Libraries around the world hold copies of New Testament manuscripts, dating from the 2nd century to the 16th century. So many copies provide great evidence for what the original manuscripts said.
“Papyrus Bodmer VIII” by Mediatus/Kopie eines Originalbriefes; Kopist unbekannt – Original in der Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.
Textual critics use these copies to demonstrate the original text very accurately. These copies are organized into four categories of manuscript materials.
These four types let you trust your Bible even more, as they show that its accuracy is founded upon thousands of manuscripts, and not just a few hundred or less.
Here are the four categories of manuscript materials with a few examples of each.
1. Papyrus Uncials
First off, the name of each category describes 1) what they manuscripts are made of as well as 2) the way the text was written on them.
So for this first category, whenever you see the word “uncials,” you should automatically think “capital letters.” Whenever you see the word “papyrus,” you should automatically think of an aquatic plant that grows in marshes.
Thus, “papyrus uncials” are any manuscripts that are 1) made out of papyrus and 2) have all Greek capital letters written on them.
Papyrus uncials are among the oldest manuscripts of all four manuscript materials.
The oldest papyrus uncial fragment is the John Rylands Fragment (below). It’s dated from the early second century, and contains a portion of John 18.
By Papyrologist Bernard Grenfell (1920), as preserved at the John Rylands Library. Photo: courtesy of JRUL. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
2. Parchment Uncials
The parchment uncials were written in all Greek capital letters, just like the papyrus uncials. The difference is that the parchment uncials were written on different material. That material was usually parchment, but it was occasionally written on vellum (i.e. a writing material made from animal skins).
Thus, “parchment uncials” are any manuscripts that are 1) made out of parchment (or vellum) and 2) have all Greek capital letters written on them.
You’ll also see that some people call these majuscules or majiscules.
It’s likely that parchment was used even before the second century since Paul wanted to have his parchments brought to him (II Timothy 4:13). However, Bible manuscript copies that were made out of parchment came much later (after the papyrus copies).
Among the most important parchment uncials are Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, and others.
“Codex Sinaiticus Matthew 6,4-32” by Unknown – Codex Sinaiticus. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.
(By the way, “codex” is just a fancy word for book. It labels manuscripts that are compiled as books rather than scrolls.)
3. Minuscule Manuscripts
Minuscule manuscripts are also called “minuscules” for short. These are not categorized by what type of material the text is written upon, but are only categorized based on the type of writing on them.
What separates minuscule writing from uncial writing is that minuscule writing is cursive handwriting (as opposed to all capital printed letters).
The earliest minuscule manuscripts are dated around the ninth century. Since they are later in date, we have more copies of minuscule manuscripts than we do of papyrus and parchment uncials.
To give you some examples of minuscules is tricky because they’re designated by numbers instead of names. The best thing I know to do is link you to this list of manuscripts, and then have you conduct a Browser Find for the term “Minuscule.”
I use the Chrome browser, which makes this easy. If you’re on a P.C., open the link in a new tab and then hit Control + F (at the same time). (If you’re on a Mac, hit Command + F). That’ll pull up the Find feature in the top right corner of the browser.
Now, just type in the word “Miniscule” and hit Enter/Return. Chrome highlights every use of that word on the page, and then you just cycle through the list to click on the links to those minuscules.
For this article, you need to cycle down to the 22nd use of the word “minuscule.” The links to each minuscule is on the left in blue.
4. Lectionaries
Lectionaries form the final category of manuscript materials.
These grew out of a Jewish custom, which was to read selected passages from the Gospels and the Epistles on certain days of the year (mainly days of worship and holidays). These selected passages were put into books known as lectionaries. They were arranged so that verses could be found quickly, and read easily.
To see some examples, just do what you did for the minuscules. Just type “lectionary” into your Browser Find box.
Conclusion
These four categories supply us with great evidence for the Greek text behind our New Testament. Knowing these four categories of manuscript materials is going to help you when you conduct word studies, verse-by-verse studies, and other contextual studies.
Discussion Question: What other evidences have helped you have faith in the Bible?
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