Codex Tischendorfianus III – designated by siglum Λ or 039 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 77 (von Soden)[1] – is a Greek uncial manuscript of the Gospels on parchment.

The manuscript was brought from the East by Constantin von Tischendorf (hence the name of the codex), who also examined, described, and was the first scholar to collate its text.

The manuscript was also examined by scholars like Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Ernst von Dobschütz, and Gächler.

[2] There are no spaces between letters, and the words are not separate but written in scriptio continua.

There is also a division according to the smaller Ammonian Sections, with a references to the Eusebian Canons (in red).

[12] Hermann von Soden classified it to the textual family Ir.

[13] According to Tischendorf in John 5:1-36 in 17 places it 13 times agrees with Alexandrinus, twice with Vaticanus, one with Ephraemi, and one with G H M U V.[12] It contains the questionable text of the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11), but at the margin of verse 8:11 (not 7:53) it has questionable scholion: τα οβελισμενα εν τισιν αντιγραφαις ου κειται, ουδε Απολιναριου εν δε τοις αρχαις ολα μνημονευουσιν της περικοπης ταυτης και οι αποστολοι παντες εν αις εξεθεντο διαταξεσιν εις οικοδομην της εκκλησιας (Marked by an obelus in some copies, and Apollinary, one of the ancients, argued that all apostles ordered to read it for edification of the church).

[18] In John 8:57 it has singular reading τεσσερακοντα (forty) instead of πεντηκοντα (fifty).

The group was identified and described by Hermann von Soden, who designated it by Ir.

According to von Soden it is not an important group and has a little significance for the reconstruction of the original text of the New Testament.

The 8th century is also possible palaeographically, but it is excluded by full marginal equipment, breathings and accents.

[25] Alfred Rahlfs noted that codex E of the Septuagint was also written partly in uncials and partly in minuscules, in the ninth or tenth century when the change from one style of writing to the other was taking place.

[26] The codex was held at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt and was found by Constantin von Tischendorf in 1853, who took away only the uncial text (Luke-John) — along with Codex Tischendorfianus IV — and brought it to the Bodleian Library in Oxford, where it is now located.

[28] In 1861 Tischendorf carried out a new examination of the entire codex, with detailed attention to Luke 3:19-36 and John 5:1-36.

[30] In the present day it is infrequently quoted in editions of Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (UBS4, NA27).

[32] P. Gächler in 1934 found some textual similarities between the manuscript and Codex Bezae, which represents the Western text.