| New Testament manuscript | |
 End of the Gospel of Luke and beginning of the Gospel of John | |
| Name | P. Bodmer XIV–XV |
|---|---|
| Sign | 𝔓75 |
| Text | Luke 3:18–24:53 +John 1–15 (extensive portions) |
| Date | 175–225 (Martin and Kasser), late third century-early fourth century (Orsini), fourth century (Nongbri) |
| Script | Greek |
| Found | Pabau, Egypt |
| Now at | Vatican Library, Rome |
| Cite | V. Martin, R. Kasser,Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV |
| Size | 26 cm x 13 cm (10¼" x 5") |
| Type | Alexandrian text-type |
| Category | I |
| Note | very close to𝔓66,B,0162 |
Papyrus 75 (formerlyPapyrus BodmerXIV–XV, now Hanna Papyrus 1), is an early GreekNew Testament manuscript written onpapyrus containing text from theGospel of Luke 3:18–24:53, andJohn 1:1–15:8.[1]: 101 It is designated by thesiglum𝔓75 in theGregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts.[1]: 101 It is generally described as "the most significant" papyrus of the New Testament to be discovered so far.[1]: 244 Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been traditionally dated to the third century,[1]: 101 although some recent studies have provided arguments to consider date ranges into the early fourth century, and not just the third century.[2]: 437 [3] It is due to the traditional early dating that the manuscript has a high evaluation, and the fact its text so closely resembles that of the fourth-centuryCodex Vaticanus (B).[2]: 405–407
It is currently housed in theVatican Library (Hanna Papyrus 1) inRome.
The manuscript is acodex (precursor to the modern book), made ofpapyrus, in singlequire format (a singlequire being a collection of pages placed on top of each other, then folded in half to create a book), measuring 27 x 13 cm (10½" x 5"). It has between 38–45 lines per page,[4] containing most of the text of theGospel of Luke and the beginning of theGospel of John.[2]: 405 It originally contained about 144 pages, 102 which have survived, of which 20 are fragmentary.[5]: 58 [6]: 194 The papyrus is of a smooth and fine quality, with theverso (vertical striped side) nearly as smooth as therecto (horizontal striped side), and feels like hand-woven linen.[6]: 195 The writing is a clear and careful majuscule.[5]: 58 𝔓75 is one of the earliest manuscripts (along with𝔓4) of theGospel of Luke,[7] containing most of Luke 3:18–24:53.[7][8] An unusual feature of this codex is that when theGospel of Luke ends, theGospel of John begins on the same page.[6]: 194
It uses astaurogram (⳨) in Luke 9:23, 14:27, and 24:7.[9]
The Greek text of this codex is considered a representative of theAlexandrian text-type. (The text-types are groups of different manuscripts which share specific or generally related readings, which then differ from each other group, and thus the conflicting readings can separate out the groups, which are then used to determine the original text as published; there are three main groups with names:Alexandrian,Western, andByzantine).[5]: p205-230 Textual critic and biblical scholarKurt Aland placed it inCategory I of his New Testament manuscript text classification system.[1]: 101 Category I manuscripts are described as being manuscripts "of a very special quality, i.e., manuscripts with a very high proportion of the early text, presumably the original text, which has not been preserved in its purity in any one manuscript."[1]: 335
The text is closer to Codex Vaticanus (B) than toCodex Sinaiticus (א). Agreement between𝔓75 and B is 92% in John,[6]: 211–212 and 94% in Luke.[10] It concurs with𝔓111.[11]
According toAland,𝔓75 is the key for understanding the primitive textual history of New Testament,[12] but recently palaeographer and religious history scholar Brent Nongbri has argued that though one can not conclusively rule out dating𝔓75 to the late second or early third century, increasing the date range to include the fourth century is just as likely (or as he says, "if not more likely").[2]: 437 Accordingly, the similarity of the text in𝔓75 andCodex Vaticanus might be better explained by considering both as products of a sort of textual recension which occurred in the fourth century.[2]
The manuscript lacks thePericope of the Adulteress, usually placed in translations at John 7:53–8:11. This omission is supported by:𝔓66אBA(vid)C(vid)LNTWXΔΘΨ0141021139*2233729697106108123131139157179*2492502535651241 13331424 2768 a f l qsy ly pbobopt; Or Hiermss; plus according to Tischendorf, at least 50 others (seemanuscript evidence against PdA).[13][14]: 322
The codex was discovered in the 1950s and once belonged to the Swiss book collectorMartin Bodmer (thus its original designation, P. Bodmer XIV–XV). It was sold in 2006 and donated to the Vatican Library, which now refers to the manuscript as "Hanna Papyrus 1 (Mater Verbi)".[17] The history before its discovery is unknown, but it is generally agreed the codex was originally made and used in Egypt.[6]: 195–196 Evidence for this comes from a piece of papyrus stuck to the back of the codex's leather case, on which there wasCoptic writing.[6]: 196 Its writing appearance and use ofparagraphos to indicate a change of speaker, also points towards an Egyptian provenance.[6]: 196
The codex was originally assignedpalaeographically to 175–225 CE by Victor Martin and Rodolphe Kasser.[2]: 408 They compared the handwriting to manuscripts P.Oxy. XXI 2293, P.Oxy. XXII 2322, P.Oxy. XXIII 2362, P.Oxy. XXIII 2363, and P.Oxy. XXII 2370.[2]: 408 However, in 2016 Brent Nongbri pointed out that all of these manuscripts had themselves been dated by means of comparative handwriting analysis and thus were not useful for establishing a date for P75. Martin and Kasser also drew attention to two more objectively dated manuscripts (P.Flor. I 61 and P.FuadUniv. 19), but Nongbri pointed out that the scripts of these two pieces do not actually resemble the appearance of the script of P75.[2] He argued that the closest dated comparisons for the script of P75 were P.Herm. 4 and 5, which are from a fourth-century archive. Nongbri also pointed outcodicological features of P75 which accorded with manuscripts firmly dated to the fourth century.[2]
An alternative dating of 225–275 was suggested by Eric G. Turner,[18] however he does not appear to have provided any palaeographical parallels for this dating.[2]: 413 It is currently dated by theINTF to 200–225 CE.[4] The Leuven Database of Ancient Books, however, assigns P75 to a date of "AD 275-325."[19]
