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Artefact ID1551
TM IDTM 61841
Findspot (DEChriM ID)-   ()
ClassTextual
MaterialParchment
Writing mediumCodex
Text contentLiterary
LanguageGreek
Description

P. Schøyen 1 20 (P. Schoyen 1 20), Gregory-Aland 0220, van Haelst 495: "Wyman Fragment" containing Romans 4:23–5:3 [4?]; 5:8–13 
This strongly damaged upper half of a codex leaf (8.8 x 11.4 cm), with Romans 4.23-5.3 on the recto and Romans 5.8-13 on the verso, is very little legible on the verso. The original leaf spanned ~15 x 12.7 cm, with the writing covering ~11.7 x 8.5 cm, a top margin of 1.7 cm, and an outer margin of 2.2 cm. The letters measure 2 to 2.5 mm in height, with roughly 31 letters per line. Traces of 14 lines of originally 24 lines remain on the fragment.
The reference edition states it is an Alexandrian text, and that 8 of the variant readings agree with text B (Codex Vaticanus). 5:1 reads ἔχομεν (indicative), not ἔχωμεν (subjunctive), earliest known witness for this reading; 5:3 reads καυχώμενοι (participle), not καυχώμεθα (finite), and θλεῖψις not θλίψις; 5:8 reads [ὄντων] ἡμῶν χσ, not ἡμῶν ὄντων; and 5:12 includes ὀ θάνατος after ἀνθρώπους. Limongi 2005, Metzger 2005 and Comfort 2019 all state that the fragment agrees with B everywhere except Romans 5:1. It is assumed that this text is the oldest surviving fragment of this section of Romans.
Nomina sacra with supralinear stroke: θς, ιυ χυ, κυ. In Romans 5:12 on the verso, ἀνθρώπους is abbreviated as ΑΝ[Θ]ΟΥ.

Selection criteriaLiterary genre (Biblical), Nomina sacra
Date from250
Date to399
Dating criteria

Palaeography. The ed.pr. dates it to the end of the 3rd c. rather than the beginning of the 4th c., Aland 1967 to the 4th c.; Jaros 2005 goes as far back as the 2nd half of the 2nd century. Comfort 2019 places it in the early to middle 3rd c., while stating its “reformed documentary hand” “stands midway between third-century ‘biblical uncials’ and that more fully developed in the fourth century”, like Gregory-Aland 0162 and 0171. He cites a morphological resemblance to Gregory-Aland 0189 and P.Oxy. 4 661. Orsini/Clarysse 2012 reject this early dating and compare the writing on the vellum to P. Oxy. XXXIV 2699 and the Freer Gospel (Codex Washingtonianus).
Curators of the Museum of the Bible, the fragment’s current housing institution, have carbon-dated two portions (considering the 3rd or early 4th c. most probable) and utilized multi-spectral imaging techniques (indicating plant-based ink, and showing corrections in carbon black ink), see Stevens 2022.

Absolute/relative dateRelative date
Archaeological context

Bought in Cairo by Leland C. Wyman on 03.07.1950, claimed to have been found at Fusṭāṭ by the dealer, see ed.pr. Auctioned by an heir in the Wyman family, J. Rocks, via Sotheby’s on 21.06.1988, and purchased by Norwegian collector Martin Schøyen. 
Sold by the Schøyen Collection on 10.07.2012, again via Sotheby’s, to the Green Collection (Oklahoma, USA). Donated by the Green family to the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. in 2014.

Accession number

Washington, Museum of the Bible MS.000566; Oslo, Private collection Schøyen MS 113 (previous); Oklahoma, Green collection number unknown (previous)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reference edition
• Limongi, Donatella. 2005. Papyri Graecae Schøyen (PSchøyen I), edited by Rosario Pintaudi. Papyrologica Florentina XXXV. Firenze: Edizioni Gonnelli. 65-68, No. 20. Plate 14.
• Stevens, Daniel. 2022. “The Wyman Fragment: A New Edition and Analysis with Radiocarbon Dating.” New Testament Studies (NTS) 68(4): 431-444.

Editio princeps
• Hatch, William Henry Paine. 1952. “A Recently Discovered Fragment of the Epistle to the Romans.” Harvard Theological Review (HTR) 45(2). 81-85.

Additional bibliography
• Aland, Kurt and Barbara Aland. 1981/1989. The Text of the New Testament. An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism, transl. by Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans. 60, 104, 125. No. 220. 
• Aland, Kurt. 1967. "Das Neue Testament auf Papyrus." In Studien zur Überlieferung des Neuen Testaments und seines Textes. Berlin: De Gruyter. 91-136: 92.
• Aland, Kurt. 1994. Kurzgefasste Liste der Griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments. Zweite, neubearbeitete und ergänzte Auflage. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter. 37, Majuskeln 0220.
• Comfort, Philip Wesley. 2019. The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Papyri 75-139 and Uncials. Volume 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic. 255-256, 356. 0220 (MS 113).
• Jaroš, Karl. 2006. Das Neue Testament nach den ältesten griechischen Handschriften (CD-Rom). Ruhpolding/Mainz: Franz Philipp Rutzen. 4079-4089, no. 2.37.
• Metzger, Bruce M. and Bart D. Ehrmann. 2005. The Text of the New Testament. Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. Fourth Edition. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press. 86.
• Orsini, Pasquale and Willy Clarysse. 2012. “Early New Testament Manuscripts And Their Dates. A Critique Of Theological Palaeography.” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 88(4). 443-474: 465-466.
• Turner, Eric G. 1977. The Typology of the Early Codex. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 94, 160. NT parch. 82.
• van Haelst, Joseph. 1976. Catalogue des papyrus littéraires juifs et chrétiens. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne. 178, No. 495.

Authors
Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023
Suggested citation
Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023, "Artefact ID 1551", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/1551
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