Papyrus 104 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by the symbol 𝔓¹⁰⁴, is a fragment that is part of a leaf from 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 The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

, it measures 2.5 by 3.75 inches (6.35 by 9.5 cm) at its widest. It is conserved in the Papyrology Rooms at Bodleian Art Library,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, UK. The front (recto) contains lines from the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ (title), Christ), Jesus, resurrection of Jesus, his res ...

21:34-37, in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, the back (verso) contains tentative traces of lines from verses 43 and 45.

Description

This papyrus ranks among the earliest surviving texts of Matthew. It consists of six verses from the

, in a fragmentary condition, and is dated from early to late 2nd century. The text of the manuscript concurs with the

NA27 NA, N.A., Na, nA or n/a may refer to: Chemistry and physics * Sodium, symbol Na, a chemical element * Avogadro constant (''N''A) * Nucleophilic addition, a type of reaction in organic chemistry * Numerical aperture, a number that characterizes a ...

/ UBS4 (Greek New Testaments) completely, with the exception that it does not include Matthew 21:44. This verse is also omitted in manuscripts:

Codex Bezae The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis is a bi-lingual Greek and Latin manuscript of the New Testament written in an uncial hand on parchment. It is designated by the siglum D or 05 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and � ...

Minuscule 33 Minuscule 33 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 48 ( Soden), before the French Revolution was called ''Codex Colbertinus 2844''. It is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament on parchment, dated palaeographically to the 9th century. ...

, some Old-Latin manuscripts,

Syriac Sinaiticus The Syriac Sinaiticus or Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus (syrs), known also as the Sinaitic Palimpsest, of Saint Catherine's Monastery (Sinai, Syr. 30), or Old Syriac Gospels is a late-4th- or early-5th-century manuscript of 179 folios, containing a nea ...

(syr^s), Diatessaron. However, it is included in

Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (; Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonical ...

, Vaticanus, Ephraemi, Regius, Washingtonianus, and Dublinensis. This verse thus belongs to the so-called

Western non-interpolations Western non-interpolations is a term coined by F. J. A. Hort for certain phrases that are absent in the Western text-type of New Testament manuscripts, but present in one of the two major other text-types. The Alexandrian text-type is generally t ...

, making 𝔓¹⁰⁴ the earliest witness to the interpolated nature of this verse.

Greek text

The papyrus is written on both sides, and the surviving portion also includes part of the top and outer margins of the page. Since the text for the verso is nearly illegible, only the text for the recto is given. The characters that are in bold style are the ones that can be seen in Papyrus 𝔓¹⁰⁴. ''

21:34-37'' (recto) A total of 110 legible letters are visible on the recto side of the fragment, representing 18 out of the 24 letters of the

Greek Alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as wel ...

; zeta, theta, xi, phi, chi, and psi being missing. "The scribe uses

rough breathing In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( or ; ) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or after rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even af ...

s, but no other lectional feature or punctuation is found".P. M. Head,
Some recently published NT Papyri from Oxyrhynchus: An Overview and Preliminary Assessment
," ''

Tyndale Bulletin The ''Tyndale Bulletin'' is an academic journal published by Tyndale House in Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county tow ...

'' 51 (2000), pp. 1-16. The hand is 'early', i.e., before c. 250. It is very carefully written, with extensive use of

serif In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ( ...

References

External links

Oxyrhynchus Online, P.Oxy.LXIV 4404

University of Münster, New Testament Transcripts Prototype. Select P104 from 'Manuscript descriptions' box

„Fortsetzung der Liste der Handschriften“
Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung, Universität Münster. (PDF-Datei; 147 kB) {{DEFAULTSORT:Papyrus 0104 New Testament papyri 2nd-century biblical manuscripts Early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament Gospel of Matthew papyri

Description

Greek text

See also

References

Further reading

External links