A New Testament papyrus is a copy of a portion of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

made on

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 ...

. To date, over 140 such papyri are known. In general, they are considered the earliest witnesses to the original text of the New Testament. This elite status among New Testament manuscripts only began in the 20th century. The grouping was first introduced by

Caspar René Gregory Caspar René Gregory (November 6, 1846 – April 9, 1917) was an American-born German theologian. Life Gregory was born to Mary Jones and Henry Duval Gregory in Philadelphia. He was the brother of the American zoologist Emily Ray Gregory. Afte ...

, who assigned papyri texts the

Blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norwe ...

character 𝔓 followed by a superscript number. This number refers not to the age of the papyrus, but to the order in which it was registered.Law 2012, p. 95 Before 1900, only 9 papyri manuscripts were known, and only one had been cited in a critical apparatus ( by

Constantin von Tischendorf Lobegott Friedrich Constantin (von) Tischendorf (18 January 18157 December 1874) was a German biblical scholar. In 1844, he discovered the world's oldest and most complete Bible dated to around the mid-4th century and called Codex Sinaiticus a ...

). These 9 papyri were just single fragments, except for , which consisted of a single whole leaf. The discoveries of the twentieth century brought about the earliest known New Testament manuscript fragments. Kenyon in 1912 knew 14 papyri, Aland in his first edition of ''Kurzgefasste...'' in 1963 enumerated 76 papyri, in 1989 were known 96 papyri, and in 2008 124 papyri. As of 2021, a total of 141 papyri are known, although some of the numbers issued were later deemed to be fragments of the same original manuscript. Among the most important are the Chester Beatty Papyri: , which contains the Gospels and Acts; , which contains the Pauline epistles; and , which contains the Book of Revelation. All of these date from sometime in the third century. Also significant are the Bodmer Papyri: , which contains the Gospel of John; and , which contains the Gospels of Luke and John. These early manuscripts are more complete, allowing scholars to better examine their textual character. Not all of the manuscripts are simply New Testament texts: , , , are texts with commentaries; , , and are

lectionaries A lectionary ( la, lectionarium) is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion. There are sub-types such as a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and a ...

; , , and are talismans; and , , , , , and belong to other miscellaneous texts, such as writing scraps, glossaries, or songs.Nestle-Aland 1996, p. 85 Every papyrus is cited in Nestle-Aland

Novum Testamentum Graece (''The New Testament in Greek'') is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek, forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical criticism. It is also known as the Nestle–Aland edition after its m ...

List of all registered New Testament papyri

* The P-numbers are the standard system of Gregory-Aland. * Dates are estimated to the year range shown. * Content is given to the nearest chapter; verses are sometimes listed. Thus, many of the papyri are small fragments, not whole chapters. For instance, contains 5 verses out of the 40 verses in John chapter 18. * Digital images are referenced with direct links to the hosting web pages. The quality and accessibility of the images is as follows:

Papyrus 1–50

Papyrus 51–100

Papyrus 101–

Distribution based on content

Note: "Early" manuscripts are manuscripts dated firmly from the fourth century or earlier. Roughly half of the papyri are "early". Some manuscripts contain content from more than one New Testament book, so the numbers above do not directly correspond to the total number of manuscripts.

Notes

References

* * Nestle-Aland, ''

''. 27th ed. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1996 * K. Aland, M. Welte, B. Köster, K. Junack, ''Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neues Testaments'', (Berlin, New York:

Walter de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

, 1994), p. 3-17.
"Continuation of the Manuscript List"
''

INTF The Institute for New Testament Textual Research (german: Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung — INTF) at the University of Münster, Westphalia, Germany, is to research the textual history of the New Testament and to reconstruct its ...

'', University of Münster. Retrieved February 4, 2010 * Nestle-Aland. ''

''. 27th ed. '' Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft'', Druck: 1996, p. 57-63, 684-689 * Law, David R. ''The Historical-Critical Method: A Guide for the Perplexed'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012.

External links

* Dr. J. Lyle Story, professor of Biblical Languages
NT Source Documents & History - Papyri
Retrieved February 27, 2020 *Seid, Timothy

''Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts.'' Retrieved June 22, 2007. * Peter M. Head

* Waltz, Robert

''A Site Inspired By: The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism.'' Retrieved on June 22, 2007. * Willker, Wieland

Last Update: 17 April 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2008.
New Testament Transcripts Prototype
* Wieland Willker
''A Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels: Fragmentary papyri''

Images of manuscripts

Institut für Altertumskunde
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Testament Papyri

papyri 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 ...

Greek New Testament manuscripts Papyrus Greek-language papyri