British Library Or 4926
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

British Library Or 4926 (1), known also as P. Lond. Copt. 522 (Crum), is a
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'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...
codex with a collection of early Christian
Gnostic texts Gnosticism used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts, or lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings. There is significant scholarly debate around what Gnosticism is, and therefore what ...
in Coptic (sub-Akhmimic dialect). The manuscript has survived in a fragmentary condition. The codex is dated to the 4th century. Erroneously it is known also as ''British Library Or 4920 (1)''.


Description

The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a codex. The text was written in one column per page. 24 fragments of it survived, however most of them are illegible. The measurements of the biggest fragment are 2.5 by 3.5 inches. It was later identified as a manuscript of the
Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is a non-canonical Logia, sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate the works ...
(tractate 5).Bentley Layton
''Nag Hammadi codex II, 2-7: together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or.4926(1), and P.OXY. 1, 654, 655 : with contributions by many scholars''
BRILL, 1989, p. 29.
It was examined by
Frederic G. Kenyon Sir Frederic George Kenyon (15 January 1863 – 23 August 1952) was an English palaeographer and biblical and classical scholar. He held a series of posts at the British Museum from 1889 to 1931. He was also the president of the British Academy ...
and
Walter Ewing Crum Walter Ewing Crum (22 July 186518 May 1944) was a Scottish Coptologist, or scholar in Coptic language and literature. In 1939 he completed ''A Coptic Dictionary,'' a dictionary of translations from Coptic to English. Early life and education T ...
in 1905. According to Crum the dialect is a mixture of Akhmimic and Sahidic forms.Walter Ewing Crum
''Catalogue of the Coptic manuscripts in the British Museum''
British Museum (1905)
Bentley Layton Bentley Layton (August 12, 1941 – March 26, 2025) was an American educator who was professor of religious studies (Ancient Christianity) and professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Coptic) at Yale University. Early life Bentley ...
examined it twice, in 1978 and 1980. Currently the manuscript is housed at the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
(Or. 4926) in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.London, British Library Or 4926 (1)
at
LDAB The Leuven Database of Ancient Books (LDAB) is a resource for all ancient written literary manuscripts, from 500 BC to AD 800. It currently lists more than 16.000 Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac and Demotic literary texts. It is said that it "attempt ...


See also

; Coptic manuscripts *
Nag Hammadi Codex II Nag Hammadi Codex II (designated by siglum CG II) is a papyrus codex with a collection of early Christian Gnosticism, Gnostic texts in Coptic language, Coptic (Sahidic dialect). The manuscript has survived in nearly perfect condition. The codex ...
* Nag Hammadi Codex XIII ; Greek manuscripts *
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1 Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1 (P. Oxy. 1) is a papyrus fragment of the logia of Jesus written in Greek (''Logia Iesou''). It was among the first of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri discovered by Grenfell and Hunt. It was discovered on the second day of excavation, ...
* Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 654 * Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 655


References


Further reading

*
Bentley Layton Bentley Layton (August 12, 1941 – March 26, 2025) was an American educator who was professor of religious studies (Ancient Christianity) and professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Coptic) at Yale University. Early life Bentley ...

''Nag Hammadi codex II, 2-7: together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or.4926(1), and P.OXY. 1, 654, 655 : with contributions by many scholars''
BRILL, 1989.


External links


London, British Library Or 4926 (1)
Gnostic Gospels 4th-century manuscripts {{NewTestament-apocrypha-stub