Rylands Library Papyrus P52
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John Rylands Library Papyrus P52, recto

The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, also known as the St John’s fragment, is a papyrus conserved at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK.

Acquired by Bernard Grenfell in Egypt in 1920, this small papyrus is generally accepted to be the earliest extant copy of New Testament canonical writing. The front (recto) contains lines from the Gospel of John 18:31-33, in Greek, and the back (verso) contains lines from verses 37-38.

The original translation of the work was not done until 1934 by C.H. Roberts, who published the essay ?An Unpublished Fragment of the Fourth Gospel in the John Rylands Library? in the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library XX, 1936, pp 45-55.

Although Rylands P52 is generally accepted as the earliest extant canonical record (see 7Q5 for an alternate candidate), the dating of the papyrus is by no means the subject of consensus among critical scholars. The style of the script is strongly Hadrian, which would suggest a date somewhere between 125 and 160 AD. The difficulty of fixing the date of a fragment based solely on paleographic evidence allows for a range of dates that extends well into the second half of the 2nd century.

Udo Schnelle writes on the palaeographic dating: “Cf. A. Schmidt, ‘Zwei Ammerkungen zu P. Ryl. III 457,’ APF 35 (1989) 11-12, who dates P52 in the period around 170 AD (+/- 25) on the basis of a comparison with P Chester Beatty X, and thus excludes an early dating around ca. 125 for P52! The result for the dating of p52 is that the 125 AD period, usually given with extraordinary certitude, must now be stated with some doubt. One must at least allow a margin of 25 years, that one could think of a dating around 150.” (The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings, p. 477 n. 119)

The significance of P52 rests on both its early date, and its geographic dispersal from the site of authorship. As the fragment is removed from the autograph by at least one step of transmission, the date of authorship for the Gospel of John must be as least a few years prior to the dating of P52. The location of the fragment in Egypt extends that time even further, allowing for the dispersal of the documents from the point of authorship and transmission to the point of discovery.

Unfortunately, P52 is not a valuable attestation to the form of John’s Gospel extant at the time of the writing of the parchment. The fragment contains so few lines that it is not useful for comparison to later documents containing a more complete record of the work.

FRONT OF PAPYRUS

Joh 18:31 Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death:
Joh 18:32 That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die.
Joh 18:33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?

BACK OF PAPYRUS

Joh 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Joh 18:38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

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