Codex Sinaiticus, Matthew 6:9-10

Codex Alexandrinus, John 1:1–7

A New Testament uncial is a section of the New Testament in Greek or Latin majuscule letters, written on parchment or vellum. This style of writing is called Biblical Uncial or Biblical Majuscule.

New Testament uncials are distinct from other ancient texts based on the following differences:

• 
  New Testament papyri – written on papyrus and generally more ancient


• 
  New Testament minuscules – written in minuscule letters and generally more recent


• 
  New Testament lectionaries – usually written minuscule (but some in uncial) letters and generally more recent


• New Testament uncials – written in majuscule letters, on parchment or velum.

Classification of uncials[edit]

In 1751, New Testament theologian Johann Jakob Wettstein knew of only 23 uncial codices of the New Testament.^[1] By 1859, Constantin von Tischendorf had increased that number to 64 uncials, and in 1909 Caspar René Gregory enumerated 161 uncial codices. By 1963, Kurt Aland, in his Kurzgefasste Liste, had enumerated 250, then in 1989, finally, 299 uncials.

Wettstein inaugurated the modern method of classification. He used capital Latin letters to identify the uncials. Codex Alexandrinus received the letter "A", Codex Vaticanus – "B", Codex Ephraemi – "C", Codex Bezae – "D", until he arrived at the last letter used by him, "O". Succeeding generations used this pattern, but newly discovered manuscripts soon exhausted the Latin alphabet.^[2] As a result, letters of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets began to be used. Tischendorf, for example, assigned the Codex Sinaiticus the Hebrew letter א. Uncial 047 received siglum ב¹, Uncial 048 received ב², Uncial 075 received ג, Codex Macedoniensis – ו, to name a few.^[3][4] When Greek and Hebrew letters ran out, Gregory assigned uncials numerals with an initial 0 (to distinguish them from the symbols of minuscule manuscripts). Codex Sinaiticus received the number 01, Alexandrinus – 02, Vaticanus – 03, Ephraemi – 04, etc. The last uncial manuscript known by Gregory received number 0161.^[5]Ernst von Dobschütz expanded the list of uncials through 0208 in 1933.^[6]

As of 2012^[update] over 320 sigla for uncial codices have been catalogued by the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF) in Münster, Germany.^[7][8]

However, the 322 currently catalogued does not provide a precise count of all the New Testament Greek uncials. Uncial 0168 has been lost and over thirty manuscripts are associated with a smaller set of designations.^{[n 1]} Sometimes one number also applies to two separate manuscripts, as with uncial 092a and 092b, 0121a and 0121b, and 0278a and 0278b. Some other numerical designations should be reallocated to other lists: 055 (commentary), 0100 (lectionary), 0129 (lectionary), 0152 (talisman), 0153 (ostracon), 0192 (lectionary), 0195 (lectionary), 0203 (lectionary).^{[further explanation needed][9]} Uncial 0212 from the 3rd or 4th century is more properly a witness to the Diatessaron than to the New Testament itself.^[10] So, the number 322 is merely nominal; the actual figure should be somewhat lower.^[2][11] Conversely, minuscule 1143, known as Beratinus 2, has some parts that were written in semi-uncial letters.

List of all registered New Testament uncial codices[edit]

• The numbers (#) are the now standard system of Gregory-Aland.


• Dates are estimated palaeographically by the INTF (except Codex Vaticanus 354 where the scribe gave a date — 949).


• Content generally only describes sections of the New Testament: Gospels (Gosp), The Acts of the Apostles (Acts), Pauline Epistles (Paul), Catholic epistles (CE), and so on. Sometimes the surviving portion of a codex is so limited that specific books, chapters or even verses can be indicated. Linked articles, where they exist, generally specify content in detail, by verse.


• Digital images are referenced with direct links to the hosting web pages, with the exception of those at the INTF. The quality and accessibility of the images is as follows:

† Indicates the manuscript has damaged or missing pages.
^K Indicates manuscript also includes a commentary.

[ ] Brackets around Gregory-Aland number indicate the manuscript belongs to an already numbered manuscript, was found to not be a continuous text manuscript, is destroyed or presumed destroyed.

Only one uncial, Codex Sinaiticus has a complete text of the New Testament. Codex Alexandrinus has an almost complete text. It contains all books of the New Testament but lacks some leaves of Matthew (25), John (2), and Second Corinthians (3). Codex Vaticanus lacks the four last books, and the Epistle to the Hebrews is not complete. Codex Ephraemi has approximately 66 per cent of the New Testament. Uncials with designations higher than 046 typically have only one or two leaves.

Uncials with sigla[edit]

The first 45 uncials have been assigned descriptive names as well as a single letter code called a siglum, for usage in academic writing. Beginning with uncial 046 the assignment of sigla was dropped and only a few manuscripts thereafter received a descriptive name.

Uncials 046-0323[edit]

Beginning with 046, the use of identifying sigla was dropped, and very few uncials were given identifying names.