Papyrus 115, also known as ''P. Oxy. 4499'', is a fragmented
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...
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 ...
written 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 ...
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'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...
. It is 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 mecha ...
in the
Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts. It consists of 26 fragments of 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 ...
containing parts of the
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...
. Using the study of comparative writing styles (
palaeography
Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...
), the manuscript is dated to the third century, ''c.'' 225-275 AD. Scholars
Bernard Pyne Grenfell and
Arthur Hunt discovered the papyrus in
Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.
was not deciphered and published until 2011. It is currently housed at the
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...
.
Description
The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern book) although in a very fragmentary condition. In its original form it was sized 15.5 cm by 22 cm, with 33-36 lines per page. The surviving text includes Revelation 2:1-3, 13-15, 27-29; 3:10-12; 5:8-9; 6:5-6; 8:3-8, 11-13; 9:1-5, 7-16, 18-21; 10:1-4, 8-11; 11:1-5, 8-15, 18-19; 12:1-5, 8-10, 12-17; 13:1-3, 6-16, 18; 14:1-3, 5-7, 10-11, 14-15, 18-20; 15:1, 4-7.
Due to the writing on the pages having a tendency to be narrower when the binding is on the right hand side, it is likely the codex was bound before the copyist started writing in it. After its publication, scholar David C. Parker notes the manuscript "is a significant contribution to our understanding of the text of the book of Revelation",
and as such "may shed light on a crucial period in the development of the text of Revelation."
There are some textual corrections in the manuscript which may be evidence the copyist had access to more than one examplar. Out of 165 variant readings in the manuscript, only nine are considered "singular" or "unique" readings. Five of these are according to Parker "obviously false", and there are therefore only four new textual readings. Parker concludes that "none of these readings is original." After a full overview of the manuscript, Parker summises: "It is sometimes suggested that the papyri have not had any genuine effect on the printed text of the New Testament. The example of this witness alone is sufficient to disprove the claim." Biblical scholar Philip Comfort declares that " has superior testimony to that of , which aligns with and together form the second-best witness to the book of Revelation."
The manuscript has evidence of the following (names/titles considered sacred in
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
): (''Israel''), (''his''), (''Father''), // (''God''), / (''man''), (''Spirit''), // (''heaven''), (''Master/Lord''). The manuscript uses the
Greek numeral
Greek numerals, also known as Ionic, Ionian, Milesian, or Alexandrian numerals, is a system of writing numbers using the letters of the Greek alphabet. In modern Greece, they are still used for ordinal numbers and in contexts similar to those ...
system, with no number extant as being written out in full.
Text
The manuscript is considered to be a witness to the
Alexandrian text-type
In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Alexandrian text-type is one of the main text types. It is the text type favored by the majority of modern textual critics and it is the basis for most modern (after 1900) Bible translations.
Over 5,8 ...
, following the text of
Codex Alexandrinus
The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...
(A) and
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, written on parchment. It is designated by the siglum C or 04 in the Biblical manuscript#Gregory-Aland, Gregory-Aland numbering of New ...
(C).
In a comparison of the textual readings of this manuscript, Parker notes it is "usually right" when it agrees with A as opposed to C, incorrect when it disagrees with both, and only right less than half the time when it disagrees with A. Accordingly, this shows that the text seen in A "confirms the superior quality" of A as opposed to the text seen in C. The textual variants against
Codex 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 deuterocanonica ...
and show that is more often right in reading the same as as opposed to . The manuscript also agrees with some later minuscules, which Parker states that "new discoveries sometimes show late witnesses to contain variants that are far older than we could have known." According to Parker, the agreement of readings between this manuscripts and A and C "confirms the high quality of ."
An interesting element of is that it apparently gives the
number of the beast
The number of the beast (, ) is associated with the The Beast (Revelation), Beast of Revelation in chapter 13, verse 18 of the Book of Revelation. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of ...
in Revelation 13:18 as 616 (
chi,
iota
Iota (; uppercase Ι, lowercase ι; ) is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh. Letters that arose from this letter include the Latin I and J, the Cyrillic І (І, і), Yi (Ї, ї), and J ...
,
stigma / ), rather than the majority reading of
666 (chi, xi, stigma / ΧΞϚ)), as does
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, written on parchment. It is designated by the siglum C or 04 in the Biblical manuscript#Gregory-Aland, Gregory-Aland numbering of New ...
. According to the transcription of the
INTF, a conjectured reading of the manuscript, due to the space left, is [] η (''666 or 616''), therefore not giving a definite number to the beast.
; Some notable readings
[Taken from NA27 Edition Apparatus, and http://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/nt-transcripts ]
: και το τριτον της σεληνης (''and a third of the moon''):
:: omit. :
:: incl. :
A
: ο απολλυων (''the Destroyer'') : 1740
: απολλυων (''Apollyon'') : ''pc'' gig 2344
:'' / τεσσάρων'' (''fourth'')
:: incl. : Majority of manuscripts vg
cl sy
:: omit. :
A 0207 1611 2053 2344 ''pc'' lat
sy co
: λεγουσαι (''they said'') :
C 051 1006 1611 1841 1854 2329 2344
: λεγοντες (''saying'') :
A 2053 2351
.
: το ονομα (''name'') :
co Bea.
: τα ονοματα αυτων (''their names'') :
P 051 1006 1841 2329 al lat
: το ονομα αυτου (''his name'') :
C 1854 2053 ''pc''
Ir Prim.
:''εκ του ουρανου'' (''out of heaven'')
:: omit. : 175.
:: incl. :
A Majority of manuscripts
: κατοικουντας (''who inhabit'') :
A 2049 69.
: καθημενους (''dwelling'') :
C P 1611 1854 2053 2329 ''pc''
sy Or
:' (2600) : .
:' / ''χιλιων εξακοσιων'' (1600) :
A 42 69 82 93 177 325 456 498 627 699 1849 2138 2329 Majority of manuscripts
See also
*
List of New Testament papyri
A New Testament papyrus is a copy of a portion of the New Testament made on papyrus. To date, over 140 such papyri are known. In general, they are considered the earliest witnesses to the original text of the New Testament.
This elite status amo ...
*
Oxyrhynchus papyri
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrology, papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient Landfill, rubbish dump near Oxyrhync ...
*
Stigma (letter)
Stigma (ϛ) is a Greek ligatures, ligature of the Greek alphabet, Greek letters sigma (letter), sigma (Σ) and tau (letter), tau (Τ), which was used in writing Greek between the Middle Ages and the 19th century. It is also used as a Greek nume ...
References
External links
* Oxford Universit
'P. Oxy. LXVI 4499'* Images of the fragments o
P. Oxy. LXVI 4499
{{DEFAULTSORT:Papyrus 0115
New Testament papyri
4499
3rd-century biblical manuscripts
Papyri from ancient Egypt
Early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament
Book of Revelation papyri