{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Alternative Identifier(s)", "value": "61624; P. Ryl. Gr. 3 457; Gregory-Aland P52" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Greek P 457" }, { "label": "Acquisition", "value": "Part of a selection of papyri purchased on behalf of the John Rylands Library by Bernard P. Grenfell (1869-1926) during a trip to Egypt in 1920. The St John Fragment was identified by the papyrologist Colin H. Roberts in 1935 while he was preparing the third volume of the Catalogue of Greek and Latin Papyri in the John Rylands Library. Recognising the importance of the manuscript, he immediately published a description and transcription of the fragment." }, { "label": "Layout", "value": "

1 column, 7 surviving lines (from approximately 18), part of top margin survives.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "mid to late 2nd century CE" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Oxyrhynchus (modern Bahnasa )." }, { "label": "Origin", "value": "Written: Oxyrhynchus (modern Bahnasa ). Has been dated to mid to late 2nd century CE (cf. Clarysse and Orsini (2012), p. 462 and 470), but scholars have argued for dates as early as the late 1st century and as late as the third century." }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "

The fragment is part of a leaf from a papyrus codex.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Script", "value": "

Alexandrian stylistic class script.The handwriting is good and careful, the scribe employed the diaeresis, but, as far as we can tell, neither breathings nor punctuation.<\/div><\/div>" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "Description based on C. H. Roberts, Catalogue of the Greek and Latin Papyri in the John Rylands Library Manchester, Volume III, Theological and Literary Texts (Nos. 457-551).<\/i> (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1938)." }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "The John Rylands Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "1 fragment. Fragment height: 89 mm, width: 60 mm." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "Greek P 457" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Bible. New Testament. Greek--Versions.; Christianity and culture" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Carly Richardson, Elizabeth Gow" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

Papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John, Chapter 18, verses 31-33 (recto) and 37-38 (verso), in which Christ appears before Pilate. One of The John Rylands Library's most famous artefacts, this small scrap of papyrus only measures 8.9 x 6.0 cm, but provides a wealth of information. <\/p>

Widely regarded as the earliest portion of any New Testament writing ever found, it provides us with invaluable evidence on the spread of Christianity in the provinces of the Roman Empire in the first centuries of our era. The first editor dated the Fragment to the first half of the second century (between 100-150 CE). The date was estimated palaeographically, by comparing the handwriting with other manuscripts. Recent research points to a date nearer to 200 CE, but there is as yet no convincing evidence that any earlier fragments from the New Testament survive. <\/p>

The majority of papyri which survive from this date are in the form of book-rolls, written in a series of columns on one side of the papyrus sheet. This fragment has writing from the same work on both sides, so would have been part of a codex (a book with turning pages).The codex form was taken up by early Christian writers and quickly became the usual format for Christian texts. In a codex where we know the size of the margin and roughly what text is missing between two sides of a page, we can infer the approximate size of the original manuscript. In this case, the pages probably would have been about 210x200mm, with eighteen lines on each page. If the manuscript contained only the Gospel of John, it would have been about 130 pages long.<\/p><\/p>