Papyrus 20

Papyrus $\mathfrak{P}$²⁰

New Testament manuscript papyri uncials minuscules lectionaries
Name	P. Oxy. 1171
Text	Epistle of James 2-3 †
Date	3rd century
Script	Greek
Found	Egypt
Now at	Princeton University Library
Cite	B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri IX, (London 1912), pp. 9-11
Size	11.5 by 4.5 cm
Type	Alexandrian text-type
Category	I

Papyrus 20 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by $\mathfrak{P}$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]

Description

recto

The original size of the leaves was 17 by 12 cm.

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.^[2]

Philip Comfort has conjectured that the scribe who wrote $\mathfrak{P}$²⁰ was also the same scribe who wrote $\mathfrak{P}$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][4]

See also

• List of New Testament papyri
• Princeton Papyri

References

1. 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. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
2. B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri IX, (London 1912), p. 9.
3. Comfort, Philip W.; David P. Barrett (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-8423-5265-9.
4. "Liste Handschriften". Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved 23 August 2011.

Further reading

• B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri IX, (London 1912), pp. 9-11.

External links

• Robert B. Waltz. $\mathfrak{P}$ Encyclopedia of Textual Criticism
• $\mathfrak{P}$
• P. Oxy. 1171 at the Oxyrhynchus Online

Grenfell and Hunt

Bernard Grenfell		Arthur Hunt