Papyrus 115

New Testament manuscripts
papyri • uncials • minuscules • lectionaries

Papyrus $\mathfrak{P}$115
Red arrow points to χιϛ (616), "number of the beast" in P115
Name	P. Oxy. 4499
Text	Rev 2-3, 5-6, 8-15
Date	c. 275
Found	Oxyrhynchus, Egypt
Now at	Ashmolean Museum
Cite	Juan Chapa, Oxyrynchus Papyri 66:11-39. (#4499)
Size	26 fragments; 15.5 x 23.5 cm; 33-36 lines/page
Type	Alexandrian, close agreement with A & C
Category	I
Note	Gives number of the beast as 616

Papyrus 115 (P. Oxy. 4499, designated by $\mathfrak{P}$¹¹⁵ in the Gregory-Aland numbering) is a fragmented manuscript of the New Testament written in Greek on papyrus. It consists of 12 fragments of a codex containing parts of the Book of Revelation. It dates to the 3rd century, ca. 225-275 AD.^[1] Grenfell and Hunt discovered the papyrus at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.

$\mathfrak{P}$¹¹⁵ was not deciphered and published until the end of the 20th century. It is currently housed at the Ashmolean Museum.^[2]

Description

The original codex had 33-36 lines per page of 15.5 cm by 23.5 cm. The surviving text includes 2:1-3, 13-15, 27-29; 3:10-12; 5:8-9; 6:5-6; 8:3-8, 11-13; 9:1-5, 7-16, 18-21; 10:1-4, 8-11; 11:1-5, 8-15, 18-19; 12:1-5, 8-10, 12-17; 13:1-3, 6-16, 18; 14:1-3, 5-7, 10-11, 14-15, 18-20; 15:1, 4-7.^[3]

The nomina sacra are written in an abbreviated way: ΙΗΛ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΠΡΣ ΘΩ ΘΥ ΑΝΩΝ ΠΝΑ ΟΥΝΟΥ ΟΥΝΟΝ ΚΥ ΘΝ ΑΝΟΥ ΟΥΝΩ.

The text-type is the Alexandrian. $\mathfrak{P}$¹¹⁵ follows the text of Codex Alexandrinus (A) and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C).^[4]

An interesting textual variant of P¹¹⁵ is that it gives the number of the beast as 616 (chi, iota, stigma (ΧΙϚ)), rather than the majority reading of 666 (chi, xi, stigma (ΧΞϚ)), as does Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus.

See also

• List of New Testament papyri
• Oxyrhynchus papyri
• Stigma (letter)

References

1. ^ Juan Chapa, Oxy. Pap., 66:11-39, no. 4499
2. ^ "Liste Handschriften". Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. http://intf.uni-muenster.de/vmr/NTVMR/ListeHandschriften.php?ObjID=10115. Retrieved 27 August 2011. 
3. ^ Comfort, Philip W.; David P. Barrett (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers. pp. 664–677. ISBN 978-0-8423-5265-9. 
4. ^ Philip W. Comfort, Encountering the Manuscripts. An Introduction to New Testament Paleography & Textual Criticism, Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005, p. 77.

Further reading

• Juan Chapa, Oxyrynchus Papyri 66:11-39. (no. 4499).
• Philip W. Comfort and David P. Barrett, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), pp. 664–677.
• David C. Parker, A new Oxyrhynchus Papyrus of Revelation: P115 (P. Oxy. 4499), in: Manuscripts, Texts, Theology: Collected Papers, 1977-2007, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2009, pp. 73-92.

External links

• Oxford University 'P. Oxy. LXVI 4499'
• Image of the fragments of P.Oxy. LXVI 4499

Grenfell and Hunt

Bernard Grenfell		Arthur Hunt