Editing Rylands Library Papyrus P52 (section)

{{short description|Earliest surviving manuscript of the New Testament}}
{{for|the similarly named manuscript|Papyrus Rylands 463|Papyrus Rylands 458}}
{{New Testament manuscript infobox
| form   = Papyrus
| number = 𝔓{{sup|52}}
| image  = File:JRL19060215.jpg
| isize  = 
| caption= Rylands Greek P 457, The St John Fragment, On display in the Rylands Gallery at [[John Rylands Library]] in [[Manchester]], England
| name   = 
| text   = [[Gospel of John|John]] {{bibleverse-nb|John|18:31–33}}, {{bibleverse-nb|John|18:37–38}} 
| script = [[Greek language|Greek]] 
| date   = c. 110-140
| found  = [[Egypt]] 
| now at = [[John Rylands University Library]] 
| cite   = C. H. Roberts, ''An Unpublished Fragment of the Fourth Gospel in the John Rylands Library from the Bible'' (Manchester University Press, 1935)
| size   = {{convert|8.9x6|cm|in}} 
| type   = Alexandrian text-type
| cat    = I
| hand   = 
| note   = 
}}
The '''Rylands Library Papyrus P52''', also known as the '''St John's fragment''' and with an accession reference of '''Papyrus Rylands Greek 457''', is a fragment from a [[papyrus]] [[codex]], measuring only {{convert|3.5|x|2.5|in|cm}} at its widest (about the size of a credit card), and conserved with the [[Rylands Papyri]] at the [[John Rylands University Library]] [[Manchester]], [[United Kingdom|UK]]. The front (recto) contains parts of seven lines from the [[Gospel of John]] 18:31–33, in [[Greek language|Greek]], and the back (verso) contains parts of seven lines from verses 37–38.<ref name=Aland>

{{cite book |last1=Aland |first1=Kurt |author-link1=Kurt Aland |last2=Aland |first2=Barbara |author-link2=Barbara Aland |translator-last1=Rhodes |translator-first1=Erroll F. |year=1995 |orig-year=1989 |title=Der Text des Neuen Testaments. Einführung in die wissenschaftlichen Ausgaben sowie in Theorie und Praxis der modernen Textkritik |trans-title=The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2pYDsAhUOxAC |isbn=978-0-8028-4098-1 |language=de |location=Grand Rapids |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |page=99}}</ref> Since 2007, the papyrus has been on permanent display in the [[John Rylands Library|library's]] Deansgate building.

Although Rylands 𝔓{{sup|52}} (in the [[Biblical manuscript#Gregory-Aland|Gregory-Aland]] numbering) is generally accepted as the earliest extant record of a canonical [[New Testament]] text, the dating of the papyrus is still debated. The original editor proposed a date range of 100–150 CE,<ref name="Roberts(1935), p. 16">Roberts(1935), p. 16.</ref> while a recent exercise by Pasquale Orsini and Willy Clarysse, aiming to generate consistent revised date estimates for all New Testament papyri written before the mid-4th century, has proposed a date for 𝔓{{sup|52}} of 125–175 CE.<ref name="Orsini and Clarisse">Orsini, Pasquale, and Willy Clarisse, (2012). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290628533%20Early%20new%20testament%20manuscripts%20and%20their%20dates%20A%20critique%20of%20theological%20palaeography "Early New Testament Manuscripts and Their Dates: A Critique of Theological Palaeography"], in: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 88/4 (2012), pp. 443-474, '''p. 470''': "...Tab. 1, 𝔓{{sup|52}}, 125-175 AD, Orsini–Clarysse..."</ref> A few scholars say that considering the difficulty of fixing the date of a fragment based solely on [[paleography|paleographic]] evidence allows the possibility of dates outside these range estimates, such that "any serious consideration of the window of possible dates for P52 must include dates in the later second and early third centuries."<ref name="Nongbri, p. 46">Nongbri, p. 46.</ref>

The fragment of papyrus was among a group acquired on the Egyptian market in 1920 by [[Bernard Grenfell]], who chose several fragments for the Rylands Library and began work on preparing them for publication before becoming too ill to complete the task. [[Colin H. Roberts]] later continued this work and published the first transcription and translation of the fragment in 1935.<ref name="Nongbri (2020), 473-476">Nongbri (2020), 473-476.</ref> Roberts found comparator hands in dated papyrus documents between the late 1st and mid 2nd centuries, with the largest concentration of [[Hadrian]]ic date (117 CE to 138 CE). Since this gospel text would be unlikely to have reached Egypt before {{circa|100 CE}}, he proposed a date in the first half of the 2nd century. Roberts proposed the closest match to 𝔓{{sup|52}} as being an undated papyrus of the ''Iliad'' conserved in Berlin;<ref name="Roberts(1935), p. 13">Roberts(1935), p. 13.</ref> and in the 70 years since Roberts's essay the estimated date of this primary comparator hand has been confirmed as being around 100 CE,<ref name="Nongbri, p. 33">Nongbri, p. 33.</ref> but other dated comparator hands have also since been suggested, with dates ranging into the second half of the 2nd century, and even into the 3rd century.<ref name="Barker, p. 574">Barker, p. 574</ref>