Magdalen papyrus

The "Magdalen" papyrus was purchased in Luxor, Egypt in 1901 by Reverend Charles Bousfield Huleatt (1863–1908), who identified the Greek fragments as portions of the Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 26:23 and 31) and presented them to Magdalen College, Oxford, where they are catalogued as P. Magdalen Greek 17 (Gregory-Aland 64) and whence they have their name. When the fragments were finally published by Colin Henderson Roberts in 1953, illustrated with a photograph, the hand was characterized as "an early predecessor of the so-called 'Biblical Uncial'" which began to emerge towards the end of the 2nd century. The uncial style is epitomised by the later biblical Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. Comparative paleographical analysis has remained the methodological key for dating the manuscript. Papyrologists Carsten Thiede used an assortment of papyrological techniques and comparative analysis of manuscripts from Egypt, Italy and Masada to arrive at a date of 66 CE for the Magdalen papyrus.[1] The Magdalen papyrus is almost like a twin to P. Oxy 246 which is dated to 66CE. [2] Thiede’s analysis of first century comparisons is established on external, objective grounds and have not been disproven based on external, objective papyrological evidence. For example, the papyrus uses an early style of uncial where the letters are equally thick, noticeable widening on some letters and its bilinear in effort to keep the middle line which are all established hallmarks of first century CE styles.[3] The assimilation of multiple early and mid first century styles further strengthens the case on objective grounds that the papyrus dates to the mid first century CE.

Papyrus 64
New Testament manuscript
Sign64
TextMatthew 26:23,31
Date66 CE
ScriptGreek
FoundCoptos, Egypt
Now atBarcelona, Fundación Sant Lluc Evangelista, Inv. Nr. 1;
Oxford, Magdalen College, Gr. 18
TypeAlexandrian text-type
CategoryI

The fragments are written on both sides, indicating they came from a codex rather than a scroll. More fragments, published in 1956 by Ramon Roca-Puig, cataloged as P. Barc. Inv. 1 (Gregory-Aland 67), were determined by Roca-Puig and Roberts to come from the same codex as the Magdalen fragments, a view which has remained the scholarly consensus.

Date

64 was originally given a 3rd-century date by Charles Huleatt, who donated the Manuscript to Magdalen College. Papyrologist A. S. Hunt then studied the manuscript and dated it to the early 4th century. After initially preferring a 3rd or possibly 4th century dating for the papyrus, Colin Roberts published the manuscript and gave it a dating of c. 200, which was confirmed by three other leading papyrologists: Harold Bell, T. C. Skeat and E. G. Turner.[4] In late 1994, Carsten Peter Thiede proposed redating the Magdalen papyrus to the middle of the 1st century (AD 37 to 70). This attracted considerable publicity, as journalists interpreted the claim optimistically. Thiede's official article appeared in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik in 1995. A version edited for the layman was co-written with Matthew d'Ancona and presented as The Jesus Papyrus, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1996. (also published as: Eyewitness to Jesus, 1996, New York: Doubleday). Thiede's redating of the papyrus was based on comparative analysis of the script with selected samples from Egypt and Palestine. He claimed to see similarities between the script of the Magdalen papyrus and that of dated documents from the 1st century CE, such as P.Oxy. II 246 (66 CE). Thiede's hypothesis has been viewed with scepticism by nearly all established papyrologists and biblical scholars.[5]

Philip Comfort and David Barret in their book Text of the Earliest NT Greek Manuscripts argue for a more general date of 150–175 for the manuscript, and also for 4 and 67, which they argue came from the same codex. 4 was used as stuffing for the binding of “a codex of Philo, written in the later 3rd century and found in a jar which had been walled up in a house at Coptos [in 250].”[6] If 4 was part of this codex, then the codex may have been written roughly 100 years prior or earlier.[7] Comfort and Barret also show that this 4/64/67 has affinities with a number of the late 2nd-century papyri.[8]

Magdalen Papyrus

Comfort and Barret "tend to claim an earlier date for many manuscripts included in their volume than might be allowed by other palaeographers."[9] The Novum Testamentum Graece, a standard reference for the Greek witnesses, lists 4 and 64/67 separately, giving the former a date of the 3rd century, while the latter is assigned c. 200.[10] Charlesworth has concluded 'that 64+67 and 4, though written by the same scribe, are not from the same ... codex.'[11] The most recent and thorough palaeographic assessment of the papyrus concluded that "until further evidence is forthcoming perhaps a date from mid-II to mid-IV should be assigned to the codex."[12]

See also

Notes
  1. Thiede, Carsten Peter; d'Ancona, Matthew (2000). The Jesus Papyrus: The Most Sensational Evidence on the Origin of the Gospel Since the Discover of the Dead Sea Scrolls. ISBN 9780385488983.
  2. "Bible Review". 1996.
  3. Ewen, Pamela Binnings (2013). Faith on Trial: Analyze the Evidence for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. ISBN 9781433680052.
  4. Colin Roberts, An Early Papyrus pp. 233–237; Nongbri, God's Library 265-267
  5. See Head, Peter M. "The Date of the Magdalen Papyrus of Matthew (P. Magd. Gr. 17 = P64): A Response to C. P. Thiede" Archived 2010-11-25 at the Wayback Machine, (1995) Tyndale Bulletin 46. Retrieved on 25 October 2013
  6. Colin Roberts, Manuscript, Society, and Belief in Early Christian Egypt pp. 8
  7. Philip Wesley Comfort and David P. Barrett, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 2001), pp. 50–53
  8. i.e. P. Oxy. 224, 661, 2334, 2404 2750, P. Ryl. 16, 547, and P. Vindob G 29784
  9. Robinson, Maurice A. Review "Philip W. Comfort and David P. Barrett, eds. The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts" (2001) TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism v. 8
  10. Nestle-Aland. Novum Testamentum Graece (1997). Barbara and Kurt Aland, eds. NA27 Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. pp. 684, 687
  11. Charlesworth, "P64+67 and P4," 604
  12. Barker, "The Dating of New Testament Papyri," 578

References

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