The Jesus Papyrus
'Just Stories?' #27
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The ‘Jesus papyrus’ (also known as the Magdalen papyrus, and formally called P64) is a fragment of Matthew’s Gospel. It was found in Egypt in 1901, and is now housed in Magdalen College Oxford. The fragment (actually three small pieces of papyrus) contains parts of Matthew 26, and most scholars date it to around 170 AD.
Why is it important? It is the oldest copy we have of any part of Matthew’s Gospel. This Gospel was not written in Egypt, so here we have evidence for it being widely recognised and accepted, from the fact that the oldest copy turns up in Egypt.
The P64 fragments contain the earliest mention of some important names - Peter, Judas, the twelve, and Jesus himself.
With James Greig, Zenas Heritage Tours.
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