The Papyrus Chester Beatty VI (also signed as Rahlfs 963, Michigan.apis.2494, 6 P. Beatty 6) are fragments of a papyrus manuscript of the

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 ...

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

(an early translation of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Chester Beatty papyri The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri or simply the Chester Beatty Papyri are a group of early papyrus manuscripts of biblical texts. The manuscripts are in Greek and are of Christian origin. There are eleven manuscripts in the group, seven con ...

. It contains parts of the

Book of Numbers The Book of Numbers (from Biblical Greek, Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi'', , ''Bəmīḏbar'', ; ) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history; its final f ...

and

Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...

. 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 ...

), it has been dated to 200 CE.

Description

; Manuscript The manuscript is 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 ...

(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, ...

), which has survived in only 50 mostly damaged leaves, written in small uncials in an expertise script. The manuscript contains the book of Numbers chapters 5, 13, 25 and Deuteronomy 1, 9–12; 18; 19; 27–34. ; Text The text of Numbers is similar to the text of Codex Vaticanus (B), the text of the Deuteronomy to Codex Colberto-Sarravianus (G) and Codex Washingtonensis (Θ). ; Version This manuscript is important for containing substantial portions of Deuteronomy and predates Codex Vaticanus (B) by almost 200 years. It also contains the name Joshua written as a '' nomen sacrum'', due to the Greek Ἰησοῦς being the same for both the names Joshua and Jesus.

History

The fragments were acquired in Egypt before the end of 1931 by the American collector

Alfred Chester Beatty Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, (7 February 1875 – 19 January 1968) was an American mining magnate and philanthropist. A successful businessman, he was given the epithet the "King of Copper", in reference to his fortune. He became a naturalised Br ...

. Most of the fragments are in the

Chester Beatty Library The Chester Beatty Library, now known as the Chester Beatty, is a museum and library in Dublin. It was established in Ireland in 1953, to house the collections of mining magnate, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. The present museum, on the grounds of ...

in Dublin with the shelf number P. Ch. Beatty VI, and some are in the Ann Arbor Library of the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in Ann Arbor, shelf number P. Mich. Inv. 5554.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chester Beatty VI 2nd-century biblical manuscripts 3rd-century biblical manuscripts Septuagint manuscripts Manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Library