Codex Petropolitanus (New Testament) Codex Petropolitanus (New Testament) Codex Petropolitanus, designated by Π or 041 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 73 (von Soden), is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels, dated palaeographically to the 9th-century. The manuscript is lacunose. The codex contains an almost complete text of the four Gospels on 350 parchment leaves (14.5 cm by 10.5 cm) with some lacunae in Matt 3:12-4:17; 19:12-20:2; Luke 1:76-2:18; John 6:15-35; 8:6-39; 9:21-10:3. Texts of Mark 16:18-20 and John 21:22-25 were supplied by minuscule hand in the 12th-century. The text is written in one column per page, 21 lines per page. The letters are
New Testament apocrypha The rarity of information about the childhood of Jesus in the canonical gospels led to a hunger of early Christians for more detail about the early life of Jesus. This was supplied by a number of 2nd century and later texts, known as infancy gospels, none of which were accepted into the biblical canon, but the very number of their surviving manuscripts attests to their continued popularity. Most of these were based on the earliest infancy gospels, namely the Infancy Gospel of James (also called the "Protoevangelium of James") and Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and on their later combination into