Bible Synapse
Papyrus 75
Manuscript · c. AD 175–225 · Bible manuscripts · also called P75, Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV, Hanna Papyrus 1
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- Date
- c. AD 175–225 (the handwriting (an estimate; the range is debated))
- Found
- Egypt (reportedly found near Dishna in 1952), 1956. Bought by Martin Bodmer in 1956 together with other Bodmer Papyri and published in 1961. The Bodmer Foundation sold it in 2006 to Frank Hanna III, who gave it to the Vatican Library.
- Now
- Vatican Apostolic Library, Vatican City (Pap. Hanna 1 (Mater Verbi))
- Passages
- Luke 11:2–4, Luke 22:43–44, Luke 23:34, John 7:53 – John 8:11
What it is
A papyrus codex that held the Gospels of Luke and John one after the other. 51 of its leaves survive, some of them damaged, with large parts of Luke from chapter 3 onwards and of John 1–15.
How it connects to the Bible
It is one of the two oldest copies of Luke’s Gospel (with Papyrus 4), and its text agrees remarkably closely with Codex Vaticanus, which suggests that, if the usual date is right, that form of the text was being copied with care well before Vaticanus was made. It lacks the words about deliverance from evil at Luke 11:4, the angel and the sweat like drops of blood in Luke 22:43–44, and Jesus’ prayer for forgiveness in Luke 23:34, and like other early copies it does not include John 7:53–8:11.
What scholars debate
The date rests on the handwriting. Its first editors proposed AD 175–225; Brent Nongbri has argued for the 4th century, which would bring it close in time to Codex Vaticanus.