GREEK BIBLE - JOSHUA
| MS | 2648 |
| MS Short Title |
GREEK BIBLE - JOSHUA |
| Text | BIBLE: JOSHUA 9:27 - 11:3 |
| Description |
MS in Greek on papyrus, Fajum or Aphroditopolis? Egypt, ca. 200 AD or early 3rd c., 6 ff. (originally ca. 60 ff.), 20 x 11 cm, single column (16 x 8-9 cm), 19-23 lines in Greek semi-cursive book script. |
| Context |
Possibly by the same scribe as MS 2649. The 6 ff. were found tipped in between the leaves of MS 2650. The whole codex with the 24 chapters of Joshua would have had approximately 60 ff. There is no reason why it should not come from the same hoard as the Chester Beatty papyri, now in Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, according to kind information from Dr. Professor Kristin De Troyer, University of Salzburg. In his book God's Library, The Archaeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts, Yale, 2018, Prof. Brent Nongbri includes MS 2448 and 2649 as possbible additionall material from the Beatty Biblical Papyri find (pp. 134 and 153-154). |
| Provenance | 1. Monastery in the Fajum or Aphroditopolis region, Egypt; 2. Antiquity seller, Alexandria (ca. 1930); 3. Financial investor, Zürich and heirs (1930s-1998), acquired December 1998 from Noele Mele, New York |
| Commentary |
The oldest Septuagint Joshua extant. Apart from Joshua 10:2-5, 8-11, which is on the Dead Sea Scroll 4QJosha, in Hebrew from ca. 100 BC, the present papyrus is the oldest MS of this part of the Bible. The text is the Septuagint before the critical work of Origenes Hexapta. Thus it is closer to the original Septuagint of the 3rd c. BC. than any other MSS. However, it also revises the Septuagint in favour of the Hebrew Masoretic text, and at the same time reflects a different Hebrew recension from before the Masoretic revisions. |
| Published |
R. Pintaudi, Papyri Graecae Schøyen (PSchøyen I), Papyrologica Florentina 35, Manuscripts in The Schøyen Collection V: Greek papyri, vol. I, Edizioni Gonnelli, Firenze, 2005, pp. 81-145, by Kristin de Troyer. Image reproduced in The Children's Bible, Dorling Kindersley, London, 2008, p. 8. |
| Exhibited | NorFa - Nordic network in Qumran studies. Symposium in Oslo 3-5. June 2004. |
| Place of origin | Egypt |
| Dates | ca 200 AD |