British Library Or 4926 (1), known also as P. Lond. Copt. 522 (Crum), is a

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

codex with a collection of early Christian

Gnostic texts Gnosticism used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts, or lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings. Gnostic texts Gnostic texts preserved before 1945 Prior to the discovery at Nag H ...

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

(sub-Akhmimic dialect). The manuscript has survived in a fragmentary condition. The codex is dated to the 4th century. Erroneously it is known also as ''British Library Or 4920 (1)''.

Description

The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a codex. The text was written in one column per page. 24 fragment of it were survived, most of them are illegible. The measurements of the biggest fragment are 2.5 by 3.5 inches. It was later identified as a manuscript of the

Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical Logia, sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars specu ...

(tractate 5).Bentley Layton
''Nag Hammadi codex II, 2-7: together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or.4926(1), and P.OXY. 1, 654, 655 : with contributions by many scholars''
BRILL, 1989, p. 29. It was examined by Frederic G. Kenyon and

Walter Ewing Crum Walter Ewing Crum (22 July 186518 May 1944) was a Scottish Coptologist, or scholar in Coptic language and literature. In 1939 he completed ''A Coptic Dictionary,'' a dictionary of translations from Coptic to English. Early life and education T ...

in 1905. According to Crum the dialect is a mixture of Akhmimic and Sahidic forms.Walter Ewing Crum
''Catalogue of the Coptic manuscripts in the British Museum''
British Museum (1905)

Bentley Layton Bentley Layton (born 12 August 1941), is Professor of Religious Studies (Ancient Christianity) and Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Coptic) at Yale University (since 1983). He is a Harvard-educated scholar who has been central ...

examined it twice, in 1978 and 1980. Currently the manuscript is housed at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

(Or. 4926) in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

.London, British Library Or 4926 (1)
at

LDAB The Leuven Database of Ancient Books (LDAB) is a resource for all ancient written literary manuscripts, from 500 BC to AD 800. It currently lists more than 16.000 Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac and Demotic literary texts. It is said that it "attempts ...

References

External links

London, British Library Or 4926 (1)
Gnostic Gospels 4th-century manuscripts {{NewTestament-apocrypha-stub

Description

See also

References

Further reading

External links