Religion: Oldest Texts

Biblical scholars periodically get excited when, in the sands of Egypt or the Near East, someone turns up what is called “the world’s oldest Biblical text.” Famed for its comparative completeness is Codex Sinaiticus of the 4th Century, sold by Soviet-Russia to England (TIME, Jan. 1, 1934 et seq.). For a time the oldest known gospel fragments were some 3rd Century papyri owned by Alfred Chester Beatty, onetime U. S. millionaire, now a British subject. Year ago the British Museum acquired some unidentified 2nd Century Greek papyri paralleling St. John (TIME, Feb. 4). Last December in the John Rylands Library of Manchester there suddenly turned up a papyrus scrap less than three inches square which Librarian Henry Guppy declared “priceless,” a fragment of St. John supposedly written between 80 and 170 A.D.

Last week in London a record was claimed for a recent find in Egypt, 86 pages of Epistles of St. Paul which, written in the 3rd Century, appears to be the oldest New Testament text of any length. Collector Beatty bought 56 pages, the University of Michigan the remainder.