Bible Synapse
Nash Papyrus
Manuscript · c. 150–100 BC · Bible manuscripts
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. 150–100 BC (the writing (estimate from the handwriting))
- Found
- Egypt (bought from a dealer; said to come from the Fayum), 1902. Bought from an antiquities dealer in Egypt in 1902 and acquired by W. L. Nash, secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, who gave it to Cambridge University Library in 1903. It was said to come from the Fayum, but where it was found is not recorded.
- Now
- Cambridge University Library, Cambridge (MS Or.233)
- Passages
- Exodus 20:2–17, Deuteronomy 5:6–21, Deuteronomy 6:4–5
What it is
Four small papyrus fragments, fixed together into one sheet with 24 lines of Hebrew. They carry the Ten Commandments followed by the opening of the Shema, the Jewish confession of faith that begins with the call to Israel to hear.
How it connects to the Bible
Its Ten Commandments mix wording from Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, and it then gives the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4–5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord”. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found it was the oldest known Hebrew manuscript of any biblical text.
What scholars debate
It was probably not part of a Bible scroll: it may have been a single sheet used in worship, and it has been compared with the texts in phylacteries (tefillin).