PAULINE EPISTLES. Text. Fasciculus III Supplement. THE CHESTER BEATTY BIBLICAL PAPYRI: Descriptions and Texts of the Twelve Manuscripts on Papyrus of the Greek Bible
Emery Walker Limited, 1936. Hardcover. xxii, 156pp. 8x11' in publisher's tan buckram with gilt spine lettering. Removed bookplate, a bit rubbed around the extremities, sound and square otherwise with tight binding and no markings. 'Fasciculus III of The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri published in 1936, 1 as Papyrus II of the collection, ten leaves of what was described as a sadly imperfect codex of the Pauline Epistles. Since eight of them were still physically joined together in four pairs of conjoint leaves, one leaf of each pair containing portions of the Epistle to the Romans, while the others contained portions of Philippians, Colossians, and I Thessalonians, it was evident that the whole had originally formed a codex of the Pauline Epistles in a single large quire, after the manner described in the General Introduction (Fasc. I) ; and a mutilated page-numeral on one of the later leaves allowed certain in-ferences, which it is unnecessary to repeat, to be made as to the size and contents of the volume. But nine-tenths of it were missing, and three of the leaves were much mutilated. The publication of these leaves had, however, scarcely been made, when it was announced that thirty more leaves of the same codex had been acquired by the University of Michigan, which already possessed some other portions of the Chester Beatty find. Six of these were acquired at the same time as those of Mr. Beatty (1930-I), and twenty-four more in the winter of 1932-3. The text of these thirty leaves, containing large portions of Romans, Hebrews, I and 2 Corinthians, the whole of Ephesians and nearly the whole of Galatians, was published, together with a reprint of the ten Beatty leaves, by Prof. H. A. Sanders, of Michigan University, in April 1935, with a full introduction! But this publication was in its turn almost immediately followed by the announcement that Mr. Chester Beatty had himself acquired no less than forty-six more leaves of the codex, and these were placed in my hands for publication. Prof. Sanders and the authorities of the University of Michigan spontaneously gave permission for their leaves to be reprinted, and supplied photographs of them, and it is therefore now possible to give the description and text of the whole MS. as now known, which is an almost complete copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, at least a century older than the oldest of the authorities on which the text has hitherto rested, the great Vatican and Sinaitic codices.' - From the introduction. [Textual Criticism; Pre-Nicene Christianity]. VERY GOOD. Item #505630
Price: $150.00