Papyrus 20
Fragment of the Epistle of James
Papyrus 20 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 𝔓20, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Epistle of James, but it only contains verses 2:19-3:9. The manuscript has been paleographically assigned to the early 3rd century.
01Description
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.
The Greek text of this codex is representative of the Alexandrian text-type (rather proto-Alexandrian). Aland placed it in Category I. This manuscript shows the greatest agreement with Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, but not with codices Ephraemi, Regius and other late Alexandrian manuscripts.
Philip Comfort has conjectured that the scribe who wrote 𝔓20 was also the same scribe who wrote 𝔓27, 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.
It is currently housed at the Princeton University Library (AM 4117) in Princeton.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Papyrus 20”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Princeton, Ms AM 4117 - P.Oxy. IX 1171 (Papyrus 20) verso James 3, 3–9.jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain
- Princeton, Ms AM 4117 - P.Oxy. IX 1171 (Papyrus 20) recto James 2,19–3, 2.jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain
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