Papyrus 75

Description

P ⁷⁵ was discovered in the 1950s and once belonged to the Swiss book collector Martin Bodmer (thus its original designation, P.Bodmer XIV-XV). It was sold in 2006 and donated to the Vatican Library, which now refers to the manuscript as “Hanna Papyrus 1 (Mater Verbi).” Originally '[it] contained about 144 pages ... of which 102 have survived, either in whole or in part.' It 'contains about half the text of ... two Gospels' – Luke (Papyrus Bodmer XIV) and John (Papyrus Bodmer XV) in Greek. It was originally assigned on the basis of its handwriting to circa 175-225 CE, but it has recently been asserted on the basis of comparative evidence that handwriting very similar to that of P ⁷⁵ was still in use in the fourth century. In any event, P ⁷⁵ is one of the earliest manuscripts (along with P ⁴) of the Gospel of Luke. 'The surviving fragment contains Luke 3:18-24:53 ...' An unusual feature of this codex is that when the Gospel of Luke ends, the Gospel of John begins on the same page.

It lacks text of Christ's agony at Gethsemane (Luke 22:43–44) and Pericope Adulterae.

It uses a staurogram in Luke 14:27.

Text

The Greek text of this codex is a representative of the Alexandrian text-type. Kurt Aland placed it in Category I. The text is closer to Codex Vaticanus than to Codex Sinaiticus. Agreement between P ⁷⁵ and codex B is 92% in John, and 94% in Luke. It concurs with P ¹¹¹.

According to Kurt Aland, P ⁷⁵ is the key for understanding the primitive textual history of New Testament, but recently Brent Nongbri has argued that restricting the date of P ⁷⁵ to the late second or early third century is not realistic, and that the similarity of the text of P ⁷⁵ to that of Codex Vaticanus might be better explained by considering both books as products of the fourth century.

Textual variants

In Luke 8:21 it reads αυτον instead of αυτους; the reading is supported by Minuscule 705 and Codex Veronensis.

In Luke 11:4, the phrase αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου (but deliver us from evil) is omitted. The omission of this phrase is also supported by the following manuscripts: Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Codex Regius, f¹, 700, vg, syr^s, cop^{sa, bo}, arm, geo.

In Luke 16:19 the manuscript reads Ανθρωπος δε τις ην πλουσιος, ονοματι Ν[ιν]ευης, και ενεδιδυσκετο "There was a rich man, with the name N[in]eue, who clothed himself", This reading has support from the Sahidic version and the two Greek minuscule manuscripts 36 and 37, in addition to a scholion of uncertain date have ευρον δε τινες και του πλουσιου εν τισιν αντιγραφοις τουνομα Νινευης λεγομενον.

Luke 22:43-44 is omitted, as in codices א*, A, B, T, 1071.

In Luke 23:34, P ⁷⁵ has omitted the words: "And Jesus said: Father forgive them, they know not what they do." This omission is supported by the manuscripts Sinaiticus^a, B, D*, W, Θ, 0124, 1241, it^{a, d}, syr^s, cop^sa, cop^bo.

Luke 24:26

John 10:7

The manuscript also lacks the Pericope of the Adulteress, usually placed in Translations at John 7:53-8:11. This omission is supported by the manuscripts Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus and P ⁶⁶.

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