Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 656 (abbreviated as P.Oxy.IV 656, VH 13, LBAD 3094, or Rahlfs 905) – is a Greek fragment of a Septuagint manuscript written on papyrus in codex form. This is a manuscript discovered at Oxyrhynchus, and it has been catalogued with number 656.

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 ...

cally it is dated to late second century or early third century.

Description

The manuscript was 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 ...

, in codex form. The surviving fragments are four pieces of 24 cm by 20 cm. The fragments contain

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

(14:21-23, 15:5-9, 19:32-20:11, 24:28-47, 27:32,33,40,41), written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

. According to C. H. Roberts and van Haelst, it is almost certain to be Jewish.

Treatment to the name of God

Jason David BeDuhn Jason David BeDuhn (born 1963) is a historian of religion and culture, currently Professor of Religious Studies at Northern Arizona University. Education BeDuhn holds a B.A. in Religious studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champ ...

, quoting

Emanuel Tov Emanuel Tov, ( he, עמנואל טוב; born September 15, 1941, Amsterdam, Netherlands as Menno Toff) is a Dutch Israeli, emeritus J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible Studies in the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He ...

wrote:

Martin Rösel Martin Rösel (born on September 8, 1961 in Essen) is a German protestant theologian of Old Testament and professor at the University of Rostock. Life Education In 1993 he received his doctorate in University of Hamburg and was then Academi ...

states that in this manuscript the first scribe left four gaps, three of which were filled by another with the word κύριος. Similarly, in Papyrus Rylands 458 a blank space remains, large enough for either κύριος or the Tetragrammaton. According to Philip Wesley Comfort, who speaks of the Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 656 gaps as four-letter spaces, they were intended to be filled in with the Tetragrammaton in Paleo-Hebrew script, but for lack of someone capable of writing in that script, the Greek surrogate κύριος was squeezed in instead.

History

The fragment was published in 1904 by Bernard P. Grenfell and Artur S. Hunt in ''The Oxyrhynchus Papyri'', vol IV. The number 905 was given to the fragments list of septuagint manuscripts according classification system of

Alfred Rahlfs Alfred Rahlfs (; ; 29 May 1865 – 8 April 1935) was a German Biblical scholar. He was a member of the history of religions school. He is known for his edition of the Septuagint published in 1935. Biography He was born in Linden near Hanover, an ...

References

3rd-century biblical manuscripts

656 __NOTOC__ Year 656 ( DCLVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 656 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era bec ...

Book of Genesis Septuagint manuscripts Bodleian Library collection {{OxyrhynchusGR-stub