The earliest form of paper,
made by compressing layers of strips from the pith of a water reed that grew
in the Nile delta (Egypt). In the pre-Christian era sheets of papyri were
usually glued together to form scrolls that were written only on one side. But
by the end of the first c. CE a pile
of papyrus sheets were sewn & folded
up the middle to form a codex written on both sides.
In 1897 a major hoard of
papyrus fragments from the first-to-ninth c. CE was
discovered at the site of
ancient Oxyrhynchus (Egypt). Scholars number
papyri in the order in which they were discovered. Fragments from two papyrus
scrolls of the non-canonical gospel
of Thomas (pOxy
644 & pOxy
655) are among the oldest
known texts containing sayings ascribed to Jesus (ca. 200 CE).
Most other
surviving Christian papyri, including fragments of another copy of Thomas (pOxy
1), are from codices. Only 6 papyri of canonical gospels can be dated to the
same era or earlier. These are:
p52 -- a fragment of John 18 (written ca. 125
CE)
p90 -- a fragment of John (ca 175 CE)
p66 -- portions of John 1, 6, 15-16, 20-21 (ca. 200 CE)
p64; p67
-- fragments of Matthew 3, 5, 26 (ca. 200 CE)
p137--a fragment of Mark 1 (late
2nd or early 3rd c. CE)
Papyri containing more than one
gospel date only after 200 CE.
There are two mss. containing the texts of
Luke & John, one of
Matthew & John, and one of
Mark & John. The
oldest papyrus to present the four gospels in their current canonical order (p45)
also comes from the 3rd c. Yet even this contains only fragments of Matt
20-26, Mark 4-12, Luke 6-13, John 10-18 & Acts 4-17.
[For more information on papyri
see R. W. Funk Honest to Jesus (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996)
pp. 107-120.]
Other On-line Resources:
-
Papyrus:
illustrated history & preparation of papyrus (from Timothy W. Seid's
Interpreting
Ancient Manuscripts).
-
Parchment
[sic] - mistitled entry in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology details
the history and production of papyrus mss. (Bar-Ilan U, Israel).
-
List of NT papyri with K. Aland's categories of texts details
dating, contents
of each ms. & its current repository.
-
Another
Catalogue
of NT Papyri & Codices from the 2nd to the 10 c. CE is
posted by K. C. Hanson.
-
Papyrus - article on the etymology and history of papyrus making
with links to major papyrus collection websites (Wikipedia).
-
Historical Papyrus - Jimmy Dunn's detailed description of making
and uses of papyrus in ancient Egypt (posted by
Tour Egypt).