The Fayyum Fragment (Papyrus Vindobonensis Greek 2325
. Vienna G. 2325 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 ...
fragment containing text that could be from part of the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
, and consists of only about 100
Greek letters. The fragment was originally discovered in
Al-Fayyum,
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, and was translated in 1885 by
Gustav Bickell after it was found in the papyrus collection of
Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
.
The surviving manuscript is badly damaged and has fewer than a hundred Greek letters preserved. Because of its style of handwriting it is believed to have been copied around the end of the third century. The text seems to parallel
Mark 14:26–31, appearing to present a more abbreviated account. It is unclear whether the fragment is an abridged version of the
synoptic gospels
The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...
, or a source text on which they were based, perhaps the apocryphal
Gospel of Peter
The Gospel of Peter (), or the Gospel according to Peter, is an ancient text concerning Jesus Christ (title), Christ, only partially known today. Originally written in Koine Greek, it is a non-canonical gospel and was rejected as apocryphal by the ...
.
[''Das Evangelium nach Petrus. Text, Kontexte, Intertexte.'' Edited by Thomas J. Kraus and Tobias Nicklas. (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur. Archiv für die Ausgabe der Griechischen Christlichen Schiftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte (TU), 158.) VIII-384 pages. Berlin–New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007. .]
Text
Reconstruction
Textual comparison with the texts in the three synoptic gospels leads to the above reconstruction of missing letters:
Textual source
*Stanley E. Porter and Wendy J. Porter, ''New Testament Greek Papyri and Parchments''. Vol. 1: Text; Vol. 2: Plates, Mitteilungen aus der Papyrussammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek (MPER) XXX (Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 2008).
See also
*
List of Gospels
References
External links
Early Christian Writings{{Gospel of Mark
3rd-century Christian texts
Agrapha of Jesus and apocryphal fragments
Manuscripts in the Austrian National Library
3rd-century manuscripts