expoypagov, xwplfouat.
4 a eaition to the light thus thrown on the
* tgBoerdy might also be taken to mean ‘heaping up (earth)’ ; but the construction without an object would be strange, and the expression somewhat tautological, since cuvvéyacs alone would give the same sense.
356
PAPYRI
PAPYRI
vocabulary of the Greek Bible, the papyri furnish evidence with regard to the orthography and the grammatical forms in use in Ptolemaic and,\Roman Egypt; but on these topics it is impossible to say much until the work of classifying the materials provided by the papyri has proceeded further than is at present the case. A beginning of the ap- peepen of the material to biblical study has
een made by A. Thumb (Die sprachgeschichtliche Stellung des biblischen Gatesiisen),
(6) Historical.—On the historical side, the papyri provide a mass of information with regard to the usages, official and private, of Egypt under Ptole- maic and Roman rule, which from time to time throws light on the biblical narrative. We have letters with which to compare those which St. Paul wrote to his fellow-Christians ; some of them re- calling, by the number of salutations with which they conclude, the terminations of the Epistles to the Romans or Colossians (e.g. Brit. Mus. Pap. 404); others, in which a large autograph signature closes a letter written by a scribe, illustrating St. Paul’s expressions in Gal 6" (e.g. Brit. Mus. Papp. 311, 413). We have official, legal, and business formule in large numbers, including, for example, reports from one magistrate to another, similar to that sent by Claudius Lysias to Felix (Ac 23%5-%0, where it may be observed that the doubtful word of salutation, éppwoo, in v.*°, which is omitted by the best MSS, is decisively condemned by Egyptian usage, which admitted the use of this phrase only in letters addressed to an inferior). We have records of trials before magistrates, including brief summaries of the speeches of counsel, which recall the report of the speech of Tertullus in Ac 24*#. The double name of St. Paul (Saddos 6 kal IlaiNos) ceases to be remarkable or to cause any difficulty, when we find in the Egyptian census- lists scores of such double names, showing that it was customary for the natives of Oriental pro- vinces to assume a Greek or Roman name in addition to that which they had among their own people (¢.g. “Hpw&dns 6 cal Iereveppijs, Ioldwpos 6 Kal Ilavas, x.7..). The same census-records throw an interesting light on the census of Quirinius recorded in Lk2?. They prove that a census was held every 14 years in Egypt under Roman rule, at least as far back as A.D. 20; while at the same time all the ex- tant indications tend to show that this system did not exist under the Ptolemies. It is natural, there- fore, to regard these facts as having some bearing on the statement in Luke ; but the only attempt to work out the problem in detail is that of Prof. W. M. Ramsay (Was Christ born at Bethlehem ? 1898, p. 131 ff.). A.D. 5-6 (the Egyptian year beginning on Aug. 29), the date of the unquestioned governor- ship of Quirinius, is one of the census-years: B.C. 10-9, the natural date for the immediately pre- ceding census, is too early for the Nativity ; but Ramsay argues that the special circumstances of Juda under Herod’s rule would account for the census having been held a few years later in that province—probably in B.c. 6. Complete evidence on the subject is not yet forthcoming; but the instance is suggestive of the way in which the papyri may elucidate the chronology of the NT.*
(¢) Tewtwal.—Y et another branch of biblical study which is illustrated by the papyri is that of the history of the text. They furnish us with number- less examples of Greek writing of the period in which the LXX and NT were produced, and enable us to realize the conditions under which books cir- culated in the early ages of the Christian Church ; and thereby they suggest a natural explanation of the genesis, at a very early date, of the divergent
* They may also assist Patristic chronology; e.g. Justin’s
Apology is fixed to a point shortly after a.p. 150 by the men- tion of the prefect Munatius Felix in Brit. Mus. Pap. 358.
types of text which we find already established by the time that our most ancient vellum codices were written. This topic has, however, been already dealt with (see art. WRITING in vol. iv. pp. 951, 952), and need not be reconsidered here.
vi, Copric PApyRiI.*—The importance of the Coptic versions of the Bible for the purposes of textual criticism is well known (see vol. i. p. 672) ; but, as in the case of Greek MSS, the majority of the Coptic biblical MSS are on vellum. Only one Bohairic papyrus (a number of small fragments of a Psalter of the 10th cent., divided between the British Museum and the Rylands Library) is in existence ; all the rest are in the Sahidic or Middle Egyptian dialects. With one or two notable ex- ceptions, to be named below, the biblical papyri hitherto discovered are small and unimportant fragments. On the other hand, Coptic papyri have proved unexpectedly valuable in respect of apocryphal writings (some orthodox and others heretical) which were hitherto unknown, or known only by name and in a few quotations; while they also include a considerable number of Patristic texts and a very large quantity of documents bear- ing upon monastic and ecclesiastical life in Upper Egypt. Catalogues of these papyri are, however, still almost wholly wanting, so that no complete lists can be given: the following are the most notable individual MSS of which the existence has yet been notified :—