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The Reading Culture of Early Christianity

New Testament Papyri Manuscripts

Name	P. Oxy. 1596
Text	John 6:8-12.17-22
Date	275-300 C.E.
Script	Greek
Found	Oxyrhynchus, Egypt
Now at	Collection of Gifford Combs
Cite	B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrynchus Papyri XIII, (London 1919), pp. 8-10
Size	10 cm by 5 cm
Type	Alexandrian text-type
Category	I
Hand	semi-uncial
Note	close to א

Papyrus 28 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 𝔓²⁸, is an early Greek copy of the New Testament. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of John. It contains only one leaf with the text of the Gospel of John 6:8-12.17-22. The manuscript paleographically has been assigned to the late 3rd century (275-300 C.E.). The handwriting is very much similar to P. Oxy. 1358, which has to be dated late third century as it has a third-century document on its recto side.

Description

The text is written in medium-sized semi-uncial. It is a single leaf, written in 12 lines per page (originally 25 lines). It uses the nomina sacra but is incomplete. Originally, it had 13 cm by 20 cm. Text is written in 25 lines per page.

The Text Character

The Greek text of this codex represents the Alexandrian text type (rather proto-Alexandrian). The Alands placed it in Category I. According to the Alands, it represents a “normal text.” Metzger and Schofield, call it “Alexandrian.” This manuscript displays a close agreement with 𝔓⁷⁵ (in 7 out of 10 variants). According to Grenfell and Hunt, it is closer to Vaticanus than to Sinaiticus. Only in one case does it support Codex Alexandrinus against Sinaiticus and Vaticanus (John 6:11). Grenfell and Hunt noted that the text is not “very correctly spelled.” It has five unique readings. In John 6:10, it has πεντακισ]χιλειοι, ελεβεν instead of ελαβεν, in 6:19 ενγυς instead of εγγυς, in 6:20 φοβεισθαι instead of φοβεισθε, in 6:22 ιδεν instead of ειδεν.

History of the Text

The manuscript was found together with 3rd-4th century documents. It was housed at the Pacific School of Religion (Pap. 2) in Berkeley, California, until it was sold in 2015 to a private collector, Gifford Combs, and is now housed in Los Angeles (Collection of Gifford Combs).

Attribution: This article incorporates some text from the public domain: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and Edward D. Andrews

Sources

Comfort, Philip W.; David P. Barrett (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers. p. 122.
P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrynchus Papyri XIII, (London 1919), p. 8.
Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 97.
Peter M. Head, The Habits of New Testament Copyists Singular Readings in the Early Fragmentary Papyri of John, Biblica 85 (2004), p. 406.
“Liste Handschriften.” Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved Sunday, August 21, 2022.
Tommy Wasserman. “Papyrus 28 Sold to Private Collector Gifford Combs.” The Evangelical Textual Criticism blog. Retrieved Sunday, August 21, 2022.
Gregg Schwendner. “Private acquisition of NT papyrus (P.Oxy. XIII 1596 = NT P28).” Papyrology blog. Retrieved Sunday, August 21, 2022.
P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri OP XIII, (London 1919), pp. 8–10.