The Earliest Copy of the Pauline Epistles, c. 180-200 CE

Christianity’s Great Letter Writer

Date– c. AD 180-200

Current Location– Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Language and Script– Greek, alphabetic

General Information-

The earliest known copy of the Pauline Epistles is a Greek papyrus codex, generally referred to as P46, dating from about 200 CE. Before the discovery of this codex in 1931, the oldest copies of the New Testament had been the Vatican and Sinaitic codices. P46, however, is at least a century older than the Vatican and Sinaitic codices. It is believed to have originally contained 104 leaves, of which eighty-six leaves are now extant. Thirty of these are at the University of Michigan and the other fifty-six are in the Chester Beatty Collection in Dublin, Ireland.