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The Reading Culture of Early Christianity

Papyrus **118**


Sign	𝔓¹¹⁸
Text	Epistle to the Romans 15:26-27,32-33; 16:1,4-7,11-12
Date	150-200 A.D.
Script	Greek
Now at	University of Cologne
Cite	G. Schenke, Kölner Papyri 10 (2003), pp. 33-37
Size	29 x 26 cm
Type	(?)
Category	none

Papyrus 118 verso

Papyrus 118, designated by 𝔓¹¹⁸ (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a copy of a small part of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Epistle to the Romans. The surviving text of Romans is verses 15:26-27, 32-33; 16:1, 4-7, 11-12. The manuscript is in a fragmentary condition. Using the study of comparative writing styles (paleography), the manuscript has been dated by the INTF to 175-200 A.D. The Greek text of this codex is too small to determine its textual character. The codex is currently housed at the Institut für Altertumskunde of the University of Cologne at Cologne, with the shelf number (Inv. No. 10311).

Comfort: Interesting;y, the text of 𝔓¹¹⁸ runs straight through Romans 15:33 to 16:1, so it differs from 𝔓⁴⁶, which has the doxology (usually printed at 16:25-27) immediately following 15:33.

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