Minuscule 644 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α 476 ( von Soden), is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

minuscule Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 14th century. The manuscript is very lacunose.K. Aland, M. Welte, B. Köster, K. Junack, "Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments", ''

Walter de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

'', Berlin, New York 1994, p. 85. Gregory labelled it by 220^a and 275^p, Scrivener by 229^a (for the Catholic epistles) and 270^p (for the Pauline epistles).

Description

The codex contains the text of the

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 extan ...

and

Catholic epistles The catholic epistles (also called the general epistlesEncarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "katholieke brieven". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.) are seven epistles of the New Testament. Listed in order of their appearance in ...

, on 94 parchment leaves (size ), with lacunae (Romans, 2 Corinthians 1:1-11:25; James 4:4-5:4; 1 Peter 3:15-Jude). It is written in one column per page, 21 lines per page. According to Scrivener it is very neatly written. It contains Prolegomena, tables of the (''chapters'') before each epistle, (''titles''), lectionary markings on the margin,

Menologion Menologium (), also written menology, and menologe, is a service-book used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite. From its derivation from Greek , ''menológion'', from μήν ''m� ...

, subscriptions at the end of each epistle, and numbers of at the margin. According to Gregory it could be written by the same hand as

Minuscule 502 Minuscule 502 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), 589 (in the Scrivener's numbering), ε 245 (in the Soden numbering), is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. It was adapted for liturgical use. Palaeographically it has ...

. The order of books:

and

Epistle to the Hebrews The Epistle to the Hebrews ( grc, Πρὸς Ἑβραίους, Pros Hebraious, 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. Mos ...

is placed after

Epistle to Philemon The Epistle to Philemon is one of the books of the Christian New Testament. It is a prison letter, co-authored by Paul the Apostle with Timothy, to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church. It deals with the themes of forgiveness and re ...

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 Majority Text, Traditional Text, Ecclesiastical Text, Constantinopolitan Text, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) is one of the main text types. It is the form fou ...

Kurt Aland Kurt Aland (28 March 1915 – 13 April 1994) was a German theologian and biblical scholar who specialized in New Testament textual criticism. He founded the '' Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung'' (Institute for New Testament Textua ...

placed it in Category V.

History

The manuscript is dated by the

INTF The Institute for New Testament Textual Research (german: Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung — INTF) at the University of Münster, Westphalia, Germany, is to research the textual history of the New Testament and to reconstruct its G ...

to the 14th century.Handschriftenliste
at the Münster Institute The manuscript was bought from

Constantine Simonides Constantine Simonides (1820–1867) was a palaeographer and dealer of icons, known as a man of extensive learning, with significant knowledge of manuscripts and miraculous calligraphy. He was one of the most versatile forgers of the nineteenth centu ...

, the most versatile forger of the nineteenth century, for the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in 1853. It is one of the very few authentic Simonides pieces. The manuscript was added to the list of New Testament manuscripts by

Scrivener A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and admini ...

(229^a, 270^p) and Gregory (220^a, 275^p). It was examined and described by Bloomfield. Gregory saw the manuscript in 1883. In 1908 Gregory gave the number 644 to it. The manuscript is currently housed at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

(Add MS 19388) in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Description

Text

History

See also

References

Further reading