Papyrus 72 is the designation used by textual critics 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 ...
to describe portions of the so-called Bodmer Miscellaneous codex (''
Papyrus Bodmer VII-VIII''), namely the letters of
Jude,
1 Peter, and
2 Peter. These three books are collectively designated as in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts. These books seem to have been copied by the same scribe. Using the study of comparative handwriting styles (
paleography
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 has been assigned to the 3rd or 4th century.
Although the letters of Jude (
P.Bodmer VII) and 1-2 Peter (
P.Bodmer VIII) in this codex do not form a single continuous text, scholars still tend to refer to these three texts as a single early
New Testament papyrus.
Description
The manuscript is a codex (precursor to the modern
book
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...
). and is the earliest known manuscript of the epistles of Jude and 1 and 2 Peter in their entirety, though a few verses of Jude are in a fragment designated as (P. Oxy. 2684).
P.Bodmer VII (Jude) and P.Bodmer VIII (
1-
2 Peter) form part of a single book (the Bodmer Miscellaneous Codex). This book appeared on the antiquities market in Egypt and was bought by the Swiss collector Martin Bodmer. The same scribe who copied P.Bodmer VII and VIII is also thought to have copied P.Bodmer X and XI.
The manuscript contains the usual
nomina sacra
In Christian scribal practice, (singular: , Latin for 'sacred name') is the abbreviation of several frequently occurring divine names or titles, especially in Greek manuscripts of the Bible. A consists of two or more letters from the original w ...
for Messiah, Jesus, God, Lord, Spirit, Father, plus a few non-standard ones: (power), Σα (Sarah), Αβμ (Abraham), (Noah), (Archangel Michael), and Εχ (Enoch).
A facsimile edition of Bodmer Papyrus VIII was published in 2007 by Testimonio Compañía Editorial.
[http://www.testimonio.com/en/facsimil-colecciones/st-peter-facsimile.html]
Text
The Greek text of this codex is considered a representative of the
Alexandrian text-type. According to biblical scholars
Kurt and
Barbara Aland, it has "normal" text in 1-2 Peter, but a "free" text in Jude, both with certain peculiarities.
Aland placed it into
Category I of his New Testament manuscript classification system. Category I is for manuscripts "of a very special quality, i.e., manuscripts with a very high proportion of the early text... To this category have also been assigned all manuscripts to the beginning of the fourth century, regardless of further distinctions which should also be observed, in order to include the witnesses of the period before the tradition was channeled into types..." The text is close to that seen in
Codex Vaticanus
The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by siglum B or 03 in the Gregory-Aland numb ...
and
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 ...
.
See also
*
List of New Testament papyri
*
Bodmer Library
Notes
References
Further reading
* Beare, FW (1961
''The Text of I Peter in Papyrus 72'' Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 80, No.3, pp. 253–260.
* Jones, Brice C.
The Bodmer 'Miscellaneous' Codex and the Crosby-Schøyen Codex MS 193: A New Proposal" ''
JGRChJ'' (2011–2012), 9-20.
* Kubo, Sakae. ''𝔓72 and the Codex Vaticanus''. Studies and Documents 27. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1965.
* Strickland, Phillip David. 2017.
The Curious Case of 𝔓72: What an Ancient Manuscript Can Tell us about the Epistles of Peter and Jude. ''Journal of the Evangelical Society'' 60.4:781-792.
External links
𝔓72 Digital Images available for viewingat the CSNTM
Digital Images available for viewingat the Digital Vatican.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Papyrus 0072
New Testament papyri
3rd-century biblical manuscripts
Early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament
Manuscripts in the Vatican Library
Epistle of Jude papyri
First Epistle of Peter papyri
Second Epistle of Peter papyri
Bodmer papyri