Manuscripts
Papyrus P75 (Bodmer XIV-XV)
- Era
- c. AD 175-225
- Location
- Egypt
- Discovered
- published 1961
An exceptionally accurate late-2nd / early-3rd-century papyrus containing large portions of Luke and John. Its text is so close to Codex Vaticanus that it proved careful copying went back at least to the second century.
The find
P75 is a single codex containing most of Luke (chs. 3-24) and most of John (chs. 1-15). Its text is extraordinarily close to the much later Codex Vaticanus, demonstrating the existence of a stable, carefully transmitted text-form by the late 2nd century.
Why it matters
P75 refutes the claim that the New Testament text was wildly fluid in the first centuries. The near-perfect agreement between P75 and Vaticanus — separated by roughly 150 years of copying — shows that a disciplined textual tradition existed almost from the beginning.
Cross-linked Scripture
Doctrine check
Sources
- ·Martin, V. & Kasser, R. (1961). Papyrus Bodmer XIV-XV
- ·Comfort, P.W. & Barrett, D.P. (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts
- ·Papyrus 75 (Wikipedia overview)
- ·Vatican Library: Papyrus Hanna 1 (P75)
See also
