Read Thru the New Testament in a Year Devotional
All of the books of the New Attestation were written inside a lifetime of the expiry of Jesus of Nazareth. Non so the so-called "other gospels," which were pseudepigraphical Gnostic works written 100-300 years afterward. To date nosotros have over 5800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, with an phenomenal two.6 million pages of biblical text.1 While some of these manuscripts are small-scale and fragmentary, the average size of a New Testament manuscript is 450 pages.2 Add to this the ancient manuscripts in Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, etc. which number in the tens of thousands,three and you realize that there is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to New Attestation manuscripts. No other ancient text tin can compare with the New Testament when it comes to the sheer volume of manuscripts, nor when nosotros consider how shut the earliest manuscripts are to the originals.
Then what are the earliest New Testament manuscripts?
Papayri P90 and P104
Housed in the Sackler Library Papyrology Room at the University of Oxford, England are two of the earliest New Testament manuscripts.
- P90 (P. Oxy. 3523), is a modest fragment of papyrus with portions of the Gospel of John (xviii:36-nineteen:vii) on both sides in Greek. It has been dated paleographically to the second century A.D.4 This text is part of the Oxyrhynchus papyri, a group of manuscripts discovered in the ancient garbage dump near Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.
- Papayrus P104 (P. Oxy. 4404) is a second-century papyrus fragment that contains Matt. 21:34-37 on the forepart, and traces of verses 43 and 45 on the back.v This manuscript is six.35 cm by 9.5cm in size.
Scholars date the writing of Matthew'due south gospel to the tardily fifty's or early on 60's in the showtime century. This is due in role to a comment by the church building father Irenaeus that "Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their ain dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church building."6 John'southward gospel is dated to the belatedly first century, after the composition of the other gospels. Again, Irenaeus, writing near the end of the second century states, "Afterward, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia."7 Early church building history records that John lived the final years of his life in Ephesus, dying as an erstwhile human being sometime near the end of the first century. This means that these two manuscripts date to within 100-150 years of the original autographs. For comparison, Pliny the Elder wrote his encyclopedia,Natural History, in the first century and the earliest manuscript nosotros have is from the 5th century – a gap of almost 400 years.8
Papyrus P98
Papyrus P98 (P. IFAO inv. 237b [+a]) is a manuscript fragment that contains verses from the showtime chapter of the book of Revelation. It was copied circa A.D. 100-200, likely in Egypt.9 The manuscript was first published by Guy Wagner in 1971, who dated it to the 2nd century. He did not recognize that it was a biblical text, yet, and it wasn't until 20 years later that Dieter Hagedorn identified it every bit coming from Rev. 1:13-xx. The manuscript is in the collection of L'Institut français d'archéologie orientale (IFAO) in Cairo, Egypt.
In about A.D. 185, Irenaus wrote that the volume of revelation was composed, "well-nigh in our mean solar day, towards the end of Domitian'due south reign."10 Domitian reigned from A.D. 81-96, which is one of the reasons many scholars believe the book of Revelation was written by the Apostle John sometime in the 90's. Thus, P98 was likely copied inside nearly 100 years of the original shorthand.
Papyrus P52
The primeval and most famous Greek New Attestation manuscript is the Ryland Papyrus P52, currently on brandish at the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, UK. It was purchased in 1920 by Bernard Grenfell on the Egyptian antiquities market. Nonetheless, it wasn't actually "discovered" until 1934 when it was translated past C. H. Roberts. Three of the leading papyrologists in Europe to whom Roberts sent photos of the fragment to dated it from A.D. 100-150, although most scholars today would apply a wider date range of the second century in general. P52 comes from a codex (ie. book form, not a scroll) and contains parts of seven lines from the John 18:31–33 on the forepart, and parts of seven lines from verses 37–38 on the back.
Front
ΟΙ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΙΗΜΙΝ ΟΥΚ ΕΞΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΠΟΚΤΕΙΝΑΙ
OYΔΕΝΑ ΙΝΑ Ο ΛΟΓΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΠΛΗΡΩΘΗ ΟΝ ΕΙ-
ΠΕΝ ΣHΜΑΙΝΩΝ ΠΟΙΩ ΘΑΝΑΤΩ ΗΜΕΛΛΕΝ ΑΠΟ-
ΘΝHΣΚΕΙΝ ΕΙΣΗΛΘΕΝ ΟΥΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΡΑΙΤΩ-
ΡΙΟΝ Ο ΠIΛΑΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΦΩΝΗΣΕΝ ΤΟΝ ΙΗΣΟΥΝ
ΚΑΙ ΕΙΠΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΣΥ ΕΙ O ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥ-
ΔAΙΩNthe Jews, "For usa it is not permitted to kill
anyone," so that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he sp-
oke signifying what kind of decease he was going to
dice. Entered therefore again into the Praeto-
rium Pilate and summoned Jesus
and said to him, "Thou art rex of the
Jews?"Dorsum
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΕΙΜΙ ΕΓΩ ΕΙΣ TOΥΤΟ ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΑΙ
ΚΑΙ (ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΤΟ) ΕΛΗΛΥΘΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ ΙΝΑ ΜΑΡΤY-
ΡΗΣΩ ΤΗ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΠΑΣ Ο ΩΝEΚ ΤΗΣ ΑΛΗΘΕI-
ΑΣ ΑΚΟΥΕΙ ΜΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΦΩΝΗΣΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΩ
Ο ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ ΤΙ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΚAΙ ΤΟΥΤO
ΕΙΠΩΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΞΗΛΘΕΝ ΠΡΟΣΤΟΥΣ ΙΟΥ-
ΔΑΙΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΟΙΣ ΕΓΩ ΟΥΔEΜΙΑΝ
ΕΥΡΙΣΚΩ ΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΑΙΤΙΑΝa King I am. Forthis I have been born
and (for this) I have come up into theworld so that I would
evidence to the truth. Anybody who isof the truth
hears of me my vocalism."Said to him
Pilate, "What is truth?"and this
having said, again he went out untothe Jews
and said to them, "I findnot i
fault in him."eleven
Equally mentioned higher up, the Apostle John likely wrote his gospel quondam belatedly in the outset century. This means that P52, the earliest New Attestation manuscript, was likely copied within 100 years or and so of the original. Moreover, since the manuscript was discovered in Arab republic of egypt, a pregnant distance away from Ephesus where the gospel was originally written, we can run across that the text of the Bible was being copied and widely circulated already in the second century A.D.
Other Possible Second Century Manuscripts
In addition to the higher up iv manuscripts which were copied sometime between A.D. 100-200, in that location are another group of manuscripts that may date to the second century besides (usually listed as dating from the 2nd– threerd centuries). These are led by the recently published Papyrus P137 (P. Oxy. 5345), the manuscript formerly known equally "First-century Mark." Subsequently six years of rumors, it was finally published in 2018 by Oxford papyrologists Daniela Colomo and Dirk Obbink, who dated information technology paleographically to A.D. 150-250.12 While not the outset-century manuscript that some were anticipating, information technology is nonetheless the earliest copy of the gospel of Mark in existence.
According to the database maintained past the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (www.csntm.org), there are 6 other manuscripts that are also dated to the 2nd or 3rd centuries.
| Manuscript | Contents | Linguistic communication | Date |
| Papyrus P32 | Titus | Greek | 2nd-iiird Century |
| Papyrus P46 | Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, Hebrews | Greek | 2nd-early on 3rd Century |
| Papyrus P66 | Gospel of John | Greek | 2nd-3rd Century |
| Papyrus P77 | Gospel of Matthew | Greek | 2nd-3rd Century |
| Papyrus P103 | Gospel of Matthew | Greek | 2nd-3rd Century |
| Capital GA0189 | Acts of the Apostles | Greek | twond-3rd Century |
SUMMARY
This brings the total number of possible second-century New Testament manuscripts to 11. These xi manuscripts, and in item, the four that are securely dated to the second century, are important links in chain connecting the Bible we read today to the original text of the New Testament.
Endnotes
1 Sheri Bell, "Testing the Historical Reliability of the New Testament."Josh McDowell Ministry. January ten, 2018. https://www.josh.org/historical-reliability-new-testament/ (Accessed February one, 2019)
ii Justin Taylor, "An Interview With Daniel B. Wallace On The New Testament Manuscripts."The Gospel Coalition.March 22, 2012. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/an-interview-with-daniel-b-wallace-on-the-new-testament-manuscripts/ (Accessed February 1, 2019)
3 Ibid.
4 "P90." The Middle for the Study of New Testament Manscripts. http://www.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P90 (Accessed February 1, 2019)
five "P104."The Centre for the Written report of New Testament Manuscripts.http://www.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P104 (Accessed February 1, 2019)
vi Irenaeus, Confronting Heresies, iii.1.1. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/irenaeus-book3.html (Accessed February two, 2019)
vii Ibid.
8 Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell,Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2017). Pg. 60.
9 "P98."The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts.http://world wide web.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P98 (Accessed February 1, 2019)
10 Irenaeus, Confronting Heresies, 5.xxx.three. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/irenaeus-book5.html (Accessed February 2, 2019)
11 Tim Challies, "The History of Christianity in 25 Objects: Rylands Library Papyrus P25."Challies.com. March 21, 2013. https://world wide web.challies.com/articles/the-history-of-christianity-in-25-objects-rylands-library-papyrus-p52/ (Accessed February two, 2019)
12 Elijah Hixson, "Despite Disappointing Some, New Mark Manuscript is Earliest Yet."Christianity Today.May 30, 2018. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/may-web-only/mark-manuscript-earliest-not-beginning-century-fcm.html (Accessed February 1, 2019)
diazmaddeauttle1972.blogspot.com
Source: https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2019/02/15/the-earliest-new-testament-manuscripts/
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