GREEK BIBLE - LEVITICUS
| MS | 2649 |
| MS Short Title |
GREEK BIBLE - LEVITICUS |
| Text |
BIBLE: LEVITICUS 10:15 - 11:3; 11:12 - 47; 12:8 - 13:6; 23:20 - 30; 25:30 - 40 |
| Description |
MS in Greek on papyrus, Fajum or Aphroditopolis (?) Egypt, ca. 200, or early 3rd c, 8 ff. (originally ca. 74 ff.), 20 x 10 cm, single column (16 x 8 cm), 22-23 lines in Greek semi-cursive book script. |
| Context |
Possibly by the same scribe as MS 2648. The 8 ff. here were found tipped in between the leaves of MS 2650. The whole codex with the 27 chs. of Leviticus would have had about 74 ff. There is not reason why it should not 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 Archeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts, Yale, 2018, Prof. Brent Nongbri includes MS 2448 and 2449 as possible additional material from the Beatty Biblical Papyri find (pp. 134 and153-154). |
| Provenance |
1. Monastery in the Fajum or Aphroditopolis region?, Egypt ; 2. Antiquity seller, Alexandria (ca. 1930); 3. Financial investor and heirs, Zürich (1930s-98), acquired December 1998 from Noele Mele, New York. |
| Commentary |
Together with the very fragmentary P. Heidelberg 945 Lev. 19:16-19, 31-33 (3rd c.), and the Dead Sea Scroll 4Q LXX Lev a+b (1st c. BC.-1st c. AD.), the present MS is the oldest Septuagint Leviticus extant. The greater part of the present papyrus is not represented on any Dead Sea Scroll, thus this is the oldest MS in any language of this part of the Bible. |
| Published |
K. De Troyer, 'Report on the Leviticus Codex', The Folio, Bulletin of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center, 23 (2006), pp. 3-7. K. de Troyer, 'MS 2649: Leviticus', in Papyri Graecae Schøyen (PSchøyen II): essays and texts in honour of Martin Schøyen, ed. R. Pintaudi, Papyrologica Florentina 40, Edizioni Gonnelli, Firenze, 2010, pp. 3-68, pls. I-XVI. |
| Exhibited |
NorFa - Nordic network in Qumran studies. Symposium in Oslo 3-5. June 2004. |
| Image featured in |
Image reproduced in G.T. Montague, First and Second Timothy, Titus (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture), Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI, 2008, p. 202. Images reproduced in J.J. Collins and D.C. Harlow, eds., The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 2010, pp. 1218-19. Image reproduced in J.J. Collins and D.C. Harlow, Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 2012, fig. 19. |
| Place of origin | Egypt |
| Dates | ca 200 AD |