Papyrus Rylands 458
Papyrus Rylands 458 (TM 62298; LDAB 3459) is a manuscript of the
Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was the oldest known manuscript of the Greek Bible. It has been invariably used in discussions around whether the Greek Septuagint translation used either the Tetragrammaton (name of God) in Hebrew, or the Greek title Κύριος (kyrios/lord).
Description
The text was written on papyrus in uncial letters. The manuscript consists of only 8 small fragments, designated by the letters "a"–"h". Fragment "h" is the smallest and contains only two letters. The words are not divided by spaces, but written continuously. The writer uses the colorimetric system, regularly leaving a space at the end of sentence or clause.[2] The surviving text is from the Book of Deuteronomy, namely Deut 23:24(26)–24:3; 25:1–3; 26:12; 26:17–19; 28:31–33; 27:15; 28:2.[2]
The text of the manuscript agrees more with Washington Manuscript I (WI) or Codex Alexandrinus (A) than with Codex Vaticanus (B).[3]
Tetragrammaton
In fragment d which contains part of the text of Deut 26:18, scholars have debated, because instead of the name YHWH or the title Κύριος, it is found in empty space, where the Hebrew text contains the tetragrammaton for the name of God.[4]
Françoise Dunand claimed in 1966: "no doubt in P. Rylands 458 of Deuteronomy the tetragrammaton was written either in square Hebrew as in Papyrus F. 266, or in archaic characters".[5]
Martin Rösel wrote in 2007 that the fragmentary manuscript contains neither Κύριος nor the Tetragrammaton, but it has "a gap in Deut. 26.18 where one would expect either κύριος or the tetragrammaton. This gap is large enough to accommodate both words, and it seems likely that the scribe of the Greek text left the space free for someone else to insert the Hebrew characters of the tetragrammaton."[6] In his view, "from the very beginnings of the translation of the Pentateuch, the translators were using κύριος as an/the equivalent for the Hebrew name of God".[7]
Anthony Meyer in 2017 rejects Rösel's supposition that the Tetragrammaton was likely intended to be inserted into Rylands 458. He cites the directly opposite supposition of
In 1984 Albert Pietersma also says that the evidence from this manuscript has been overemphasized, "not because it is relevant to our discussion, but because it has been forcibly introduced into the discussion, in part, one surmises, because it is the oldest extant LXX MSS".[9]: 91 He adds with some irony, "One hopes that this text will henceforth be banned from further discussion regarding the tetragram, since it has nothing to say about it".[9]: 92
History of the scroll
Due to its very early assigned date to the mid-2nd century BCE, it is currently one of the oldest known manuscripts of the Septuagint. It is believed it came from the
The manuscript was discovered in 1917 by biblical scholar J. Rendel Harris. It was examined by A. Vaccari (1936) and biblical scholar Albert Pietersma (1985).[2] The text was edited by papyrologist C. H. Roberts in 1936.[10][11]
The manuscript is currently housed at the
See also
References
- JSTOR 23506719.
- ^ ISBN 9783438060488.
- ^ "Bible manuscripts", Rylands Papyri, UK: Katapi.
- ^ Meyer 2017, pp. 208.
- OCLC 16771829.
- ISBN 978-0-88414-324-6.
- .
- S2CID 165487129.
- ^ a b Albert Pietersma (1984). "Kyrios or Tetragram: A Renewed Quest for the Original LXX". In Albert Pietersma; Claude Cox (eds.). De Septuaginta. Studies in Honour of John William Wevers on his sixty-fifth birthday (PDF). Mississauga: Benben Publications.
- ^ Roberts, C. H. (1936). Two Biblical Papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 25.
- ^ Opitz, H. & Schaeder, H. (2009). Zum Septuaginta-Papyrus Rylands Greek 458. Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der Älteren Kirche, 35(1), pp. 115-117. Retrieved 3 Jul. 2019, from doi:10.1515/zntw.1936.35.1.115
Further reading
- Opitz, Hans-Georg; Schaeder, H. H. (1936). "Zum Septuaginta-Papyrus Rylands Greek 458". ZNW. 35: 115–117. .
- Frederic G. Kenyon, Our Bible & the Ancient Manuscripts (4th Ed. 1939) Pg 63 & Plate VI.
- ISBN 0802807887.