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Uncover our Papyrus Manuscripts Articles. Learn about the ancient papyrus manuscripts that have shaped our understanding of the Bible.
Papyrus 108 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by P108, is a copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of John, containing verses 17:23-24 & 18:1-5 in a fragmentary condition. The manuscript has been paleographically assigned to “late second/early third century (ca. 200).”
Papyrus 90 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by P90, is a small fragment from the Gospel of John 18:36-19:7 dating paleographically to early to middle 2nd century.
Papyrus 6 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by P6 or by ε 021 (in von Soden's numbering), is a fragmentary early copy of the New Testament in Greek and Coptic (Akhmimic). It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of John that has been dated paleographically to the early 4th century [300 - 350 C.E.].
Contents: P46 contains most of the Pauline epistles, though with some folios missing. It contains (in order) “the last eight chapters of Romans; all of Hebrews; virtually all of 1–2 Corinthians; all of Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians; and two chapters of 1 Thessalonians. All of the leaves have lost some lines at the bottom through deterioration.”
P75 contains most of Luke and John, known as Bodmer 14, 15 (P75), dates from 175 C.E. to 225 C.E. It is textually very close to Codex Vaticanus. A handful from the 19th and early 20th centuries argued that Codex Vaticanus and Sinaiticus manuscripts removed the Byzantine text readings. However, if this were true and the corrupt Byzantine readings were early as some claim, we would have those readings in P75 to prove it, as well as the other 60+ papyrus manuscripts dating from 100-300 A.D.
P66 Papyrus 66 [150 C.E.] is of the Alexandrian text-type (more trusted). P66 comes to us by way of a professional scribe (practiced calligraphic hand, pagination numbers), a major corrector and a minor corrector.
Papyrus 45 P45 or P. Chester Beatty I) is an early New Testament manuscript that is a part of the Chester Beatty Papyri. It has been paleographically dated to about 175-225 CE. P45 is one of the oldest codices in the world that contains most of the four Gospels and much of the book of Acts.
Papyrus 66 (also referred to as P66) is a near-complete codex of the Gospel of John, and part of the collection known as the Bodmer Papyri.
What are the churchgoers, the Bible college students, and seminary students to do when one Bible scholar says one thing and another Bible scholar says something quite different, or worse still, as is the case with P52, several Bible scholars are saying different dates for the time when the Greek New Testament fragment P52 was written? P = Papyrus (a plant in Egypt), the material that was used to make sheets of papyrus paper that were written on by scribes to make copies of Bible books. 52 = the number assigned to that discovered manuscript. What makes it even more unnerving is when one is not an expert in the field of study, only having basic knowledge. How can they possibly know who is correct? Worse still, the Christian is put in the embarrassing position on social media of telling an atheist that P52 is dated to 100-150 C.E., and then the atheist responds to the Christian with, ‘no your evidence from 1935 is outdated, as recent research points to a date of 200 C.E. or later.’ What is the Christian to do?
Papyrus 3 is designated by the sign P3 in the numbering Gregory-Aland. It is a small fragment of fifteen verses from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 7:36-45; 10:38-42) dating to the 4th century.
