Papyrus 75

Papyrus 75 (formerly Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV, now Hanna Papyrus 1), is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus containing text from the Gospel of Luke 3:18–24:53, and John 1:1–15:8.Template:R It is designated by the siglum Template:Papyrus in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts.Template:R It is generally described as "the most significant" papyrus of the New Testament to be discovered so far.Template:R Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been traditionally dated to the third century,Template:R although some recent studies have provided arguments to consider date ranges into the early fourth century, and not just the third century.Template:R It is due to the traditional early dating that the manuscript has a high evaluation, and the fact its text so closely resembles that of the fourth-century Codex Vaticanus (B).Template:R

It is currently housed in the Vatican Library (Hanna Papyrus 1) in Rome.

Description

The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book), made of papyrus, in single quire format (a single quire being a collection of pages placed on top of each other, then folded in half to create a book), measuring . It has between 38 and 45 lines per page,Template:R containing most of the text of the Gospel of Luke and the beginning of the Gospel of John.Template:R It originally contained about 144 pages, 102 which have survived, of which 20 are fragmentary.Template:Rp Template:R The papyrus is of a smooth and fine quality, with the verso (vertical striped side) nearly as smooth as the recto (horizontal striped side), and feels like hand-woven linen.Template:R The writing is a clear and careful majuscule.Template:R Template:Papyrus is one of the earliest manuscripts (along with Template:Papyrus link) of the Gospel of Luke, containing most of Luke 3:18–24:53.Template:R An unusual feature of this codex is that when the Gospel of Luke ends, the Gospel of John begins on the same page.Template:R

It uses a staurogram (⳨) in Luke 9:23, 14:27, and 24:7.

Text

The Greek text of this codex is considered a representative of the Alexandrian text-type. (The text-types are groups of different manuscripts which share specific or generally related readings, which then differ from each other group, and thus the conflicting readings can separate out the groups, which are then used to determine the original text as published; there are three main groups with names: Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine).Template:R Textual critic and biblical scholar Kurt Aland placed it in Category I of his New Testament manuscript text classification system.Template:Rp Category I manuscripts are described as being manuscripts "of a very special quality, i.e., manuscripts with a very high proportion of the early text, presumably the original text, which has not been preserved in its purity in any one manuscript."Template:R

The text is closer to Codex Vaticanus (B) than to Codex Sinaiticus (Template:Larger). Agreement between Template:Papyrus and B is 92% in John,Template:Rp and 94% in Luke. It concurs with Template:Papyrus link.

According to Aland, Template:Papyrus is the key for understanding the primitive textual history of New Testament, but recently palaeographer and religious history scholar Brent Nongbri has argued that though one can not conclusively rule out dating Template:Papyrus to the late second or early third century, increasing the date range to include the fourth century is just as likely (or as he says, "if not more likely").Template:R Accordingly, the similarity of the text in Template:Papyrus and Codex Vaticanus might be better explained by considering both as products of a sort of textual recension which occurred in the fourth century.

Some notable readings

The manuscript lacks the Pericope of the Adulteress, usually placed in translations at John 7:53–8:11. This omission is supported by: Template:Papyrus link Template:Larger B A^(vid) C^(vid) L N T W X Δ Θ Ψ 0141 0211 3 9* 22 33 72 96 97 106 108 123 131 139 157 179* 249 250 253 565 1241 1333 1424 2768 a f l q sy ly pbo bo^pt; Or Hier^mss; plus according to Tischendorf, at least 50 others (see manuscript evidence against PdA).Template:Rp

(him) – Template:Papyrus 705 b

(them) – Majority of manuscriptsTemplate:R

(but deliver us from evil)

omit – Template:Papyrus Template:Larger^{*, 2b} B L ƒ¹ 700 vg sy^s sa, bo^bt

incl. – Majority of manuscriptsTemplate:R

(There was a rich man, with the name N[in]eue, who clothed himself) –Template:Papyrus 36 37 sa

(There was a rich man, who clothed himself) – Majority of manuscriptsTemplate:R

(A scholion of uncertain date have (There is also found, in certain copies, the name of the rich-man being called Ninevah).)

omit – Template:Papyrus Template:Larger^2a A B N T W 579 ℓ 844 sy^s sa bo^pt

incl. – Majority of manuscriptsTemplate:R

(And Jesus said: Father forgive them, they know not what they do.)

omit – Template:Papyrus Template:Larger^2a B D^* W Θ 070 579 1241 a d sy^s sa bo^pt

incl. – Majority of manuscriptsTemplate:R

(kingdom) – Template:Papyrus*

(glory) – majority of mssTemplate:R

} (shepherd) – Template:Papyrus sa, ac

(door) – majorityTemplate:R

History

The codex was discovered in the 1950s and once belonged to the Swiss book collector Martin Bodmer (thus its original designation, P. Bodmer XIV–XV). It was sold in 2006 and donated to the Vatican Library, which now refers to the manuscript as "Hanna Papyrus 1 (Mater Verbi)". The history before its discovery is unknown, but it is generally agreed the codex was originally made and used in Egypt.Template:R Evidence for this comes from a piece of papyrus stuck to the back of the codex's leather case, on which there was Coptic writing.Template:R Its writing appearance and use of paragraphos to indicate a change of speaker, also points towards an Egyptian provenance.Template:R

Date

The codex was originally assigned palaeographically to 175–225 CE by Victor Martin and Rodolphe Kasser.Template:R They compared the handwriting to manuscripts P.Oxy. XXI 2293, P.Oxy. XXII 2322, P.Oxy. XXIII 2362, P.Oxy. XXIII 2363, and P.Oxy. XXII 2370.Template:R However, in 2016 Brent Nongbri pointed out that all of these manuscripts had themselves been dated by means of comparative handwriting analysis and thus were not useful for establishing a date for P75. Martin and Kasser also drew attention to two more objectively dated manuscripts (P.Flor. I 61 and P.FuadUniv. 19), but Nongbri pointed out that the scripts of these two pieces do not actually resemble the appearance of the script of P75.Template:R He argued that the closest dated comparisons for the script of P75 were P.Herm. 4 and 5, which are from a fourth-century archive. Nongbri also pointed out codicological features of P75 which accorded with manuscripts firmly dated to the fourth century.Template:R

An alternative dating of 225–275 was suggested by Eric G. Turner, however he does not appear to have provided any palaeographical parallels for this dating.Template:R It is currently dated by the INTF to 200–225 CE. The Leuven Database of Ancient Books, however, assigns P75 to a date of "AD 275-325."

See also

• List of New Testament papyri
• Bodmer Papyri

Bibliography

• V. Martin, R. Kasser, Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV: Evangiles de Luc et Jean, Vol. 1, Papyrus Bodmer XIV: Evangile de Luc chap. 3–24; vol. 2, Papyrus Bodmer XV: Evangile de Jean chap. 1–15, Cologny-Geneva: Biblioteca Bodmeriana, 1961.

External links

• Waltz, Robert B. NT Manuscripts: Papyri, Papyri Template:Papyrus.
• Bodmer Papyrus 14–15 arrives at the Vatican (webarchive accessed 5 Jan 2025)
• Digital facsimile images of Template:Papyrus at the CSNTM.
• Colour images of Template:Papyrus at the Vatican Digital Library.