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The Reading Culture of Early Christianity

Papyrus 𝔓²⁹


Name	P. Oxy. 1597
Text	Acts 26 †
Date	175-225 A.D.
Script	Greek
Found	Egypt
Now at	Bodleian Library
Cite	B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri XIII, (London 1919), pp. 10-12
Size	17 x 27 cm
Type	Alexandrian, Western
Category	I

Papyrus 29 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 𝔓²⁹, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles, which contains Acts 26:7-8 and 26:20. The manuscript paleographically has been assigned to 175-225 A.D. The Greek text of this codex is too short to put decisively in a family. Grenfell and Hunt noticed its agreement with Codex Bezae, 1597, and some Old-Latin manuscripts. According to Aland, it is a “free text,” and it was placed by him in Category I. According to Bruce M. Metzger and David Alan Black, the manuscript might be related to the Western text type, but Philip Comfort stated, “the fragment is too small to be certain of its textual character.” It is currently housed at the Bodleian Library, Gr. bibl. g. 4 (P) in Oxford.

Comfort: Metzger thinks P29 might be “Western,” and the Alands describe it as a “free” text, but the fragment is too small to be certain of its textual character. P29 belongs to the same era as P45, probably early third century. Both manuscripts manifest some unusual, nearly identically shaped letters: a triangular theta, a squarish pi, and squarish epsilon with lower inward hook. P29 also has several similarities to P. Oxy. 2949 (an apocryphal Gospel) dated to the late second or early third century, which has many similarities with Papyrus Marmarica—dated with great certainty to A.D. 200–225.

In the case of the New Testament papyri manuscripts, our early evidence for the Greek New Testament, size is irrelevant. They range from centimeters encompassing a couple of verses to a codex with many books of the New Testament. But all of them add something significant. And often, monumental. It can be from support for an original reading to establishing which family of manuscripts were the earliest. A tiny fragment that may date to about 100-150 A.D. or 150-200 A.D. that is established as belonging to the Alexandrian family gives us credence that the Alexandrian text is the earliest form of the text. In addition, it validates our two greatest vellum codices: Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. Early on, the supporters of the Byzantine text tried to argue that the Byzantine manuscripts were the earliest and the most accurate. In addition, they claimed the Alexandrian family had removed material from the New Testament. Well, this was debunked when the 20th century arrived because of all the 144 Papyrus Greek NT manuscripts and all of those dating to the first three centuries after the first century, none are of the Byzantine family, and the rest are Alexandrian, with a couple being Western. The argument from the Alexandrian supporters that the Byzantine was later, and their scribes added to the Bible, was true. The general rule, the earlier the manuscript, the more accurate. So, the early papyri can validate the original reading for almost all of our textual variants.

REFERENCES

PHILIP W. COMFORT; DAVID P. BARRETT (2019). THE TEXT OF THE EARLIEST NEW TESTAMENT GREEK MANUSCRIPTS. VOL. 1 GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN: KREGEL ACADEMICS. P. 110.
B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri XIII, (London 1919), p. 10.
Edward D. Andrews (2020) FROM SPOKEN WORDS TO SACRED TEXTS: Introduction-Intermediate New Testament Textual Studies, Cambridge, Ohio, Christian Publishing House.
KURT ALAND; BARBARA ALAND (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.
David Alan Black, New Testament Textual Criticism, Baker Books, 2006, p. 65.
“LISTE HANDSCHRIFTEN” MÜNSTER: INSTITUTE FOR NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL RESEARCH.
Attribution: This article incorporates some text from the public domain: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and Edward D. Andrews