Minuscule 700
Minuscule 700 is a Greek New Testament minuscule manuscript of the Gospels, written on parchment. It is designated by the siglum 700 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and ε 133 in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts. It was formerly labelled as 604 in all New Testament manuscript lists, however textual critic Caspar René Gregory gave it the number 700.
Using the study of comparative writing styles, it has been dated to the 11th century. It is currently housed at the British Library in London.
Description
The manuscript is a codex, containing the complete text of the Gospels on 297 parchment leaves. The text is written in one column per page, 19 lines per page in minuscule letters, with around 30 letters on each line. The initial letters are in gold and blue ink, as well as the simple headpieces and tailpieces. Iota subscript is never used by the initial copyist, however iota adscript is employed quite often, most frequently with substantives, definite articles, and pronouns. The initial copyist however has used iota adscript erroneously very often: scholar and textual critic Herman C. Hoskier notes the copyist inserted iota adscript incorrectly 80 times in Matthew, 27 times in Mark, 19 times in Luke, and 23 times in John.The text of the Gospels is divided according to the chapters, whose numbers are placed in the margin of the text, with the titles of the chapters given at the top of the pages, with gold and red ink. The tables of content lists are placed before each Gospel. The chapters to Matthew contains only 17 entries, with the list being left unfinished. There is also a division into smaller sections, the Ammonian sections with references to the Eusebian Canons, although this is done in John very rarely.
It contains the Epistula ad Carpianum ; Eusebian Canon tables at the beginning of the codex; subscriptions at the close of each Gospel; illustrations of the evangelists; and lectionary markings in the margin, written in gold ink. The initial copyist left space between the weekly readings for insertion of the ἀρχ and τελ markings, however they were left unfinished. The original copyist didn't add any to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, but a few were inserted by a later copyist. The initial copyist did however insert a few in the Gospels of Luke and John, in gold ink.
Quotations from the Old Testament are sometimes marked in the margin by a diplai, written in gold ink. These are found at Matthew 1:23; 2:6, 15, 18; 4:6, 7, 15, 16; Luke 3:4-6; 4:10, 11, 18; 10:27; John 19:24, 37. There are none in Mark. Accents and breathing marks are utilised throughout. Three forms of the round stops, the comma, and the semicolon are employed. The three stops and comma are partially applied, although incorrectly in many instances. The semicolon is only used sparingly, and mostly neglected where the end of a question is. Itacism mistakes are witnessed, however not as many as in other codices, with Hoskier noting a total of 205. Some cases of homoeoteleuton are noticed, but very rarely.
Most of the conventional nomina sacra are employed throughout : ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; . The nomen sacrum for υιος is seen in Matthew 1:23, 3:17, 17:15; Mark 10:47; Luke 1:13, 31, 3:2. The nomen sacrum for Ιερουσαλημ is seen in Matthew 23:37; Luke 2:25, 38, 41, 43, 5:17, 6:17, 9:31, 53, 10:30, 13:4, 22, 23, 34, 19:11, 23:28, 24:13, 18, 33, 47, 49, 52.
Text
The Greek text of the codex has been considered as a representative of the Caesarean text-type. 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. The Caesarean text-type however has been contested by several text-critics, such as Kurt and Barbara Aland. Aland placed it in Category III of his New Testament manuscript text 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." Among Aland's test collation passages, the codex has 153 variants in agreement with the Byzantine text, 81 with the Byzantine and Nestle-Aland texts, 35 with the Nestle-Aland text, and 58 distinctive readings.According to the Claremont Profile Method, it has a mixed textual relationship in Luke 1, accords to the Alexandrian text-type in Luke 10, and represents the textual family K in Luke 20. It belongs to the textual family subgroup 35.
In it has the famous textual variant "Ιησουν τον Βαραββαν". This variant is found in Codex Koridethi, and manuscripts of textual group Family 1. It lacks Mark 11:26.
Together with minuscule 162, it contains the remarkable reading in the Gospel of : ἐλθέτω τὸ πνεῦμά σου τὸ ἅγιον ἐφ' ἡμᾶς καὶ καθαρισάτω ἡμᾶς, instead of ελθετω η βασιλεια σου in the Lord's Prayer. Except for these two minuscules, this peculiar reading does not appear in any other manuscript, but it was derived from a very old archetype, because it is present in Marcion's text of the third Gospel around 150 CE, and is also attested by the church father Gregory of Nyssa in his quotations of the Gospel of Luke in his writings in the second half of the 4th century.
Hoskier's collation notes 2724 variations from the Textus Receptus : of these 791 are omissions; 353 are additions; and 270 textual variants have not been found in any other manuscript.
; Notable readings
Below are some readings of the manuscript which agree or disagree with variant readings in other Greek manuscripts, or with varying ancient translations of the New Testament. See the main article Textual variants in the New Testament.
History
The author of the codex is unknown. It was probably written in Constantinople.The codex was bought on the 28th April, 1882 for the British Museum, through the auspices of Edward Maunde Thompson, the then Principal Keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum. The codex was previously in the hands of a German bookseller.
It was examined by Anglican clergyman Dean Burgon, and it was described and collated by scholars W. H. Simcox, Scrivener, and Hoskier. The collation and comments of W. H. Simcox were severely criticised by Hoskier for its numerous mistakes. The manuscript is now located in the British Library in London.