Minuscule 892 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), ε 1016 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a Greek minusculemanuscript of the New Testament Gospels, written on parchment. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the 9th century.[1][2]
The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book), containing an almost complete text of the four Gospels written on 353 parchment leaves (23.5 cm by 11.5 cm),[3] with some missing portions. The text of John 10:6-12:18 and 14:23-end were inserted by later hand on paper, from likely about the 16th century.[4][5] The text is written in one column per page, with 20 lines per page, in minuscule letters.[1][3][5] Square breathing marks are used thoughout.[3] It contains the tables of contents (known as κεφαλαια / kephalaia) at the beginning of each Gospel,[5] along with beginning (αρχη / arche) and ending (τελος / telos) markings for the end of liturgical sections.[5] Subscriptions are included at the end of each Gospel.[5]
It includes the text of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11 - though with variants from the majority of manuscripts),[5]Matthew 16:2b–3, Luke 22:43–44 (though this is surrounded by marks in the margin which could imply doubts as to authenticity),[5] 23:34, and Mark 16:9-20.[5] The Eusebian numbers in Mark however do not go past Mark 16:8.[5] All these text sections are not contained in an array of varying Greek, and other language, manuscripts. In this manuscript, interpolation of the Alexandrian text-type can be seen in Matthew 27:49.[6]
Words in this codex are written continuously without separation. Biblical scholar Hermann von Soden observed that the manuscript preserved the division in pages and lines of its uncial parent.[7][3][5] The copyist appears to leave lower parts of pages blank so as to begin the next section, therefore harmonising with the uncial parent.[3][5] The Ammonian sections and the Eusebian Canons (both early divisions of the Gospel text into sections for easy navigation) were given in the left-hand margin.[3][5]
Synaxarion and Menologion were added in the 13th century. John 10:6-12:18; 14:24-21:25 was added by a later hand in the 16th century.[4] The manuscript has been corrected many times, either by erasurs or marginal notations, which appear to have been done by the initial copyist and another corrector.[5]
Biblical scholar J. Rendel Harris remarked that he did not "ever remember to have examined or collated so impant a m[anu]s[cript] as this."[5]: 35
The Greek text of the codex is considered a representative of the late Alexandrian text-type, with some Byzantine readings.[3][8] It is one of the most important of all the minuscule manuscripts. It contains many remarkable readings of an early type.[3][8] According to the Claremont Profile Method it represents the Alexandrian text-type in Luke 1, 10 and 20 as a core member.[9]
It is probably the best surviving minuscule witness to the Gospels.
Biblical scholar Kurt Aland placed it in Category II of his New Testament manuscript classification system.[10] Category II manuscripts are described as being manuscripts "of a special quality, i.e., manuscripts with a considerable proportion of the early text, but which are marked by alien influences. These influences are usually of smoother, improved readings, and in later periods by infiltration by the Byzantine text."[10]: 335
The codex was acquired by the British Museum in 1887 from H. L. Dupuis.[8][5] It was studied by Dean Burgon who noted it shared readings with Codex Sinaiticus,[5] later by J. R. Harris. [8]
^ abcK. Aland; M. Welte; B. Köster; K. Junack (1994). Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments. Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter. p. 100.
^von Soden, Hermann (1907). Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt. Vol. 1. Berlin: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. pp. 973–978.
