New Testament manuscripts are writings of the New Testament that are important to the study of the New Testament, and fortunately, there is an excellent variety of these writings. There are over 5,800 Greek manuscripts. In addition to these, numerous Latin and other language manuscripts also exist. These show a high regard for the Bible among many groups as they were copied and passed from generation to generation. This helps us to see how New Testament books were transmitted from ancient manuscript traditions in their first centuries of history. This article highlights list of new testament manuscripts by date.
To a Bible scholar and historian, the importance of New Testament Manuscripts is paramount. When we talk about the number of New Testament manuscripts, we’re going to be talking about two things: how old they are and how complete they are. Old doesn’t necessarily mean more accurate and complete doesn’t mean more accurate either. What it means, is that we can look at New Testament manuscripts side by side comparing them to each other to see if they match up. And luckily for us, they do match up! This article also discusses original new testament manuscripts.
New Testament Manuscripts
What are the New Testament Manuscripts? The New Testament manuscripts are known as the oldest copies of the New Testament which are available today. These writings were discovered between 1835 and 1895 at various sites around the world. They contain many of the books in the Bible originally written in Greek such as the Acts, Epistles and Revelation. These writings are held by many to be reliable and well preserved.
New Testament manuscripts are written records of the New Testament. There are more than 5,800 partial or complete Greek manuscripts that contain all or part of the New Testament. These manuscripts date from between about 125 and 800 A.D. The vast majority of these manuscripts were copied in the first few centuries after Christ’s death.
The earliest manuscripts of the New Testament date from about 125 A.D., only a few years after the original books were written. These early copies are called uncials because they were written in capital letters, or majuscules. The uncials are important because they give us a close approximation of what the original authors wrote. They also help us determine which variant readings are likely to be authentic (i.e., have a basis in what was originally written).
There are also thousands of other Greek manuscripts that date from about 400 to 800 A.D., which scholars call minuscule manuscripts because they were written in lowercase letters (minuscules). Most modern translations of the Bible use these later manuscripts as their base text; however some translations such as the ESV prefer earlier uncials as their source text instead.[1]
The New Testament manuscripts are the earliest surviving copies of the New Testament. The texts of the New Testament were originally written in Koine Greek, also known as “common” or “street” Greek, which was the everyday language spoken in cities throughout the eastern Mediterranean world in the first century CE.
The earliest New Testament manuscripts are papyrus fragments from Egypt, dating to about 125 – 150 CE. These fragments are known as P52 and P75.
The vast majority of New Testament manuscripts date after 300 CE. The two most important earlier manuscripts are Codex Vaticanus (B) and Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph). Both date to around 350 CE and are written on vellum (parchment made from animal skin).
The earliest complete copy of the entire Bible is Codex Alexandrinus, dated to about 400 CE and written on parchment (animal skin).
New Testament manuscripts are handwritten copies of the biblical text dating from the second century (AD 200) up to the mid-nineteenth century. The majority of NT MSS, however, were published prior to 1454 when Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized book publishing. Ever since the first apostle set pen to parchment, faithful believers have been copying (or commissioning scribes to copy) the books of the New Testament for their use in church and home. Since at least the second century, translations of the Greek NT were being made into Latin and Syriac as well as Ethiopic, Gothic, Armenian, and Georgian. Since Greek NT MSS are the foundation of faithful Bible translation, they will be the focus of this article.
The number of Greek NT MSS is astounding relative to any other written texts from antiquity, often described as an “embarrassment of riches.” While copies of Homer’s Iliad—arguably the most important text in Greco-Roman society—currently number 1,535 manuscripts, the Greek NT MSS alone number close to 6,000. These MSS can be subdivided into four distinct groups:
Papyri
The fewest in number (approximately 155), the papyri are a classification of manuscript in which the text is written on sheets of papyrus. Mostly found in Egypt where hot, arid climate has preserved the papyri, they date from the second to seventh centuries. They are identifiable in an NT apparatus as “P” + a number (i.e., P46).
Majuscules
The majuscules are parchment manuscripts written in an uppercase Greek form throughout. These number approximately 338 and date from the fourth to eighth centuries. In an NT apparatus, they are indicated by a zero followed by a number (i.e., 0234).
Minuscules
Numbering approximately 2,958 manuscripts, the minuscules are the largest category of NT MSS. They are written in a lowercase form of Greek. The earliest of these is dated from AD 835 and written on parchment. From the twelfth century on, paper was used.
Lectionaries
Lectionaries were used for reading in a church setting and date from the eighth to the sixteenth century. They differ from the papyri, majuscules, and minuscules in that they include segments of NT books; the previous three categories include entire books normally in proper order. They were written in the majuscule (uppercase) script and number approximately 2,501 manuscripts.
Coptic Liturgical Codex – Egypte en Christelijk
Codices
While the most NT MSS include portions or fragments of NT books, if portions of the parchment have been lost, there are four significant manuscript witnesses that contain the entire text of the Bible. These codices (or entire “books”) include Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus.
Significant manuscripts
Although the total number of manuscripts from every category is large, a few NT MSS are more critical due to age, condition, and provenance:
Chester Beatty Papyri P45—third century P46—c. 200; oldest witness of Paul’s Epistles P47—late third century
Bodmer Papyri P66—third to fourth century; portions of John P75—third to fourth century; portions of Luke and John P127—fourth century; book of Acts
Codices Codex Sinaiticus (01)—mid-fourth century Codex Alexandrinus (02)—fifth century Codex Vaticanus (03)—mid-fourth century Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (04)—mid-fifth century. Original biblical text lies under later addition (a palimpsest) Codex Bezae (05)—c. 400 Codex Claromontanus (06)—sixth century
Majuscules 032 (The Freer Gospels)—fifth century 041—ninth century
Minuscules 1—twelfth century 1582—c. 948 13—thirteenth century 35—eleventh century 1739—c. 948
New discoveries
A little over half a dozen new NT MSS have been discovered every year over the past two decades. One highly publicized and recent find is the earliest known fragment of Mark 1, known officially as P137 (or P. Oxy. LXXXIII 5345) discovered in 2011. Although initial reports indicated a possible first-century date, later analysis suggests a date range of AD 150–250. While not from the first century, P137 brings the total number of NT MSS dated from the second century to 19. Further research may discover copies from the first century itself. Nonetheless, the text underlying our Bibles today in any translation will likely never change by any significant degree. Most of the earlier discoveries cohere entirely with the vast majority of other Greek NT MSS.
List Of New Testament Manuscripts By Date
There are thousands of Greek New Testament manuscripts, hundreds of which are from the earliest centuries, so this list is far from exhaustive. Indeed, it barely scratches the surface. Still, it is helpful to familiarize ourselves with some of the copies that come up most often in text-critical discussions and some that provide especially early attestation of particular New Testament books.
| Date | Name | Abbreviation | Comments |
| Second Century | John Rylands Papyrus P52 | P52 | Small fragment from John’s Gospel Usually dated around 125 AD, making it the oldest known manuscript |
| Second Century | Papyrus 90 | P90 | Small fragment of John’s Gospel dated to the late 2nd century |
| Second Century | Papyrus 104 | P104 | Small fragment of the Matthew |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Papyrus 4 | P4 | Early fragments containing portions of Luke 1-6 Considered by many scholars to be part of the same manuscript as P64 and P67 |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Papyrus 64 | P64 | Early fragments containing portions of Matthew 3-5 Considered by many scholars to be part of the same manuscript as P4 and P67 |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Papyrus 67 | P67 | Early fragments containing portions of Matthew 25-26 Considered by many scholars to be part of the same manuscript as P64 and P4 |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Uncial 0189 | 0189 | Small fragment of the Book of Acts |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Papyrus 66 | P66 | Fragmentary copy of the Gospel of John |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Papyrus 46 | P46 | Contains portions of most of Paul’s letters Includes the Book of Hebrews |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Papyrus 75 | P75 | Contains large portions of Luke and John |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Papyrus 20 | P20 | Small fragment of the Book of James |
| Late 2nd/Early 3rd Century | Papyrus 98 | P98 | Small fragment of Revelation |
| 3rd Century | Papyrus 45 | P45 | Contains portions of each of the four gospels and of Acts Oldest surviving manuscript of the Gospel of Mark |
| 3rd Century | Papyrus 47 | P47 | Contains significant portion of Revelation |
| Late 3rd/Early Fourth Century | Uncial 0171 | 0171 | Contains Portions of Matthew and Luke |
| Late 3rd/Early Fourth Century | Papyrus 115 | P115 | Contains significant portion of Revelation |
| Late 3rd/Early Fourth Century | Papyrus 72 | P72 | Contains 1 & 2 Peter and Jude |
| Late 3rd/Early Fourth Century | Papyrus 100 | P100 | Fragment of the Book of James |
| Fourth Century | Codex Sinaiticus | א | Contains the entire New Testament |
| Fourth Century | Codex Vaticanus | B | Contains the majority of the New Testament |
| Late Fourth/Early Fifth Century | Codex Washintonianus | W | Contains the four Gospels |
| Fifth Century | Codex Alexandrinus | A | Contains the entire New Testament |
| Fifth Century | Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus | C | Contains the entire New Testament Manuscript is a palimpsest (original text was erased and the pages reused, though technology allows us to see the original). |
| Fifth Century | Codex Freerianus | I | Contains the Pauline Epistles |
| Fifth Century | Codex Guelferbytanus B | Q | Contains portions of Luke and John |
| Fifth Century | Codex Borgianus | T | Contains portions of Luke and John Has the text in both Greek and Sahidic Coptic |
| Fifth Century | Uncial 048 | 048 | Contains Acts, the Pauline Epistles, and the General Epistles |
| Fifth Century | Codex Bezae Cantabrigensis | D | Contains the Gospels and Acts Has the text in both Latin and Greek, in parallel columns Shares an abbreviation with Codex Claromontanus |
| Sixth Century | Codex Claromontanus | D | Contains the Pauline Epistles Has the text in both Latin and Greek, in parallel columns Shares an abbreviation with Codex Bezae Cantabrigensis |
| Sixth Century | Codex Laudianus | E | Contains the Book of Acts Shares an abbreviation with Codex Basilensis |
| Sixth Century | Codex Coislinianus | H | Contains the Pauline Epistles Shares an abbreviation with Codex Seidelianus II and Codex Mutinensis |
| Sixth Century | Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus | N | Contains the Gospels The pages of this manuscript were decoratively dyed purple |
| Sixth Century | Codex Sinopensis | O | Contains Matthew In addition to the text, this manuscript also contained illustrations. |
| Sixth Century | Codex Nitriensis | R | Contains Luke Manuscript is a palimpsest (original text was erased and the pages reused, though technology allows us to see the original). |
| Eighth Century | Codex Regius | L | Contains the Gospels Shares an abbreviation with Codex Angelicus |
| Eighth Century | Uncial 047 | 047 | Contains the Gospels |
| Eighth Century | Codex Basilensis | E | Contains the Gospels Shares an abbreviation with Codex Laudianus |
| Ninth Century | Codex Boreelianus | F | Contains the Gospels Shares an abbreviation with Codex Augiensis |
| Ninth Century | Codex Augiensis | F | Contains the Pauline Epistles Has the text in both Latin and Greek, in parallel columns Shares an abbreviation with Codex Boreelianus |
| Ninth Century | Codex Seidelianus II | H | Contains the Gospels Shares an abbreviation with Codex Coislinianus and Codex Mutinensis |
| Ninth Century | Codex Mutinensis | H | Contains the Book of Acts Some significant gaps in the text due to damamge Shares an abbreviation with Codex Coislinianus and Codex Seidelianus II |
| Ninth Century | Codex Angelicus | L | Contains most of the Book of Acts, the General Epistles, and the Book of Romans Shares an abbreviation with Codex Regius |
| Ninth Century | Codex Sangellensis | Δ | Contains the Gospels Contains the text in both Greek and Latin |
| Ninth Century | Codex Coridethianus | Θ | Contains the Gospels |
| Ninth Century | Codex Petropolitanus | Π | Contains the Gospels There are numerous gaps in the text due to damage |
| 14th/15th Century | Minuscule 629 | 629 | Contains the entire New Testament Has the text in both Latin and Greek The Greek text appears to have been shaped by the Latin Earliest manuscript to contain the Comma Johanneum of 1 John 5:7-8 in the Greek text |
| 16th Century | Codex Montfortianus | 61 | Contains the entire New Testament Manuscript cited by Erasmus in his decision to add the Comma Johanneum of 1 John 5:7-8 Erasmus called this manuscript Codex Britannicus |
Why Are NT MSS Important for Biblical Studies?
Oxyrhynchus Papyri (Wikipedia)
Biblical studies are enriched by the overwhelming number of NT MSS in at least three specific ways. First, the NT MSS are a tangible witness to divine providence. God chose to give his people a written record of his words through divine inspiration of human authors, and this written record has persisted for over two millennia. The NT MSS, including their number and agreement, demonstrate God’s preserving activity in history.
Second, the NT MSS are a witness to the persistence and activity of the gospel message. Since the apostles first wrote their Gospels and epistles, faithful followers of Jesus have seen in these texts the power to live as new creations in Christ. The lectionaries are one good example, demonstrating that Christians throughout history considered these texts important enough to read publicly as an essential sacrament in the gathered church.
Third, the NT MSS are a witness to ancient textual practice. The discipline of textual criticism compares the many manuscripts with each other to ascertain the earliest and most reliable form of the NT. Such research has clarified the history of how such passages were received—like the ending of Mark 16 and the pericope of the adulterer in John’s Gospel (John 7:53–8:11). The discipline has also helped us to understand ancient scribal tendencies, the identification of Jesus as Lord by earliest Christians, and the influence of Christianity on the important transformation of publication from parchments to codices to the printing press.
Original New Testament Manuscripts
The Codex Sinaiticus dates back to the second half of the fourth century and is widely considered to be the earliest complete Bible manuscript. There’s a complete New Testament in there that’s the earliest one we have. Only the Codex Vaticanus, another early Christian Bible manuscript, is nearly as complete. Among Christian scriptures, only a few fragmentary manuscripts from an earlier time period have been discovered.
