Bible Synapse
Papyrus Rylands 458
Manuscript · 2nd century BC · Bible manuscripts · also called P. Ryl. Gr. 458, Rahlfs 957
See it on the map and timeline- Date
- 2nd century BC (the writing (estimate from the handwriting))
- Found
- Fayum, Egypt (from mummy cartonnage), 1917. Recovered by J. Rendel Harris from two pieces of mummy cartonnage (layers of reused papyrus glued and plastered together to make mummy cases and masks) from the Fayum, and acquired from him by the John Rylands Library in 1917. C. H. Roberts published it in 1936.
- Now
- John Rylands Library, Manchester (Greek P 458)
- Passages
- Deuteronomy 23:24 – Deuteronomy 24:3, Deuteronomy 25:1–3, Deuteronomy 26:12, Deuteronomy 26:17–19, Deuteronomy 27:15, Deuteronomy 28:2, Deuteronomy 28:31–33
What it is
Eight small fragments, lettered a to h, from a papyrus roll of Deuteronomy in Greek. They preserve scattered verses from chapters 23 to 28, written in capital letters with no spaces between the words.
How it connects to the Bible
It is one of the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found it was the oldest known copy of any part of the Greek Bible. What its fragment d had at Deuteronomy 26:18, where the Hebrew has God’s name, has fed a long debate about whether early Greek copies wrote the name in Hebrew letters or used the Greek word for Lord.
What scholars debate
Scholars disagree whether the papyrus has a blank space at Deuteronomy 26:18 left for the divine name, or whether the fragment simply breaks off there.