Papyrus 20

Fragment of the Epistle of James

New Testament manuscript

Papyrus 𝔓²⁰
New Testament manuscript
Epistle of James 3:3–3:9 on verso side
Name	P. Oxy. 1171
Text	Epistle of James 2-3 †
Date	3rd century
Script	Greek
Found	Egypt
Now at	Princeton University Library
Cite	B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri IX, (London 1912), pp. 9-11
Size	11.5 by 4.5 cm
Type	Alexandrian text-type
Category	I

**Grenfell and Hunt**

Bernard Grenfell		Arthur Hunt

Papyrus 20 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 𝔓²⁰, 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.^[1]

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.^[2]

The Greek text of this codex is representative of the Alexandrian text-type (rather proto-Alexandrian). Aland placed it in Category I.^[1] This manuscript shows the greatest agreement with Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus,^[3] but not with codices Ephraemi, Regius and other late Alexandrian manuscripts.^[2]

Philip Comfort has conjectured that the scribe who wrote 𝔓²⁰ was also the same scribe who wrote 𝔓²⁷, 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.^[3]

It is currently housed at the Princeton University Library (AM 4117) in Princeton.^[1]^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
^ ^a ^b B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri IX, (London 1912), p. 9.
^ ^a ^b Comfort, Philip W.; David P. Barrett (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-8423-5265-9.
^ "Liste Handschriften". Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved 23 August 2011.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Papyrus 20.

Robert B. Waltz. NT Manuscripts: Papyri, 𝔓²⁰ Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism
Images of the 𝔓²⁰ at the Princeton University Library Papyrus
P. Oxy. 1171 at the Oxyrhynchus Online
GA Papyrus 20 Archived 2019-04-25 at the Wayback Machine. Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts