Bible Synapse
Papyrus 45
Manuscript · 3rd century AD · Bible manuscripts · also called P45, Chester Beatty Papyrus I
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- 3rd century AD (the handwriting (an estimate))
- Found
- Egypt (bought from a dealer; perhaps from the Fayum), 1931. Bought from a dealer in Egypt by Alfred Chester Beatty; his biblical papyri were announced in November 1931 and published by Frederic Kenyon from 1933. One leaf is in the Austrian National Library in Vienna.
- Now
- Chester Beatty (one leaf in the Austrian National Library, Vienna), Dublin (BP I)
- Passages
- Luke 11:50 – Luke 12:12, Luke 12:18–37, Luke 12:42 – Luke 13:1, Matthew 25:41 – Matthew 26:39
What it is
About 30 damaged leaves from a papyrus codex that once held the four Gospels and Acts, perhaps 220 pages in all. Mark, Luke and Acts are best represented; Matthew and John survive in two leaves each, one of them the Vienna leaf with Matthew 25:41–26:39. The Gospels were probably bound in the ‘Western’ order: Matthew, John, Luke, Mark.
How it connects to the Bible
It is the earliest undoubted example of the four Gospels gathered in one book, and the earliest to join them with Acts, an important step towards the New Testament as a collection. Its text keeps to no single later family and often shortens phrases.