Papyrus 4

Papyrus 4

New Testament manuscript papyri uncials minuscules lectionaries
Luke 6:4-16
Sign	$\mathfrak{P}$4
Text	Luke 1-6 (extensive parts of,)
Date	Late 2nd/3rd century
Script	Greek
Found	Coptos, Egypt
Now at	Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Suppl. Gr. 1120
Type	Alexandrian text-type
Category	I

Papyrus 4 ($\mathfrak{P}$⁴, part of Suppl. Gr. 1120) is an early New Testament papyrus of the Gospel of Luke in Greek. It is dated as being a late 2nd/early 3rd century manuscript.

Description

Fragment of a flyleaf with the title of the Gospel of Matthew, ευαγγελιον κ̣ατ̣α μαθ᾽θαιον (euangelion kata Maththaion). Dated to late 2nd or early 3rd century, it is the earliest manuscript title for Matthew and one of the earliest manuscript titles for any gospel (alongside with John's $\mathfrak{P}$⁶⁶ and $\mathfrak{P}$⁷⁵).

It is one of the earliest manuscripts (along with $\mathfrak{P}$⁷⁵) of the Gospel of Luke and contains extensive sections of its first six chapters. It is currently housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Suppl. Gr. 1120) in Paris.

It contains texts of Luke: 1:58-59; 1:62-2:1; 2:6-7; 3:8-4:2; 4:29-32, 34-35; 5:3-8; 5:30-6:16

The Greek text-type of this codex is a representative of the Alexandrian. Aland placed it in Category I. There is agreement with $\mathfrak{P}$⁷⁵ in 93%.

Notable readings

In Luke 6:2 — οὐκ ἔξεστιν (not lawful) for οὐκ ἔξεστιν ποιεῖν (not lawful to do); the reading is supported only by Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, (Codex Bezae), Codex Nitriensis, 700, lat, cop^sa, cop^bo, arm, geo;

$\mathfrak{P}$⁴ was used as stuffing for the binding of "a codex of Philo, written in the later third century and found in a jar which had been walled up in a house at Coptos [in 250]."

Philip Comfort and David Barret in their book Text of the Earliest NT Greek Manuscripts argue that $\mathfrak{P}$⁴ came from the same codex as $\mathfrak{P}$⁶⁴⁺⁶⁷, the Magdalen papyrus, and date the texts to 150-175. Willker tentatively agrees stating 'The [3rd century] dating given is that of NA. Some date it into the 2nd CE (e.g. Roberts and Comfort). This is quite probable considering the use as binding material for a 3rd CE codex'. Comfort and Barret also show that $\mathfrak{P}$⁴ and $\mathfrak{P}$⁶⁴⁺⁶⁷ have affinities with a number of late 2nd century papyri. Roberts (1979), Skeat (1997), Willker and Stanton also date the text to the late 2nd century, leading Gregory to conclude that '[t]here is good reason to believe that $\mathfrak{P}$⁴ ... may have been written late in the 2nd century...'. Most recently Charlesworth has concluded 'that $\mathfrak{P}$⁶⁴⁺⁶⁷ and $\mathfrak{P}$⁴, though written by the same scribe, are not from the same ... codex.'

See also

• List of New Testament papyri

References

• Charlesworth, SD (2007) T. C. Skeat, P64+67 and P4, and the Problem of Fibre Orientation in Codicological Reconstruction, New Test. Stud. Vol.53, pp. 582–604, doi:10.1017/S002868850700029X
• Comfort, Philip W. "New Reconstructions and Identifications of New Testament Papyri," Novum Testamentum, Vol. 41, Fasc. 3., (Jul., 1999) pp. 214–230.
• Gregory, A. The Reception of Luke and Acts in the Period Before Irenaeus, Mohr Siebeck, (2003) ISBN 3-16-148086-4, p. 28
• C. R. Gregory, Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testament, Hinrichs, p. 45.
• Head, P. M. (2005), Is P4, P64 and P67 the Oldest Manuscript of the Four Gospels? A Response to T. C. Skeat, New Test. Stud. 51, pp. 450–457, doi:10.1017/S0028688505000238
• Roberts, Colin. Manuscript, Society, and Belief in Early Christian Egypt Longwood (June 1979) ISBN 0-85672-710-5 pp. 8+23
• Skeat, T. C. (1997), The Oldest Manuscript of the Four Gospels?, New Test. Stud. 43, p. 1-34
• Stanton, G. N. (1997), The Fourfold Gospel, New Test. Stud. 43, p. 327

External links

• Willker, Wieland. A Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels, (undated+unfinished)