Manuscripts

Papyrus P52 (Rylands Library Papyrus)

Era: c. AD 100-150
Location: Egypt
Discovered: published 1934

The oldest known fragment of any New Testament document — a credit-card-sized scrap of John's Gospel containing portions of John 18, dated to within a generation of the autograph.

The find

P52 is a small papyrus fragment containing John 18:31-33 on one side and John 18:37-38 on the other. Acquired in Egypt in 1920 and identified by C.H. Roberts in 1934, paleographic comparison places it in the first half of the 2nd century AD. Even on the latest credible dating, this means a copy of John was circulating far from its place of composition within decades of John writing.

Why it matters

P52 refutes the once-popular claim that John's Gospel was a late second- or third-century composition. The physical evidence supports both the traditional authorship of the Gospel and an early date for its writing.

Cross-linked Scripture

Doctrine check

Sources

·Roberts, C.H. (1935). An Unpublished Fragment of the Fourth Gospel in the John Rylands Library
·Comfort, P.W. & Barrett, D.P. (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts
·John Rylands Library: high-res images of P52
·Rylands Papyrus P52 (Wikipedia)