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What can a torn scrap from an Egyptian rubbish mound reveal about a gospel outside the Bible?
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1224 preserves pieces of an unknown gospel in Greek. Found in the rubbish mounds of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, the fragments carry sayings attributed to Jesus and a short scene from his ministry. Scholars date the handwriting to about the fourth century. The author remains unknown, and the surviving pieces offer no continuous story.
One passage places Jesus at a meal with people religious leaders call sinners. Other passages echo familiar gospel teachings. But how do these scraps relate to Matthew, Mark, and Luke? This account follows their discovery and explores how scholars read damaged papyrus, asking whether the text preserves independent memories or reworks the gospels we know.
What you’ll discover
- From the rubbish mounds Explore the Egyptian town where discarded papers preserve traces of early Christian writing.
- A gospel in pieces Meet a damaged, bound book whose surviving pages leave much unknown.
- A meal with sinners Encounter a scene that places Jesus among people condemned by religious leaders.
- Echoes and open questions Consider how these sayings resemble familiar gospels while raising questions about their relationship.
- Reading what remains Follow scholars as they examine torn papyrus and weigh what its words can tell us.
Who will love it
For readers curious about how early Christian writings survived and how scholars work with torn papyrus. It suits believers and historians interested in sayings of Jesus, unknown gospels, and the varied writings of early Christianity.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Rubbish mounds gave up the papyrus
- A damaged codex of a lost gospel
- Sayings and a meal with sinners
- How scholars read it and why it stands outside the Bible
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Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1224
by Anonymous
A torn papyrus from Egypt preserves sayings of Jesus and opens a window onto an otherwise unknown gospel.
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In short
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1224 is a scrap of ancient Greek writing that holds parts of a gospel no one has found anywhere else. It was written on papyrus in Egypt, probably in the fourth century, and it comes from the rubbish mounds of the old town of Oxyrhynchus.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Rubbish mounds gave up the papyrus
Oxyrhynchus was a town in Middle Egypt, south of modern Cairo. In antiquity it was a busy provincial centre, and its people threw their old papers onto huge dumps outside the town. The dry desert sand kept those papers from rotting. Letters, tax lists, contracts, and books all lay together in the sand.
At the end of the nineteenth century two Oxford scholars, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, began to dig there. They found so many scraps that the work of reading them went on for generations. Among them were pieces of Greek literature and early Christian texts. Papyrus 1224 was one of these finds, and the two scholars published it in the early twentieth century in their long series of Oxyrhynchus volumes.
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What is Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1224?
It is a set of torn papyrus pages from a Greek codex, probably of the fourth century, found at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. They carry parts of an unknown gospel with sayings of Jesus and a short scene.
Where was Papyrus 1224 found?
It was found at Oxyrhynchus, an ancient town in Middle Egypt, in the dry rubbish mounds dug by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt. The desert sand kept thousands of ancient papers from decaying.
Is Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1224 part of the Bible?
No. The New Testament was settled over several centuries with four gospels as the standard accounts. This text was a local copy that never entered that list, and it is known only from fragments.
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