Papyrus 20
From Textus Receptus
Papyrus 20 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 
20, 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]
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Description
20 is a fragment of a single leaf, 11.5 cm. tall and somewhat less than 4.5 cm. wide at the widest. The original size of the leaves was 17 by 12 cm. The center, left, right and bottom edges are damaged.
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.[3]
Philip Comfort has conjectured that the scribe who wrote 20 was also the same scribe who wrote 27, 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]
See also
References
- 1. Kurt Aland, and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism, transl. Erroll F. Rhodes, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1995, p. 97.
- 2. B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri IX, (London 1912), p. 9.
- 3. Philip W. Comfort and David P. Barrett. The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers Incorporated, 2001, p. 106.
Further reading
- B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri IX, (London 1912), pp. 9-11.
External links
- Robert B. Waltz. NT Manuscripts: Papyri,
20
- Images of the 20 at the Princeton University Library Papyrus
- P. Oxy. 1171 at the Oxyrhynchus Online
