Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 656

A fragment of Genesis.

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 656 (abbreviated as P.Oxy.IV 656, VH 13, LBAD 3094, or Rahlfs 905) – is a Greek fragment of a Septuagint manuscript written on papyrus in codex form. This is a manuscript discovered at Oxyrhynchus, and it has been catalogued with number 656. Palaeographycally it is dated to late second century or early third century.

Description

The manuscript was written on papyrus, in codex form. The surviving fragments are four pieces of 24 cm by 20 cm.[clarification needed] The fragments contain Genesis (14:21-23, 15:5-9, 19:32-20:11, 24:28-47, 27:32,33,40,41), written in Koine Greek. According to C. H. Roberts and van Haelst, it is almost certain to be Jewish.[1]: 62 

Treatment to the name of God

Main articles: Tetragrammaton and Nomina Sacra

Jason David BeDuhn, quoting Emanuel Tov wrote:

The transition from the practice of preserving YHWH in archaic Hebrew letters to replacing it with the Greek kurios can be seen in Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 656 (Rahlfs 950). In the text of Genesis preserved in this manuscript, the original scribe left blank spaces for YHWH exactly like the scribe of PFouad 266 did. But later another scribe instead of writing YHWH into those spaces wrote kurios.[2]: 179 

Martin Rösel states that in this manuscript the first scribe left four gaps, three of which were filled by another with the word κύριος. Similarly, in Papyrus Rylands 458 a blank space remains, large enough for either κύριος or the Tetragrammaton.[3] According to Philip Wesley Comfort, who speaks of the Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 656 gaps as four-letter spaces, they were intended to be filled in with the Tetragrammaton in Paleo-Hebrew script, but for lack of someone capable of writing in that script, the Greek surrogate κύριος was squeezed in instead.[4]

History

The fragment was published in 1904 by Bernard P. Grenfell and Artur S. Hunt in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol IV. The number 905 was given to the fragments list of septuagint manuscripts according classification system of Alfred Rahlfs.

References

  1. ^ Larry W. Hurtado (2006). The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 9780802828958.
  2. ^ Jason David BeDuhn (2003). Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament. University Press of America. ISBN 1461669065.
  3. ^ Martin Rösel (8 October 2018). Tradition and Innovation: English and German Studies on the Septuagint. SBL Press. p. 295. ISBN 978-0-88414-324-6.
  4. ^ Philip Wesley Comfort (2005). Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography & Textual Criticism. B&H Publishing Group. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-8054-3145-2.



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