A New Testament papyrus is a copy of a portion of the New Testament made on papyrus. To date, over one hundred and twenty such papyri are known. In general, they are considered the earliest and best witnesses to the original text of the New Testament.<ref>Nestle-Aland 1996</ref>
This elite status among New Testament manuscripts only began in the 20th century. The grouping was first introduced by Caspar René Gregory, who assigned papyri texts the Blackletter character <math>\mathfrak{P}</math> followed by a superscript number. Before 1900, only 9 papyri manuscripts were known, and only one had been cited in a critical apparatus (<math>\mathfrak{P}</math>11 by Constantin von Tischendorf). These 9 papyri were just single fragments, except for <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>15, which consisted of a single whole leaf.<ref>Aland 1996, pp. 83-84, 87</ref> The discoveries of the twentieth century brought about the earliest known New Testament manuscript fragments.<ref><math>\mathfrak{P}</math>52, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>90, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>98, and <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>104 all dating to the 2nd century</ref> Kenyon in 1912 knew 14 papyri,<ref>Kenyon, F. G., Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, London2, 1912, p. 129.</ref> Aland in his first edition of Kurzgefasste... in 1963 - enumerated 76 papyri, in 1989 - were known 96 papyri, and in 2008 - 124 papyri.
Discoveries were also made of more complete manuscripts, which allowed scholars to examine the textual character of these early manuscripts.<ref><math>\mathfrak{P}</math>66, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>72, and <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>75 of the Bodmer Papyri are notable in this regard. In fact, the preservation level of <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>66 surprised scholars because the first 26 leaves were basically fully intact, and even the stitching of the binding remained.</ref>
Not all of the manuscripts are simply New Testament texts: <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>59, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>60, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>63, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>80 are texts with commentaries, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>2, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>³, and <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>44 are lectionaries, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>50, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>55, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>78 are talismans, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>42; <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>10, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>12, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>42, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>43, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>62, <math>\mathfrak{P}</math>99 belong to other miscellaneous texts, such as writing scraps, glossaries, or songs.<ref>Aland 1996, p. 85</ref>
The P-numbers are the standard system of Gregory-Aland.
Dates are estimated to the nearest 50 year increment.
Content is given to the nearest chapter; verses are not listed. Thus, many of the papyri are small fragments, not whole chapters. For instance, 𝔓52 contains 8 verses out of the 40 verses in John chapter 18.
Distribution of Papyri Witness for each New Testament book
NT Book
Total
Early
NT Book
Total
Early
Matthew
23
11
1 Timothy
0
0
Mark
3
1
2 Timothy
0
0
Luke
10
6
Titus
2
1
John
30
19
Philemon
2
1
Acts
14
7
Hebrews
8
4
Romans
10
5
James
6
4
1 Corinthians
8
3
1 Peter
3
1
2 Corinthians
4
2
2 Peter
2
1
Galatians
2
1
1 John
2
1
Ephesians
3
3
2 John
1
0
Philippians
3
2
3 John
1
0
Colossians
2
1
Jude
3
2
1 Thessalonians
4
3
Revelation
7
4
2 Thessalonians
2
2
Note: "Early" manuscripts are manuscripts from the fourth century or earlier. Roughly half of the papyri are "early". Some manuscripts contain content from more than one New Testament book, so the numbers above do not directly correspond to the total number of manuscripts.<ref>NOT Aland 1996, p. 85</ref>
Waltz, Robert. "New Testament Manuscripts: Papyri".A Site Inspired By: The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism. Retrieved on June 22, 2007.
