Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 46:1 (NA 1995)
Article: Papyrus Magdalen Greek 17 (Gregory-Aland "P"): A Reappraisal
Author: Carsten Peter Thiede

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TynBul 46:1 (1995) p. 29

Papyrus Magdalen Greek 17 (Gregory-Aland P⁶⁴): A Reappraisal1

Carsten Peter Thiede

Summary

More than forty years after C.H. Roberts’ first edition of p⁶⁴, this new edition provides the first complete reconstruction of all six sides of the three fragments kept at Magdalen College, Oxford. It corrects a number of errors, adds an improved reading of several verses, in particular of Matthew 26:22, which contribute to a better understanding of early Christian scribal habits; it furthermore discusses the question of nomina sacra for which p⁶⁴ provides the three earliest known examples, and it reopens the question of the dating. With the first- century date suggested as a result of a comparative analysis using newly available manuscripts, p⁶⁴ and, along with it, p⁶⁷ are the earliest known codex fragments of the New Testament.

I. Introduction

It would be a very brave man who would deny that such a text, or any text, might be susceptible to further improvement. (H.C. Youtie2 )

The oldest extant papyrus fragment of the Gospel according to Matthew consists of five small fragments, three of which are kept at Magdalen College, Oxford, the other two at the Fundación San Lucas Evangelista, Barcelona. It was dated, by

TynBul 46:1 (1995) p. 30

Colin Roberts, to the later second century.3 Roberts himself was the first scholar to recognise the relationship between the three Magdalen fragments and the two remnants in Barcelona (P.Barc. inv. 1, p⁶⁷) as parts of one and the same original codex.4 Further attempts to link this codex to fragments of Luke’s gospel preserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (Suppl. Gr. 1120 = Gregory-Aland p⁴), had to be abandoned;5 although the fragmentary codex at the Bibliotheque Nationale had, at one stage, contained Matthew—as seems to be obvious from a fragment with the title Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Μαθθαῖον—the Paris codex is written on much darker, brownish papyrus and is considerably later (by up to one hundred years). As yet, there is no candidate among extant papyri to supplement p⁶⁴ and p⁶⁷. However, after more than forty years since Roberts first published the Magdalen fragment, some additions and corrections appear to be called for.

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