Oxyrhynchus Papyri

In 1897 and thereafter numerous fragments of Greek papyri were discovered at Oxyrhynchus, one of the chief cities of ancient Egypt, by two archaeologists, B.P. Grenfell and A.S. Hunt. The most important finds are three collections of the sayings of Jesus, Numbers 1, 654, and 655. The close similarity of these texts to the Coptic text of the Gospel of Thomas suggests that the Oxyrhynchus papyri are fragments of a Greek version of this gospel.