Chester Beatty Papyri

Portions of three NT manuscripts, designated P45, P46, and P47, which comprise 126 leaves, partially mutilated, and afford valuable additional early textual evidence utilized in more recent critical editions of the Greek NT. Said to have been found near Memphis, on the banks of the Nile, these papyri were acquired by Mr. Chester Beatty from a dealer in Egypt about 1930. Most of the material is now housed in Dublin, but one page of P45 is in Vienna, part of P46 is in Michigan. P45 (third century) contains gospel fragments and Acts; P46 (about 200) has most of the Pauline epistles. P47 (late third century) gives the earliest extant text of the Apocalypse, chapters 6-17. These documents, part of a considerable stream of newer textual evidence, must be evaluated in the exegesis of particular passages.