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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID1639
TM IDTM 33632
Findspot (DEChriM ID)28   (al-Bahnasā)
ClassTextual
MaterialPapyrus
Writing mediumSheet/roll
Text contentDocumentary
LanguageGreek
Description

P.Oxy. VIII 1161, P.Oxy. 8 1161: Letter from a sick woman 
This almost square fragment (7 x 8.8 cm) of a letter is missing both its beginning and end. The writer is ill and cannot leave the bed. It contains the expression τῷ ἀγαθ[ῷ ἡμῶ]ν σωτῆρι καὶ τῷ οι[ἱ]ῷ αὐτοῦ τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ (lines 2-4). Harris 1975 sees this as being reminiscent of Mark 1:11, Naldini 1968 had compared it to Ephesians 1:6. Epp 2004 considers the expression to be generally Christian. The triad τῷ σώματι, τῇ ψυχῇ, τῷ πν(εύματ)ι (line 6-7) has been pointed out as well (for example as being reminiscent of Thess. 5:23). The verso contains part of the address, τῆς ἀδελφῆς Σ[…]. Nomina sacra: πνι (had been crossed out at the end of line 6 and written in full on line 7)

Selection criteriaChristian terms/formulas/concepts, Nomina sacra
Date from300
Date to399
Dating criteria

Palaeography

Absolute/relative dateRelative date
Archaeological context

Found in al-Bahnasā (Oxyrhynchos) during the excavations of Bernard Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt between 1896 and 1907.

Accession number

New Haven, Yale Divinity School P. Oxy. 1161

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editio princeps
• Hunt, Arthur S. 1911. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Vol. VIII (P. Oxy. VIII). London: Egypt Exploration Fund. 265-266, No. 1161.

Additional bibliography
• Bagnall, Roger S. and Raffaella Cribiore. 2008. Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC–AD 800. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. B1.13, Nr. 150. [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb90014.0001.001]
• Barrett-Lennard, Richard J.S. 1994. Christian Healing after the New Testament: Some Approaches to Illness in the Second, Third, and Fourth Centuries. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. 30–34.
• Blumell, Lincoln H. and Thomas A. Wayment. 2015. Christian Oxyrhynchus: Texts, Documents and Sources. Waco TX: Baylor University Press. 555-559, No. 148.

• Choat, Malcolm. 2006. Belief and Cult in Fourth-Century Papyri. Studia Antiqua Australiensia 1. Turnhout: Brepols. 76.
• Epp, Eldon Jay. 2004. "The Oxyrhynchus New Testament Papyri: ‘Not without Honor Except in Their Hometown’?" Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL) 123(1). 5-55: 27n69.
• Epp, Eldon Jay. 2005. "The Oxyrhynchus New Testament Papyri: ‘Not without Honor Except in Their Hometown’?" In Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism. Collected Essays, 1962–2004. Supplements to Novum Testamentum. Volume 116. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 743-801: 768n69.
• Ghedini, Giuseppe. 1923. Lettere Cristiane dai Papiri Greci del III e IV Secolo. Milano: Presso l'amministrazione di Aegyptus e la società editrice Vita e Pensiero. 225-228, No. 34.
• Harris, Bruce F. 1975. “Biblical Echoes and Reminiscences in Christian Papyri.” Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of Papyrologists, Oxford, 24-31 July 1974 (PapCongr. XIV). Graeco-Roman Memoirs 61. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 155-160: 156–57.
• Leclercq, Henri. 1929. "Lettres Chrétiennes." In Dictionnaire d'Archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie 8(2), fasc. 90–91, edited by Fernand Cabrol and Henri Leclercq. Paris: Librairie Letouzey & Ané, col. 2683-2885: col. 2790, No. 33.
• Meecham, Henry G. 1923. Light from Ancient Letters: Private Correspondence in the Non-literary Papyri of Oxyrhynchus of the First Four Centuries, and Its Bearing on New Testament Language and Thought. London: George Allen & Unwin. 147-148.
• Modena, L. Giuseppe. 1938–1939. “Il cristianesimo ad Ossirinco: Papiri letterari e cultura religiosa.” Bulletin de la Société Archéologique d'Alexandrie (BSAA) 10. 295-310: 298.
• Naldini, Mario. 1968. Il Cristianesimo in Egitto. Lettere private nei papiri dei secoli II-IV. Firenze: Le Monnier. 254-255, No. 60.
• Winter, John Garrett. 1933. Life and Letters in the Papyri. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 153-154.

Authors
Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023
Suggested citation
Victoria G. D. Landau, 2023, "Artefact ID 1639", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/1639
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