Papyrus is an ancient writing surface made from the papyrus plant. The earliest extant copies of the New Testament were written on this material.
Parchment was a common writing surface from the 4th to 14th centuries, made of animal skin. Tanners took the hides of animals, cleaned them, and stretched them thin to produce large sheets. The sheets were folded into quires, which are gatherings of parchment leaves, often grouped with other folded quires and bound into a codex, an antique version of a book.
Both parchment and paper were available for manuscript production in the medieval period. The widespread opinion held that parchment was the more durable of the two materials. Paper, therefore, appeared less commonly until the advent of the printing press. Once paper production increased, the material was more frequently selected.
Scribes used a majuscule handwriting from the 4th century B.C. until about the 9th century A.D., though we find the usage of this script continuing beyond the 9th century in some liturgical texts. The style of majuscule changed throughout the period of its use but remained in this form, which is somewhat equivalent to capital letters.
A more compact and efficient form of writing, the minuscule script developed after majuscule handwriting. Over the course of its use, minuscule handwriting morphed into different styles, including many ligatures and shorthand forms.
Any manuscript on the Liste, the official list of Greek New Testament manuscripts, contains anywhere from a few verses to every book of the New Testament. Most Greek New Testament manuscripts only contain portions of the New Testament, a few books or even a few chapters. Larger categories help us to group manuscripts together based on their content.
The traditional categories are:
Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Pauline: Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1–2 Thessalonians, 1–2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews
Acts and Catholic Epistles: Acts, James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude
Apocalypse/Revelation : Revelation
