Papyrus 75 (formerly Papyrus Bodmer XIV– XV, now Hanna Papyrus 1), designated by the

siglum Scribal abbreviations or sigla ( singular: siglum) are 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 mechani ...

(in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is an early Greek

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

manuscript written on

papyrus Papyrus ( ) 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. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

. It contains text from the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...

3:18-24:53, and

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

1:1-15:8. It is generally described as "the most significant" papyrus of the New Testament to be discovered so far. Using the study of comparative writing styles (

palaeography Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...

), it has been traditionally dated to the third century. It is due to this early dating that the manuscript has a high evaluation, and the fact its text so closely resembles that of the fourth-century

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

. It is currently housed in the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

(Hanna Papyrus 1) in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Description

The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book), made of

, 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 27 x 13 cm. It has between 38-45 lines per page, containing most of the text of the

and the

Gospel of John The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...

. It originally contained about 144 pages, 102 which have survived, of which 20 are fragmentary. The papyrus is of a smooth and fine quality, with the

verso ' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. Etymology The terms are shortened from Latin ...

(vertical striped side) nearly as smooth as the

recto ' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. Etymology The terms are shortened from Latin ...

(horizontal striped side), and feels like hand-woven linen. The writing is a clear and careful majuscule. is one of the earliest manuscripts (along with ) of the

,Gregory (2003) p.28 containing most of Luke 3:18–24:53.Willker, Wieland.
A Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels
' An unusual feature of this codex is that when the

ends, the

begins on the same page. 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 Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

). Textual critic and biblical scholar Kurt Aland placed it in Category I of his New Testament manuscript text classification system. 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." The text is closer to

than to

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...

. Agreement between and codex B is 92% in John, and 94% in Luke. It concurs with . According to Aland, is the key for understanding the primitive textual history of New Testament, but recently palaeographer and religious history scholar Brent Nongbri has argued that restricting the date of to the late second or early third century is not realistic, and that the similarity of the text of to that of

might be better explained by considering both books as products of 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: B A C L N T W X Δ Θ Ψ 0141 0211 3 9* 22 33 72 96 97 106 108 123 131 139

157 Year 157 ( CLVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Civica and Aquillus (or, less frequently, year 910 ''Ab urbe condit ...

179*

249 __NOTOC__ Year 249 ( CCXLIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gavius and Aquilinus (or, less frequently, year 1002 ''Ab ...

250 __NOTOC__ Year 250 (Roman numerals, CCL) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Traianus and Gratus (or, less frequently, y ...

253 __NOTOC__ Year 253 ( CCLIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Volusianus and Claudius (or, less frequently, year 100 ...

565 __NOTOC__ Year 565 (Roman numerals, DLXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 565 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domin ...

1241 Year 1241 ( MCCXLI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events * March 18 – Battle of Chmielnik ( Mongol invasion of Poland): The Mongols overwhelm the feudal Polish ar ...

1333

1424 Year 1424 ( MCDXXIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * June 2 – Battle of L'Aquila: Jacopo Caldora and Micheletto Attendolo, for th ...

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). : (''him'') -

705 __NOTOC__ Year 705 ( DCCV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 705 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

b : (''them'') - Majority of manuscripts : (''but deliver us from evil'') ::omit - B L ƒ

700 The denomination 700 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Avar and Slavic tribes conq ...

vg sy^s sa, bo ::incl. - Majority of manuscripts : (''There was a rich man, with the name N nue, who clothed himself'') - 36 37 sa : (''There was a rich man, who clothed himself'') - Majority of manuscripts ::(A

scholion Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of t ...

of uncertain date have (''There is also found, in certain copies, the name of the rich-man being called Ninevah'').) : (''And Jesus said: Father forgive them, they know not what they do.'') ::omit - B D W Θ 070

579 __NOTOC__ Year 579 ( DLXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 579 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

a d sy sa bo ::incl. - Majority of manuscripts Luke 22:43–44 :omit - A B N T W

ℓ ''844'' sy sa bo :incl. - Majority of manuscripts : (''kingdom'') – * : (''glory'') – majority of mss :} (''shepherd'') – sa, ac : (''door'') – majority

History

The codex was discovered in the 1950s and once belonged to the Swiss book collector

Martin Bodmer Martin Bodmer (November 13, 1899 – March 22, 1971) was a Swiss bibliophile, scholar and collector. Biography Martin Bodmer was the son of wealthy parents born in Zurich, Switzerland, where he lived until 1948. His father died in 1916 lea ...

(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. 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. Its writing appearance and use of ''paragraphos'' to indicate a change of speaker, also points towards an Egyptian provenance.

Date

The codex was originally assigned palaeographically to 175–225 CE by Victore Martin and Rodolphe Kasser. 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. However this palaeographical comparison was called into question in 2016, where Brent Nongbri argued on the basis of comparative evidence, that handwriting very similar to that of was still in use in the fourth century. There were also other

codicological Codicology (; from French ''codicologie;'' from Latin , genitive , "notebook, book" and Greek , ''-logia'') is the study of codices or manuscript books. It is often referred to as "the archaeology of the book," a term coined by François Masai. ...

features which accorded with manuscripts firmly dated to the fourth century. One of Nongbri's arguments against the original dating was due to the manuscripts used as ''comprandi'' were themselves mainly dated based on

palaeographical Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...

grounds, hence served no independent value for determining the date of . As such, as they're not securely dated manuscripts, having no definitive ''terminus ante'' or ''post quem'' (before/after) dates gives nothing objective to use when dating undated manuscripts. Martin and Kasser did provide two dateable examples, P.Flor. I 61 and P.FuadUniv. 19, albeit Nongbri argued the writing on either weren't as alike as the original editors suggested. An alternative dating of 225-275 was suggested by Eric G. Turner, however he doesn't appear to have provided any palaeographical parallels for this dating. It is currently dated by the INTF to 200-225 CE.

References

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. * * P. Orsini, "I papiri Bodmer: scritture e libri", Adamantius 21 (2015), 60–78 * K. Aland and B. Aland, ''The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism'', trans. Erroll F. Rhodes, 2nd rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) * Gregory, A. ''The Reception of Luke and Acts in the Period Before Irenaeus'', Mohr Siebeck, (2003) , p. 28 * * *

Images

Image of a page of Papyrus 75
(accessed 2007-09-26)

External links

* * Waltz, Robert B

Bodmer Papyrus 14–15 arrives at the Vatican
(accessed 2007-09-26) * Willker, Wieland.
A Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels
', (undated+unfinished) {{DEFAULTSORT:Papyrus 0075 New Testament papyri Papyrus 075 Manuscripts of the Vatican Library Early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament Gospel of John papyri Gospel of Luke papyri