Papyrus 12

Papyrus 𝔓¹²

New Testament manuscript
Papyrus 12 recto - Hebrews 1, 1 and Christian letter from Rome
Name	P. Amherst 3b
Text	Epistle to the Hebrews 1 †
Date	3rd century
Script	Greek
Found	Egypt 1897
Now at	The Morgan Library & Museum
Cite	B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt, The Amherst Papyri I, (London 1900), pp. 28-31 (P. Amherst 3 b)
Size	20,8 cm x 23 cm
Type	Alexandrian text-type ?
Category	I

Papyrus 12 is an early papyrus manuscript copy of the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews verse 1:1 in Greek. It is designated by the siglum 𝔓¹² in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and α 1033 in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been assigned to ca. 285. It may have been a writing exercise or an amulet.^[1]

Description

The verse has been written at the top of the second column by another (likely later) writer in three lines.^[1]: 82 It has been written in a small uncial hand.^[2] On the reverse side (known as the verso) of this manuscript another writer has penned Genesis 1:1-5 according to the Greek Septuagint.^[1]

Hebrews 1,1 on Papyrus 12

Text^[2]

Greek Text Transcription	Transliteration	English Translation
πολυμερως κ(αι) πολυ[τρο]πως	polymenōs k(ai) poly[tro]pōs	In many parts and in many ways
παλε ο ΘΣ λαλήσ[α]ς το[ις π]ατρα	pale ho Theos lalēs[a]s to[is p]atra	long ago God spoke to the fathe-
σ[ιν] ημ[ω]ν εν τοις προ[φ]ητα[ις]	s[in] hēm[ō]n en tois pro[ph]ēta[is]	rs our by the prophets

Papyrus 12 verso containing the Septuagint text of Genesis 1, 1–5

It has an error of itacism (παλε instead of παλαι, palai, meaning "long ago, formerly"), and includes the nomen sacrum ΘΣ for Theos, "God".^[1] The Greek text of this small portion of Hebrews is probably a representative of the Alexandrian text-type, but its text is too brief for certainty. Biblical scholar Kurt Aland placed it in Category I of his New Testament manuscript classification system.^[3] It supports the textual variant ημων (hēmōn, "our") as in codices 𝔓^46c a t v vg^mss syr^p.^[4]

History

The manuscript was discovered in 1897 by papyrologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt in the Fayum, Egypt.^[1] It is currently housed at The Morgan Library & Museum (Pap. Gr. 3; P. Amherst 3b) in New York City.^[3][5]

See also

• List of New Testament papyri
• Papyrus Amherst 3a

References

1. Comfort, Philip Wesley; Barrett, David P. (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-8423-5265-9.
2. Grenfell, Bernard Pyne; Hunt, Arthur Surridge (1900). The Amherst Papyri. Vol. I. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 30–31.
3. Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
4. NA26, p. 563.
5. "Handschriftenliste: Papyrus 12". Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved 23 August 2012.

Further reading

• Gregory, Caspar René (1908). Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testament [The Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament] (in German). Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs. p. 47.

External links

• Digital Images of the manuscript online at the Morgan Museum & Library website.
• Papyrus 12. Entry in the Manuscript Database of the Göttinger Septuaginta by Alfred Rahlfs, published 7 April 2023