Puneet Varma (Editor)

Papyrus 20

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Name
  
P. Oxy. 1171

Date
  
3rd century

Found
  
Egypt

Text
  
Epistle of James 2-3 †

Script
  
Greek

Papyrus 20

Now at
  
Princeton University Library

Papyrus 20 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by P 20, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Epistle of James, but it only contains Chapter 2:19-3:9. The manuscript has been paleographically assigned to the early 3rd century.

Description

The original size of the leaves was 17 by 12 cm.

The text is neatly written in upright semi-cursive letters. The main Nomina Sacra are used, but πατηρ/pater/father and ανθρωπος/anthropos/man are written out in full.

The Greek text of this codex is representative of the Alexandrian text-type (rather proto-Alexandrian). Aland placed it in Category I. This manuscript shows the greatest agreement with Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, but not with codices Ephraemi, Regius and other late Alexandrian manuscripts.

Philip Comfort has conjectured that the scribe who wrote P 20 was also the same scribe who wrote P 27, where the Greek letters α, β, δ, ε, λ, ι, μ, ν, ο, π, ρ, σ, ψ, υ, φ, ω are formed identically in both manuscripts.

It is currently housed at the Princeton University Library (AM 4117) in Princeton.

References

Papyrus 20 Wikipedia