Papyrus 1

Papyrus 1 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering) designated by ¹, ε 01 (von Soden), is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew dating palaeographically to the early 3rd century. It is currently housed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum (E 2746), and was discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.

Description

The manuscript is a fragment of one leaf, one column per page, 27-29 lines per page, roughly 14.7 cm (6 in) by 15 cm (6 in). The original codex was arranged in two leaves in quire.

The surviving text of Matthew are verses 1:1-9, 12 and 13.14-20. The words are written continuously without separation. Accents and breathings are absent, except one rough breathing in line 14 of the recto. The nomina sacra are written in abbreviated forms: ΙC XC YC ΠNA KΣ.

Text

The Greek text-type of this codex is a representative of the Alexandrian. Aland placed it in Category I.

According to scholars, ¹ has close agreement with Codex Vaticanus. It supports Vaticanus in 1:3 ζαρε (against ζαρα). Ten of the variants are in the spelling of names in the genealogy. Herman C. Hoskier (see below), who finds 17-20 word variations, denied close agreement with Vaticanus.