Uspenski Gospels Gebhardt in 1881). The manuscript is cited in Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, because of its date. The codex is held in Saint Petersburg (National Library of Russia, Gr. 219. 213. 101). Uspenski Gospels Uspenski Gospels, "Minuscule 461" (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 92 (Soden), are a New Testament minuscule manuscript written in Greek, dated at 835 AD. They are the oldest known dated manuscript of the New Testament; it was not customary for Greek scribes to date their work at the time. The codex contains complete text of the four Gospels, on 344 parchment leaves, the leaves measure 16.7 cm
Language of the New Testament Language of the New Testament The New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek, which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Conquests of Alexander the Great (335–323 BC) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (c. 600). The New Testament Gospels and Epistles were only part of a Hellenistic Jewish culture in the Roman Empire, where Alexandria had a larger Jewish population than Jerusalem, and Greek was spoken by more Jews than Hebrew. Other Jewish Hellenistic writings include those of Jason of Cyrene, Josephus, Philo, Demetrius the chronographer, Eupolemus, Pseudo-Eupolemus, Artapanus of Alexandria, Cleodemus Malchus,