The tiny fragment Papyrus 52 has gotten an inordinate amount of attention by being perhaps the earliest written copy of any text from a book of the New Testament (from John 18:31-33 and 18:37-38). Catalogued as Papyrus Rylands Greek 457 and brought to to public attention by Colin H. Roberts in 1935, perhaps more facsimiles have been made of it than any other New Testament papyrus (one is offered at Credo Courses for example). Roberts' analysis placed P52 in he first half of the 100s.
There is not enough to P52 to confidently proclaim its text Alexandrian but what is extant points in that direction. Let's take a look at its text (bold = extant)
Recto: from 18:31-33)
ΟΙ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΙ ΗΜΕ]ΙΝ ΟΥΚ ΕΞΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΠΟΚΤΕΙΝΑΙ
ΟΥΔΕΝΑ ΙΝΑ Ο Λ]ΟΓΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΠΛΗΡΩΘΗ ΟΝ ΕΙ-
ΠΕΝ ΣΗΜΑΙΝΩ]Ν ΠΟΙΩ ΘΑΝΑΤΩ ΗΜΕΛΛΕΝ ΑΠΟ-
ΘΝΗΣΚΕΙΝ ΙΣ]ΗΛΘΕΝ ΟΥΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΡΑΙΤΩ-
ΡΙΟΝ Ο Π]ΙΛΑΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΦΩΝΗΣΕΝ ΤΟΝ ΙΗΣΟΥΝ
ΚΑΙ ΕΙΠ]ΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΣΥ ΕΙ O ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥ-
ΔΑΙΩ]N
Verso: (18:37-38)
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΕΙΜΙ ΕΓΩ ΕΙΣ TO[ΥΤΟ ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΑΙ
ΚΑΙ ΕΛΗΛΥΘΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΚΟ[ΣΜΟΝ ΙΝΑ ΜΑΡΤΥ-
ΡΗΣΩ ΤΗ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΠΑΣ Ο ΩΝ [ΕΚ ΤΗΣ ΑΛΗΘΕI-
ΑΣ ΑΚΟΥΕΙ ΜΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΦΩΝΗΣ [ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΩ
Ο ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ ΤΙ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ Κ[ΑΙ ΤΟΥΤΟ
ΕΙΠΩΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΞΗΛΘΕΝ ΠΡΟΣ [ΤΟΥΣ Ι]ΟΥ-
ΔΑΙΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΟΙΣ ΕΓΩ ΟΥΔ[ΕΜ]ΙΑΝ
ΕΥΡΙΣΚΩ ΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΑΙΤΙΑΝ
As P52's Wikipedia listing says, "There appears insufficient room for the repeated phrase (ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΤΟ) in the second line of the verso, and it is suggested that these words were inadvertently dropped through haplography."
Deviations from the Byzantine Text:
v. 31 - ημειν instead of ημιν
v. 32 - ισηλθεν instead of εισηλθεν
v. 33 - the word-order is Alexandria; παλιν preceding εις το πραιτώριον
The abundance of online material about P52 makes P104 seem neglected in comparison. A few samples:
David Litwa Profiles P52
Michael Marlowe Presents P52
BiblicalTours - P52 with Dan Wallace
Recently P52 was mentioned on the Joe Rogan podcast in an interview with Wesley Huff of Apologetics Canada. and Brent Nongbri has provided some helpful clarifications about some statements Wes made which need improvement. Nongbri has continued to profitably research P52.
P52 is notable for being from a codex which was very probably a codex of only the Gospel of John. Robert's analysis supporting this is accessible online.
P52 has been featured on YouTube in simple profiles and in a 2024 lecture Steven Combs claimed that it supports the Textus Receptus. Dwayne Green has offered some pushback in a video that can be viewed here.
TTotG: Welcome, Dwayne Green! Tell us: does P52 support the Textus
Receptus?
 |
Dwayne Green |
Dwayne Green: No. P52 does not support the
Textus Receptus. A couple weeks ago, Dr. Steven Combs
under the banner of the King James Bible Research Council (KJBRC) had
released a short video entitled “Textus Receptus Found in the
Papyrus?”.
Evidently this was clipped from a larger lecture on the
Textus
Receptus (TR) that was given at the KJBRC Regional Conference in
2023. Within the first 45 seconds of the short video Dr. Combs made a
rather curious claim that P52, our oldest extant manuscript of the
New Testament, actually supports the Received Text. In the words of
Dr. Combs:
“Papyrus 52 . . . has one spelling difference and
one place that I consider to be a scribal error. Because it was an
omicron . . . that was misplaced and put in front of the word instead
of behind it. Besides that it is a perfect match to the Textus
Receptus.”
Curious indeed. It’s worth asking the
questions: What spelling error is he talking about and what does he
mean by ‘scribal error’ and is this really a simple mishap that
would have otherwise left us with a perfect representative of the TR
in our earliest papyri?
First, it’s worth noting that the TR
in John 18:31-33 shares the same form alongside the Byzantine
Textform, HF Majority, Antoniades, and Family 35. Though family 35
contains the textual variant εμελλεν instead of ημελλεν,
however P52 is lacunose at this word and so from the perspective of
this analysis, they are essentially the same. For the most part, the
NA28 matches with the WH text and differs from the former group in
one important way. In John 18:33, the critical editions read
“Εισηλθεν ουν παλιν εις το πραιτωριον
ο Πιλατος” whereas the former editions read
“Εισηλθεν ουν εις το πραιτωριον παλιν
ο Πιλατος”. Make a
mental note of where παλιν and ο Πιλατος are in relation
to each other as this will be very important later on in this
analysis. Admittedly, from the perspective of our English
translations, this is hardly discernible and regardless of where
παλιν appears in the phrase, it has little consequence to our
English understanding of how this verse is to be understood.
TTotG: So the difference in meaning is zero - but there is an orthographic difference. What are your thoughts about that?
Dwayne Green: Dr. Combs claimed that P52 “has one spelling difference”.
If you take a look at the image, I was able to find two spelling
variants that are visible on the manuscripts itself. The
first line likely reads “ΟΙΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΙΗΜΕ”.
The final epsilon is not expected, rather
what is expected is the third person pronoun in the dative form ΗΜΙΝ,
it should be an iota instead.
According to Swanson’s collations, there are no textual variants
that match the final epsilon in this
passage. So what’s the deal? I offer
two possible explanations. 1) This is a simple case of itacism and
it’s possible that the scribe had written down ΗΜΕΙΝ. This
has occurred in at least one
place in P66 (see John 17:21).
Whether the
scribe had copied what was in front of
him or inserted his own unintentional variation would be impossible
to determine. 2) This could be a case of a grammatical error if the
scribe had written ΗΜΕΙΣ, however
there are no variants elsewhere in the manuscript tradition that
support this. Given
these two options, itacism seems far
more plausible than the grammatical error.
We shall give Dr. Combs the benefit of the doubt in this case and
suggest that itacism is the culprit and this is a simple spelling
variation rather
than a spelling error.
The second
spelling error is found on the fourth line which reads ΘΝΗΣΚΕΙΝΙΣ
(image 2).
Though the text is faded, you can still make out the iota
and the sigma.
The expected word here is “Εισηλθεν” and the astute
viewer will notice that the epsilon is
missing. This is indeed true. Evidently, the dipthong ΕΙ may have
sounded the same or similar as a single iota and this may have
confused the scribe creating a spelling error. This is of course is
assuming that the scribe did not correctly copy the exemplar before
him and
produced the error rather than copied it.
So we’ll give this one to Dr. Combs as it is
likely the ‘spelling error’ that he had referred to in the short
video.
I therefore take no
issues with his claim of a single spelling error.
TTotG: What about the scribal error?
Dwayne Green: To
understand how Dr. Combs came to the ‘scribal error’ conclusion
we must first realize
that he is looking at P52 from a TR perspective. If you take a look
at the the following image, the line being shown reads ΡΙΟΝΟΠ.
Dr. Combs understands the Π at the end of this line to be the first
letter of the word ΠΑΛΙΝ. This is the underlying assumption that
allows him to conclude that the omicron “was misplaced and put in
front of the word instead of behind it”. Remember,
the way the TR renders this passage is:
“Εισηλθεν ουν εις το
πραιτωριον παλιν
ο Πιλατος”. So
in order for Dr. Combs to justify the TR reading in P52 he must move
the article Ο
in
front of ΠΑΛΙΝ
in
order to call
it a scribal
error.
For Dr. combs P52 in the lacunose
area should
read ΡΙΟΝΟΠΑΛΙΝΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ
(the red text represents a
reconstruction of the lacunose area), but is this reconstruction
plausible? Below I have provided three hurdles
for Dr. Combs
theory.
Hurdle 1:
Grammar
Proper
nouns such as ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ are more often
then not preceded by the article. However the word ΠΑΛΙΝ being
an adverb virtually never has the article before it. A quick search
in Logos Bible software results in 142 instance of ΠΑΛΙΝ in the
Textus Receptus (presumably Scriveners edition) so I spot checked
about 30 random instances and in no case does the article precede ΠΑΛΙΝ. Now
Dr. Combs may understand this which is why he called it a ‘scribal
error’, but the contention here is that the article Ο followed by
Πιλατος would not
only be
the natural reading, but
statistically based
on the grammar, would be the more certain reading. Especially
when
we do not have a conclusion in search of the
evidence.
Hurdle 2:
Extant Textual Variants
Coming
back to Dr. Combs' statement, his explanation is that P52
places
the Ο before ΠΑΛΙΝ rather than ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ resulting
in the reading εις το πραιτωριον ο
παλιν Πιλατος.
This results in a textual variant that does not exist in any of the
major
collations. There’s plenty of support
for the rendering of John 18:33 as found in the TR, such as Aleph, A,
C2,
B, and P60 among others; the
complete omission of ΠΑΛΙΝ both before εις το πραιτωριον
and after is witnessed
by at least two manuscripts according to Swanson: Cc
and 33. Codex N and Codex Ψ comes the
closest to Dr. Combs' suggestion with the reading ο Πιλατος
Παλιν, but even in its closeness, it leaves his
‘scribal error’ theory wanting.
Given
the current textual variants among our extant manuscripts it appears
that the reading that Dr. Combs wants P52 to be DOES
NOT EXIST. Put another way, in order for
his theory to fit he must invent a brand new, never before seen
textual variant.
Hurdle
3: A Perfect Match to the
Critical Editions.
When
you compare a reconstruction of the text of P52 with the Critical
editions of the Greek New Testament, we find that it is
essentially (minus the 2 spelling variants mentioned
above) a match with the extant
areas of the manuscript. Consider the image below, the highlighted
characters represent where the critical editions match with P52. It
is essentially Identical. We do not need to come up with convoluted
reasons to make something else work.
It just
fits.
TTotG: Any other observations about P52?
Dwayne Green: There
is one more matter that is worthy of our attention, although we do not consider it a ‘hurdle’. That is
the question of weather a reconstruction based on character counts
per line can give us any helpful details to
Dr. Combs claim. Can it make room for
ΠΑΛΙΝ on the same line as ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ or does it favor ΠΑΛΙΝ
on the previous line. The short answer is that this methodology is
inconclusive. There is tremendous debate surrounding the question of
nomina
sacra. Does
the reconstruction of the
name Ιησου in the second line and Ιησουν at the end of
the fifth line appear in full form, or in nomina
sacra? If
we assume for the sake of Dr. Combs argument that the nomina sacra is
employed here, it merely allows for the possibility that ΠΑΛΙΝ
could fit, but its not decisive as it could still also fit in the
line above it where the Critical texts presumes
it would fit.
If
on the other hand, it turns out that “Jesus” is written out in
full form
this would further demonstrate that ΠΑΛΙΝ could not be moved and
share the same line as ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ because removing it
from its current place would drop the
character count for that line far below the other lines represented
by the manuscript. Of course, this makes a number of assumptions that
must be made in the reconstruction to make sense of it and
not everyone is convinced that this is a worthwhile endeavor.
So
essentially, as far as Dr. Combs theory is concerned and the
application of reconstructing the lacunose area based on character
counts, is dead in the water. It does
not help us either way.
Conclusion
It is indeed a weird flex to invent a
never before seen textual variant in order to substantiate the claim
that P52 supports the TR; especially when all signs point to an exact
match of the WH and the NA28 text. Add in the fact that grammatically
speaking, the article often precedes proper nouns and not usually
adverbs which only piles on to the arguments against this wishful
thinking.
At the end of Dr. Combs brief analysis
of P52 he states rather emphatically “Besides that, it is a perfect
match to the Textus Receptus”. I can’t help but hear “Besides
the differences from the TR, its a perfect match to the TR”. As a
Byzantine Prioritist myself, it would be exceptionally welcomed to
see a byzantine reading among the earliest manuscript, but we should
also be careful not to make manuscripts say more than they do in an
effort to impose our own conclusions on the evidence. We are not part
of the “Oldest is best” club, and fortunately our New Testament
text rests on much more than a small scrap of papyrus found in the
Egyptian desert.
TTotG: Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Dwayne.