Papyrus 9

Papyrus 9 ( in the Gregory- Aland numbering 9) is an early manuscript of the New Testament in Greek. The first publication was Oxyrhynchus papyri as III 402 The papyrus manuscript dates from the early 3rd century. The manuscript consists of a fragment of a leaf, which contains the verses of 1 John 4:11-12,14-17 letter and is described in a column on each side. It is the oldest known fragment of 1 John letter.

The manuscript was written very carelessly. The handwriting is rough and irregular, and the manuscript contains some irregular spellings.

The Greek text of the code corresponds to the Alexandrian text-type. Aland placed it in Category I. But the manuscript is too short to have certainty in it.

It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus (Egypt) and is currently being kept in the Harvard Semitic Museum ( Houghton Library) under the signature MS Gr SM3736 in Cambridge.