Rylands Papyrus P52
Overview
A papyrus scrap the size of a credit card carrying lines from John 18 on both sides, often cited as the earliest known fragment of the New Testament. Acquired in Egypt by Bernard Grenfell in 1920 and identified by Colin Roberts in 1934, it is usually dated to the first half of the 2nd century, though some scholars argue for a later date. Written on both sides, it came from a codex rather than a scroll.
Related Manuscripts
Knossos Linear B Tablets
Thousands of clay tablets from the Minoan palace at Knossos, written in Linear B and dated around 1400 to 1200 BCE. Michael Ventri...
Derveni Papyrus
The oldest substantially intact manuscript found in Greece, carbonized and preserved in a tomb at Derveni, dated around 340 BCE. I...
Herculaneum Papyri
Over 1,800 carbonized papyrus rolls from the Villa of the Papyri, buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE. Mostly works of the Epicurean philo...
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Half a million papyrus fragments excavated from rubbish mounds of Oxyrhynchus since 1897 by Grenfell and Hunt. They include lost G...