as ρηματα / rhemata). There is no subscription at the end of the Gospel of John, but instead, it commences with the synaxarion.

The Textual Character of Minuscule 983

The Greek text of the codex has been considered a representative of the Caesarean text-type. Text-types are groups of different New Testament manuscripts that share specific or generally related readings. These readings 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. The Caesarean text-type, initially identified by biblical scholar Burnett Hillman Streeter, has been contested by several text-critics, such as Kurt and Barbara Aland. Hermann von Soden classified it to the textual family Iια.

According to Kurt and Barbara Aland, Minuscule 983 supports the Byzantine text against the “original” 157 times, the original against the Byzantine 76 times, and 29 times it agrees with both. It also has 62 independent or distinctive readings. 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 [Byzantine] readings, and significant readings from other sources as yet unidentified.”

According to the Claremont Profile Method, it represents textual family ƒ13 (the Ferrar Family) in Luke 1, Luke 10, and Luke 20.

The Historical Context of Minuscule 983

Textual critic Caspar René Gregory dated the manuscript to the 12th century. The manuscript is currently dated by the INTF to the 12th century. The manuscript is currently housed at the Esphigmenou Monastery (shelf mark 29), on Mount Athos in Greece.

Due to long-standing issues between the Esphigmenou Monastery and the Greek Government, government troops have been stationed there since 2005, which has prevented anyone from personally seeing the codex, with only black and white microfilm images of it available to consult.

The Esphigmenou Monastery, Where Minuscule 983 is Currently Housed and Largely Inaccessible

About the Author

EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 220+ books. In addition, Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).