Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Discovery of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri is a group of manuscripts discovered in the nineteenth century by Bernard Pyne and Arthus Hunt at an ancient dump site near Oxyrhynchus Egypt (modern El-Bahnasa.)
These various manuscripts date between 32 B.C and 640 A.D. They are composed of codes, ethics, official correspondences, taxes, private letters, etc. Most of them are written in Greek, some are written in Egyptian, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, ad a handful of other languages.
Since 1898, over 5000 documents have been collated and transcribed from hundreds of boxes of fragmented pieces, though to only represent only 1% of the total documents yet to be reassembled.
Christian Texts
The most numerous groups of early New Testament copies have been discovered among the Papyri recovered. The earliest of these papyri are dated to the 2nd century A.D. and were copied roughly a century after the originals New Testament documents. Guiving us the most accurate portrayal of the original documents.
Large portions from all of the New Testament book have been found and have been translated to reflect the same text we have in our modern-day Bibles. Along with many other apocrypha, pseudo graphical and historic Christian texts.
Large portions of the Old Testament were found among the papyri, including many Old Testament apocryphal, pseudo graphical and historic Jewish texts.