Papyrus 95 Explained

Papyrus 95 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by siglum ⁹⁵, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of John. The surviving texts of John are verses 5:26-29,36-38. The manuscript palaeographically has been assigned to the early 3rd century.^[1]

The writing is in 35 lines per page.

Text

The Greek text of this manuscript is a representative of the Alexandrian text-type, Comfort ascribed it as proto-Alexandrian, though the extant portion is too fragmentary for certainty.^[2] It has not yet been placed in any of the Categories of New Testament manuscripts.^[3]

LocationThe manuscript is currently housed at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (PL II/31) at Florence.^{[3] [4]}

Textual variants

• 5:27 Word-spacing analysis indicates that 10-14 letters intruded between the first two words of the verse
• 5:28: ακουσουσιν (akousousin, 'shall hear' (future tense)) becomes ακουσαντες (akousantes, 'have heard' (aorist aspect, participle)).
• 5:36: omits second 'αυτα' (auta, these) through possible homoeoteleuton.

Nomina Sacra

The fragment should have the word πατήρ contracted (nomina sacra) in two places, but instead, lacuane.^[5]

See also

• List of New Testament papyri

Image

• https://web.archive.org/web/20110813142919/http://chrles.multiply.com/photos/album/33/Bible_Papyrus_p95

Further reading

• Jean Lenaerts, Un papyrus de l’Évangile de Jean : PL II/31, Chronique d’ Egypte 60 (Brussels: 1985), pp. 117–120.
• Book: Comfort , Philip W. . Philip Comfort . David P. Barrett . The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts . Tyndale House Publishers . 2001 . Wheaton, Illinois . 627–628 . 978-0-8423-5265-9.

Notes and References

1. Philip W. Comfort, Encountering the Manuscripts. An Introduction to New Testament Paleography & Textual Criticism, Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005, p. 75.
2. Philip W. Comfort, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts, 2001, p. 627.
3. Book: Aland . Kurt . Kurt Aland . Aland . Barbara . Barbara Aland . Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.) . The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism . . 1995 . Grand Rapids . 102 . 978-0-8028-4098-1.
4. Web site: Liste Handschriften. Institute for New Testament Textual Research. 27 August 2011. Münster.
5. Book: To Cast the First Stone: The Transmission of a Gospel Story. Jennifer Knust. Tommy Wasserman. Princeton University Press. 2020. 9780691203126. 79.