Papyrus 46

New Testament manuscripts
Papyri • Uncials • Minuscules • Lectionaries
Papyrus 46
	A sheet of P46 with the text of 2 Corinthians 11.33-12.9
text	Paul's letters
language	Greek
date	3rd century
Storage location	Dublin , University of Michigan
Type	Alexandrian text type
category	I.
note	close to minuscule 1739

Papyrus 46 (also referred to with the seal ⁴⁶ ) is one of the oldest existing manuscripts of the New Testament . The most likely date of origin is between the years 175 and 225 AD. ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$

The papyrus was once part of the Chester Beatty papyri . According to the Bible Research website, it contains (in that order) the last eight chapters of Romans , the complete letter to Hebrews , almost all of 1 and 2 Corinthians , the complete letters to the Ephesians , Galatians , Philippians and Colossians, and two chapters of 1 Letters to the Thessalonians . All leaves have lost a few lines on the underside due to aging.

content

${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$ ⁴⁶ contains the text of Paul's letters almost completely. Some sheets are missing, while others can still be found in the Chester Beatty Library (CB) or the University of Michigan (Mich.).

Folio	content	place
1-7	Romans 1,1-5,17	is missing
8th	Romans 5: 17-6: 14	CB
9-10	Romans 6.14-8.15	is missing
11-15	Romans 8.15-11.35	CB
16-17	Romans 11.35-14.8	Me.
18 (fragment)	Romans 14.9-15.11	CB
19-28	Romans 15:11 - Hebrews 8 : 8	Me.
29	Heb 8.9-9.10	CB
30th	Heb 9: 10-26	Me.
31-39	Heb 9:26 - 1 Corinthians 2: 3	CB
40	1 Cor 2, 3–3, 5	Me.
41-69	1 Cor 3: 6 - 2 Corinthians 9 : 7	CB
70-85	2 Cor 9: 7 - End, Ephesians , Galatians 1 : 1–6.10	Me.
86-94	Gal 6:10 - End, Philippians , Colossians , 1 Thessalonians 1,1-2,3	CB
95-96	1. Thes 2,3-5,5	is missing
97 (fragment)	1. Thess 5.5; 23-28	CB
98-104	Content unsure (see below)	is missing

Page size

The pages have a size of about 28 × 16 cm and are described in a column averaging 11.5 cm. There are between 26 and 32 lines of text on each page, although both the line width and the number of lines increase towards the end. The lines at the bottom are damaged: 1–2 lines are missing in the first quarter, 2–3 lines in the middle half and up to seven lines in the last quarter.

The missing leaves

The seven missing leaves at the beginning obviously contained the beginning of Romans. However, the content of the missing seven leaves at the end is not certain. There would be enough space for the Second Letter to the Thessalonians and perhaps also for Philemon , but not for the Pastoral Letters . Kenyon calculated that 2 Thessalonians would need two sheets, leaving five sheets or 10 pages. In this font size, 1st Timothy needed 8.25 pages, 2nd Timothy 6 pages, Titus 3.5 pages and Philemon 1.5 pages - a total of 19.25 pages, although only 10 are available.

Reading marks

In the books of Romans, Hebrews, and the later chapters of 1 Corinthians, there are small and thick lines or dots. It is generally agreed that these were added later by a reader of the manuscript, since the color is always weaker than that of the text itself. These markings seem to be analogous classifications, as they are in today's Bibles in the form of chapters and Verse is found. Such markings can also be found in parts of ⁴⁵ . It is thus an indication that both codes were used for reading in the church. ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$

origin

The origin of ⁴⁶ is unknown, although it is very likely that it was originally discovered in the ruins of an old Christian church or monastery. According to the discovery in Cairo , the manuscript was broken into by a trader. Ten sheets were purchased by Chester Beatty in 1930, Michigan purchased six sheets in 1931 and 24 more in 1933. In 1935, Chester Beatty purchased another 46 sheets. His acquisitions today form the Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri , consisting of eleven codices of biblical material. ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$

Dating

As with other manuscripts, the dating of the manuscript on the basis of paleography alone is quite uncertain. The first editor of parts of the papyri, HA Sanders, suggested a possible date in the late second half of the third century. A later editor, FG Kenyon, preferred to date it to the first half of the 3rd century. The manuscript is now sometimes dated to around 200. Young Kyu Kim, on the other hand, suggested an extraordinarily early date around 80 AD. Griffin criticized Kim's dating, placing the “most likely date” below 175–225, with a “95% confidence interval” for dates between 150 and 250.

literature

Kurt Aland : Concise List of the Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament - in connection with Michael Welte, edited. by Kurt Aland. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1994, 2nd revised and supplemented edition, ISBN 3-11-011986-2 , (Work on New Testament Text Research Vol. 1).

Web links

Robert B. Waltz. 'NT Manuscripts: Papyri, Papyri ^46. '

{\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}

Reading the Papyri: ⁴⁶ ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$ from the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection
Images of ⁴⁶ ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$ on earlybible.com

Remarks

↑ ^a ^b Griffin, B (1996), "The Paleographical Dating of P-46" (PDF; 100 kB).
↑ Michael Marlowe, Papyrus 46 .
^ FG Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri. III.1 Pauline Epistles and Revelation. Text , London: E. Walker, 1934
^ HA Sanders, A Third Century Papyrus Codex of the Epistles of Paul , Ann Arbor 1935, ¹⁷ . ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$

^ FG Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri: I. General Introduction , (London: E. Walker), 1933, ⁵ ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$
^ CH Roberts, Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt , p7
^ HA Sanders, A Third-Century Papyrus Codex of the Epistles of Paul , Ann Arbor 1935, pp. 13-15.
^ FG Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, part 3 , London 1936, pp. Xiv-xv.
↑ Willker, Wieland Complete List of Greek NT Papyri ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Last updated: April 17, 2008. Accessed August 26, 2008. @1@ 2

↑ Young Kyu Kim, Palaeographical Dating of P46 to the Later First Century ( Memento of November 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), in: Biblica , 69, 1988, p. 248.

↑ Email from Griffin, 2005 added to his 1996 essay.

[Griffin-1] Griffin, B (1996), "The Paleographical Dating of P-46" (PDF; 100 kB).

[2] Michael Marlowe, Papyrus 46 .

[3] FG Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri. III.1 Pauline Epistles and Revelation. Text , London: E. Walker, 1934

[4] HA Sanders, A Third Century Papyrus Codex of the Epistles of Paul , Ann Arbor 1935, ¹⁷ . ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$

[5] FG Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri: I. General Introduction , (London: E. Walker), 1933, ⁵ ${\ displaystyle {\ mathfrak {P}}}$

[6] CH Roberts, Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt , p7

[7] HA Sanders, A Third-Century Papyrus Codex of the Epistles of Paul , Ann Arbor 1935, pp. 13-15.

[8] FG Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, part 3 , London 1936, pp. Xiv-xv.

[9] Willker, Wieland Complete List of Greek NT Papyri ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Last updated: April 17, 2008. Accessed August 26, 2008. @1@ 2

[10] Young Kyu Kim, Palaeographical Dating of P46 to the Later First Century ( Memento of November 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), in: Biblica , 69, 1988, p. 248.

[11] Email from Griffin, 2005 added to his 1996 essay.