PAPYRUS, PAPYRI.
The Plant and its Manufacture (§1). Character of the Documents (§ 2). Their Importance (§3). Biblical and Christian Fragments (§ 4). Their Utility (§ 5).
The etymology of the word " papyrus " is as yet uncertain. De Lagarde raised the question whether papyrus was the article manufactured at Bura on Lake Menzaleh, of which the Egyptian name was pa. Another derivation offered by Bondi (Zeitschrift fiir aegyptische Sprache und Alter tumskunde, 1892, p. 64) and supported by W. M. Miiller (EB,
iii. 3556) is the Egyptian pa-p-yor,
i. The Plant " the product of the river," or " the
and its river plant." The plant is known
Manufacture, outside of Egypt, for example, in
Sicily, and in Italy by Lake Thrasymene, and is now cultivated in many botanical and private gardens; its botanical name is Cyperus papyrus, and its habitat shows that it requires a warm climate. It may be transplanted and is propagated by seed or by slipping the stalks. Its use as writing-material is very old. According to Kenyon the earliest inscribed papyrus dates back to the period of King Assa (c. 2600 B.C.), and from that time till the Arabic occupation of Egypt papyrus was the ordinary material upon which to write in the land of the Nile. In spite of its apparent fragility, it seems to be nearly as indestructible as the pyramids or obelisks, and to this quality is due in no small degree the resurrection of ancient Egypt in the present day. The method of manufacture is often wrongly described, as when it is asserted that it was made from the " bast " of the plant. An account of the method of preparation is given by Pliny (Hist, not., xiii. 11-13; cf. G. Ebers, The Writing Material of Antiquity, in the Cosmopolitan Magazine, Nov., 1893), and the following is the account of Kenyon (Paleography of Greek Papyri, p. 14, London, 1899): " the pith of the stem of the papyrus plant was cut into thin strips and these strips were laid side by side together, vertically, in
Papyrus
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the form of a sheet of paper. Over this layer another was plaoed horizontally, and the two layers were joined together by a sort of glue of which the water of the Nile was supposed to be a necessary constituent. The layers were put under pressure and then dried in the sun, after which they were polished to remove any unevenness of surface, when the material was ready for use." This method of preparation is known to have been in use in Sicily as late as 1902. Of course the size of the leaf varies, and measurements have been collected by Kenyon (ut sup., pp. 16-17). For most non-literary purposes a single leaf sufficed; for longer texts, especially those of a literary character, the required number of leaves were formed into a roll, and this last is the classical form of ancient productions of the pen. The side was commonly used on which the fibers ran horizontally {redo), the other side (verso) was used only exceptionally; from this it follows that when a piece of papyrus carries writing on both sides in different hands, that is usually the earlier which is on the recto. In the later centuries of antiquity the book or codex appeared, and finally superseded the earlier or roll form; the assertion that the book form is due to the use of parchment is incorrect. Numerous fragments of papyrus books are known, some of which go back to the third century of the Christian era; the Logia fragments are in this form.
The papyrus plant is spoken of in the Old Testament, Job. viii. 11; Isa. xxxv. 7 (gome; Septuagint, papyros); Job xl. 21 (bizzah); Isa. xix. 6 (suph); and in Ex. ii. 3 mention is made of little papyrus
arks or boats (see also Navigation).
2. Character John's second epistle also names
of the papyrus (verse 12, " paper " is prob-
Documents. ably papyrus); while II Tim. iv. 13,
" the books," surely refers to papyrus, since " parchments " are especially mentioned. But the justification for this article lies not merely in these references, but rather in the fact of the great importance of recent recovery of papyrus fragments for the, study of the Bible and of early Christianity. Since the year 1778, when an unknown European dealer in books bought from some Egyptian peasants a papyrus roll of the year 191-192 a.d. and watched these same peasants burn some fifty or more other fragments to enjoy the aromatic odor, the land of the Nile has furnished an immense number of inscribed papyri in all possible languages and covering a period of over a thousand years. In the second and third decades of the nineteenth century quite a number of papyri from Memphis, Letopolis, This, Panopolis, Thebes, Hermonthis, Elephantine, and Syene had reached European museums, but were little noted or studied. But from the year 1877 date the richest acquisitions from the Fayum, numbering thousands of precious leaves and fragments. Most of these have been unearthed by the spade; and this has become the method of search for this valuable material. That the fragments found are from the waste heaps of ancient cities is of itself indicative. What has been found is not the remainder of great archives, but simply the residue of rubbish heaps cast out from public and private offices, torn books and
leaves discarded to receive a valuation never conceived by those who threw them away. The great mass of the papyri are of a non-literary character — law papers of various sorts, leases and loans, bills and receipts, marriage agreements and wills; there are also letters and notes, copy-books, magical texts, horoscopes, diaries, and the like. The earliest reach back into the time of the Ptolemies, one indeed as early as the fourth pre-Christian century; the latest come far down into Byzantine days.
The changing history of Greco-Roman Egypt is reflected in these fragments. One can not estimate too highly the value of these finds of Greek writing alone — to say nothing of other bits containing writing in demotic, Coptic, Arabic, Latin, Hebrew, and Persian — for the light they throw upon antiquity; they represent a resuscitation of 3. Their a large part of ancient life. Their tes-
Importance. timony to the past is so true, warm, and vital that they are a more trustworthy witness almost than the words of an author telling of the period, and certainly have more of life than inscriptions which are not seldom as cold as the marble on which they are. The papyrus carries autographs, it shows peculiarities of handwriting, it reveals the personal life of the writer. The revelations it gives seem like the flow of fresh warm blood contributed, e.g., to the history of law, but not merely to this, for they enliven and illumine the history of culture and of the history of language. Indeed, these unliterary papyri have a value for the science of history not possessed by literary works more pretentious just because they come not from ancient art but out of the daily life of the past, dug as they are from the peasants' fields. It is to be hoped that not only the fragments of literary works may be published — reverently as may be, indeed — but that also all the non-literary bits may be made known, since what seems a trivial lease may contain a form of speech which shall prove to be a long-wanted connecting link between the lingua franca of the period and a form developed therefrom in a New-Greek dialect. What may appear to one as unimportant may to another prove an inestimable prize. Mention is pertinent here of another class of finds nearly related to the papyri — the ostraca (cf. U. Wilcken, Griechische Ostraka aus Aegypten und Nubien, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1899; W- E. Crum, Coptic Ostraca from the Collections of the Egypt Exploration Fund, the Cairo Museum and Others, London, 1902).
It is not at all surprising that theological research
should deem especially important the fragments
recovered from Biblical or early Chris-
4. Biblical tian literature; and there is reason for
and gratitude for all that contributes to
Christian knowledge of sources. The most im-
Fragments. portant of Greek fragments in this department are herewith noted.
1. Gen. xiv. 17, British Museum papyrus 212.
2. Genesis fragments in the collection of Archduke Rainer
in Vienna, and in vol. iv. of the Oxyrhyncus papyri (see under Egypt Exploration Fund).
3. Ps. x (xi.) 2-xviii (xix.) 6; xx (xxi.) 14-xxxiv (xxxv.)
6, British Museum papyrus 37.
4. Ps. xi (xii.) 7-xiv (xv.) 4, British Museum papyrus 230.
5. Ps. xxxix (xl.) 16-xl (xli.) 4, Berlin Museum.