Magdalenpapyrus

The Magdalen Papyrus (or Papyrus 64, designated by Gregory - Aland Sigel 64) is an early copy of the Greek New Testament. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew contains the verses 3,9,15; 5,20-22,25-28; 26,7-8,10,14-15,22-23,31-33. The five fragments have a size of 20x14cm and are described in two columns of 38-39 lines.

History

The Magdalen papyrus was purchased in Luxor ( Egypt) in 1901 by the Anglican priest Charles Bousfield Huleatt ( 1863-1908 ), who identified the Greek fragments as parts of Matthew's Gospel. He handed the Magdalen College, Oxford, where they were cataloged as P. Magdalen Greek 17 ( Gregory -Aland 64 ), and thus got their name. The first publication was in 1953 by Colin H. Roberts with some photographs of the fragments. He characterized the handwriting as " an early forerunner of the so-called ' biblical Unzialhandschrift ' ", which began to develop at the end of the 2nd century. This Unzialenstil embodied by the later biblical Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. A comparative study by paleography gave the now commonly accepted dating to about 200 AD

The fragments are written on both sides, so they do not come from a scroll, but from a codex. Other fragments, published in 1956 by Ramon Roca -Puig and as P. Barc. Inv. 1 ( Gregory -Aland 67) are cataloged, the same Roca -Puig and Roberts Code as the Magdalen fragments have been assigned. This view corresponds to the current scholarly consensus.

Dating

It was originally dated to the third century 64 by Charles Huelatt. He had handed over the manuscript to the Magdalen College. Later, the papyrologist AS Hunt examined the manuscript and dated it to the early fourth century. Colin Roberts looked at this dating as far too late, dated to a time around 200 and published the manuscript. This view was supported by three other leading Papyrologists: Harold Bell, TC Skeat and EG Turner and has been the generally accepted dating for 64