List of New Testament papyri

A New Testament papyrus is a copy of a portion of the New Testament made on papyrus. 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, who assigned papyri texts the Blackletter 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. Before 1900, only 9 papyri manuscripts were known, and only one had been cited in a critical apparatus (𝔓11 by Constantin von Tischendorf). These 9 papyri were just single fragments, except for 𝔓15, 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 there were 96 known 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: 𝔓45, which contains the Gospels and Acts; 𝔓46, which contains the Pauline epistles; and 𝔓47, which contains the Book of Revelation. All of these are thought to date from sometime in the third century.

Also significant are the Bodmer Papyri: 𝔓66, which contains the Gospel of John; and 𝔓75, 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: 𝔓59, 𝔓60, 𝔓63, 𝔓80 are texts with commentaries; 𝔓2, 𝔓3, and 𝔓44 are lectionaries; 𝔓50, 𝔓55, and 𝔓78 are talismans; and 𝔓10, 𝔓12, 𝔓42, 𝔓43, 𝔓62, 𝔓72, and 𝔓99 belong to other miscellaneous texts, such as writing scraps, glossaries, or songs.

Every papyrus is cited in Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece.

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, 𝔓52 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.

See also

Lists

• Categories of New Testament manuscripts
• List of artifacts significant to the Bible
• List of Egyptian papyri by date
• List of New Testament uncials
• List of New Testament minuscules
• List of New Testament lectionaries
• List of New Testament amulets
• List of New Testament Latin manuscripts

Other articles

• Novum Testamentum Graece
• Oxyrhynchus papyri
• Palaeography
• Papyrology
• Textual criticism

Notes

• Aland, Kurt; Barbara Aland (1995). The Text of The New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes (2nd ed.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8028-4098-1.
• Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece. 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, 1994), p. 3-17. ISBN 3-11-011986-2
• INTF, University of Münster. Retrieved February 4, 2010
• Nestle-Aland. Novum Testamentum Graece. 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. . 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.
• Wieland Willker,
• (in German)