Minuscule 1739 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), α 78 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament made of parchment. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it is dated to the 10th century.

Description

The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book) containing the text of the Acts of the Apostles, Catholic epistles, and Pauline epistles on 102 parchment leaves (23 cm by 17.5 cm). The text is written in one column per page, 35 lines per page. The Epistle to the Hebrews is placed before 1 Timothy. It contains marginal notes, with lectionary markings added by a later hand. It contains a large number of notes drawn from early church fathers (such as Irenaeus, Clement, Origen, Eusebius, and Basil of Caesarea), but none later than Basil (329-379 CE), suggesting a relatively early date for 1739's exemplar. The text of this manuscript often agrees with and Codex Vaticanus. A colophon indicates that while copying the Pauline epistles, the scribe followed a manuscript that contained text edited by Origen. At the end of the Second Epistle to Timothy it has the subscription προς τιμοθεον β' εγραφη απο ρωμης (2nd to Timothy, written from Rome). The same subscription appears in manuscripts Codex Porphyrianus (P), Minuscule 6, 1881, and some others.

Text

The Greek text of this codex is considered a representative of the Alexandrian text-type. Biblical scholar Kurt Aland placed the text of the Epistles in Category I, but the text of the Acts in Category II of his New Testament manuscript classification system. It was not examined by the Claremont Profile Method (a specific analysis of textual data). Together with the minuscule manuscripts 323, 630, 945, and 1891 it belongs to the textual Family 1739 (in Acts). In the Pauline Epistles this family includes the following manuscripts: Uncial 0121a, 0243/0121b, 6, 424, 630 (in part), and 1881. In a marginal note to the text of 1 John 5:6, a corrector added the reading δι' ὕδατος καὶ αἵματος καὶ πνεύματος (through water and blood and spirit) as found in the following manuscripts: Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus, 104, 424c, 614, 2412, 2495, ℓ 598m, syh, sa, bo, and by the early church father Origen. Biblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman says this reading is an Orthodox corrupt reading.

History

The manuscript was copied by a monk named Ephraim. He copied 1739 from an uncial exemplar from the 4th century. The manuscript was studied by E. von der Goltz in 1897 at Mount Athos and is usually known by his name. A collation was made by Morton S. Enslin (in Kirsopp Lake Six Collations). The manuscript is currently housed at the Great Lavra monastery (shelf number B 184), on Mount Athos in Greece.