Papyrus 12 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α 1033 (in the Soden numbering), designated by siglum[1] P12, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus[2] manuscript[3] of the Epistle to the Hebrews; it contains only Hebrews 1:1.[4] The manuscript palaeographically[5] has been assigned to ca. 285. It may have been a writing exercise or an amulet.[6]

Papyrus P12 New Testament Manuscript   papyri   Name P. Amherst 3b Text Epistle to the Hebrews 1 † Date 285-300 C.E. Script Greek Found Egypt 1897 Now at The Morgan Library & Museum Cite B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, The Amherst Papyri I, (London 1900), pp. 28-31 (P. Amherst 3 b) Size 20,8 cm x 23 cm Type Alexandrian text-type Category I

Comfort Writes,

The manuscript is a letter written by an Egyptian Christian traveling in Rome to his fellow Christians in the Arsinoite Nome, in the Fayum of Egypt. On top of the second column, another writer has penned Hebrews 1:1 in three lines. On the verso of this manuscript, another writer has penned Genesis 1:1–5 LXX. The letter was written between the years 264/265 and 281/282, and the marginal addition was probably added not long after the composition of the letter.^[7]

Description

On the top of the second column, another writer has penned Hebrews 1:1 in three lines. It has been written in a small uncial hand.[8] On the verso of this manuscript, another writer has penned Genesis 1:1-5 according to Septuaginta.[9]

Text

Square brackets [ … ] indicates conjectural reconstruction of the beginning or ending of a manuscript, or, within the transcriptions, letters or words most likely to have been in the original manuscript.

Interlinear Tool For Those Who Cannot Read Greek

1 ΠολυμερῶςIn many parts καὶand πολυ[τρό]πωςin many ways πάλαιof old ὁthe θεὸςGod λαλήσ[α]ςhaving spoken το[ῖςto the π]ατράσ[ι]νfathers ἐνin τοῖςthe προ[φήταις]prophets 

πολυμερως κ πολυ[τρο]πως
παλε ο θς λαλήσ[α]ς το[ις π]ατρα
σ[ι] ημ[ω]ν εν τοις προ[φηταις][10]

It has an error of itacism[11] (παλε instead of παλαι), the nomina sacra[12] contracted (θς).

The Greek text of this codex probably is a representative of the Alexandrian text-type,[13] but its text is too brief for certainty. Aland placed it in Category I,[14]

It supports textual variant with ημων as in codices P^46c a t v vg^mss syr^p.[15]

History

The manuscript was discovered in 1897 by Grenfell and Hunt.

It is currently housed at The Morgan Library & Museum (Pap. Gr. 3; P. Amherst 3b) in New York City.[16]

Attribution: This article incorporates text from the public domain: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Philip Comfort, and Edward D. Andrews

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[1] Scribal abbreviations or sigla (singular: siglum) are the abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek, Old English, and Old Norse. In modern manuscript editing (substantive and mechanical) sigla are the symbols used to indicate the source manuscript (e.g., variations in text between different such manuscripts) and to identify the copyists of a work. See Critical apparatus.

[2] Papyrus ( pə-PYE-rəs) 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.

[3] A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten — as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include any written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author’s work, as distinguished from its rendition as a printed version of the same.

[4] Hebrews 1 is the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author is argued, although the internal reference to “our brother Timothy” (Hebrews 13:23) causes a traditional attribution to Paul, as well as much more evidence for a Pauline authorship.

[5] Palaeography (UK) or paleography (US; ultimately from Greek: παλαιός, palaiós, “old”, and γράφειν, gráphein, “to write”) is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysis of historic handwriting. It is concerned with the forms and processes of writing, not the textual content of documents.

[6] Philip Wesley Comfort and David P. Barrett, THE TEXT OF THE EARLIEST NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS: Papyri 1-72, Vol. 1 (English and Greek Edition) (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2019), 61.

^[7] IBID.

[8] B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, The Amherst Papyri I, (London 1900), p. 30.

[9] The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, US also ; from the Latin: septuaginta, lit. ’seventy’; often abbreviated 70; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Koine Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible, various biblical apocrypha, and deuterocanonical books. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, were translated in the mid-3rd century BCE. The remaining books of the Greek Old Testament are presumably translations of the 2nd century BCE.The full title (Ancient Greek: Ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα, lit. ’The Translation of the Seventy’) derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas that the Hebrew Torah was translated into Greek at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BCE) by 70 Jewish scholars or, according to later tradition, 72: six scholars from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who independently produced identical translations.

[10] B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, The Amherst Papyri I, (London 1900), p. 30.

[11] Iotacism (Greek: ιωτακισμός, iotakismos) or itacism is the process of vowel shift by which a number of vowels and diphthongs converged towards the pronunciation ([i]) in post-classical Greek and Modern Greek. The term “iotacism” refers to the letter iota, the original sign for ([i]), with which these vowels came to merge.

[12] In Christian scribal practice, nomina sacra (singular: nomen sacrum from Latin sacred name) is the abbreviation of several frequently occurring divine names or titles, especially in Greek manuscripts of Holy Scripture. A nomen sacrum consists of two or more letters from the original word spanned by an overline.

[13] The Alexandrian text-type is one of several text types found among New Testament manuscripts. It is the text type favored by textual critics and it is the basis for modern Bible translations.

[14] Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.

[15] NA26, p. 563.

[16] Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.

“Handschriftenliste”. Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved 23 August 2012.

INTF. “Papirus 12 (GA)”. Liste Handschriften. Münster Institute. Retrieved 2012-02-29.