P Oxy 5575 (Sayings of Jesus, 2023 edition)

front of fragmentary codex leaf (recto):

  • ... died (~ Gospel of Thomas 63.3)
  • For [I say] to you: [do not w]orry [about your life], what you will eat, [or your] body, what you [will wear]. (~ Matt. 6.25, Luke 12.22)
  • [Unless you] fast from [the world], [you will] not find the [kingd]om (~Gospel of Thomas 27)
  • [Consider] the birds, how... and the heavenly father f[eeds them]. So you... (~Matt. 6.26, Luke 12.24)

back (verso):

  • ... how [it/they gro]w... [toil?]ing... [spin?]ing (~ Matt. 6.28, 'consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin')
  • th[us not even So]lomon was cl[othed] in [his] glory. (~ Matt. 6.29, Luke 12.27b)
  • father [clothes?] grass being d[ried] and into the ov[en] being [th]rown... so [he will clothe] you [too]... (~ Matt. 6.30, Luke 12.28)
  • So yo[u do not worry about what you will eat or wear] (~ Matt. 6.31, Luke 12.29, Just. 1 Apol. 15.14)
  • For your father [knows of what] you have need. Rather s]eek h[is kingdom]. And [all these things will be gi]ve[n]... (~ Matt. 6.33, Luke 12.31, Just. 1. Apol. 15.16) 

Greek synopsis: http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2023/09/synopsis-of-poxy-5575-matt-luke-and.html

English synopsis: https://markgoodacre.org/POxy5575EngSynopsis.pdf


This papyrus was "found during Grenfell and Hunt's second excavatin season at Oxyrhynchus" (7), i.e. 1903 (I believe). Per this Daily Beast article (https://www.thedailybeast.com/scholars-publish-new-papyrus-with-early-sayings-of-jesus), it was cataloged and photographed in Oxford sometime in the 1960s-1980s.

Why has it taken more than 120 years to publish this papyrus, obviously of great interest? This is my big beef with the Oxyrhynchus people (i.e. the EES) -- they are continuing to hoard this collection of material and strictly limit access to it. If all the Oxyrhynchus papyri have been cataloged and photographed, why hasn't that collection been put online and allowed other scholars to access this material?

Conversely, this particular papyrus is one that Obbink stole and sold to Hobby Lobby. The three scholars that published it all have links to the Museum of the Bible. Why has the EES allowed these scholars to continue working with this material, while not permitting others?

It almost makes you sympathetic to Obbink -- sure, he sold the papyrus for cash, but if he hadn't how much longer would this papyrus still be sitting unread and unpublished in Oxford? 


The text itself is interesting. It's clearly Jesus speaking to followers (you), and generally the line of thought closely follows Matt. 6.25-33 ~ Luke 12.22-31 (i.e. Matthew's Sermon on the Mount).

But it has a fair bit of variation from those two texts (e.g. the grass is 'dried'  ξ[̣ηραινόμεν]ον instead of 'be alive' σήμερον ὄντα). 

And it includes a section from the Gospel of Thomas; this bit of Thomas survives in Greek and quite closely parallels what we find in this papyrus.

The text obviously bears a relationship to these other three texts (and Justin Martyr), but what that relationship is is hard to say.


The bit that stands out the most to me is that we have no 3rd person discourse markers ("Jesus said" etc.). One of the parallels in Luke has εἲπεν δὲ πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς (12.22), and similarly one parallel in the gospel of Thomas has λέγει ις. Similarly Justin Martyr.

Only Matthew has Jesus speak at such length without marking his speech in some way. 

Makes me think that this text was likely an extended 'sermon' of Jesus, either circulating freely as its own text or as part of a narrative text (like Matthew).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why does Odysseus reject Calypso’s offer to stay with her forever? (Catherine Project 8)

 Catherine Project, Spring 2024, Homer -- Response 8,  Od. 5-8 When Calypso tells Odysseus he may go home now if he wishes, she repeats her offer (apparently offered many times before) that Odysseus could instead stay with her, be lord of the household, and be immortal (Od. 5.208-210; cf. 5.135-6, 7.255-7, 23.333-8); Calypso thinks that Odysseus wants to see his wife, even though Calypso is more beautiful. Odysseus readily admits that Calypso, as an immortal goddess, is more beautiful, but even so he wants to see his home and his day of homecoming.  Putting aside what Calypso gets out of the deal (epic’s male perspective assumes Calypso would of course want Odysseus), I personally have always found it hard to understand Odysseus’ response and choice here. Immortality with a beautiful, loving goddess on an island paradise (5.63-76) would seem pretty close to the ideal human condition, even by the Od.’s standards. What Calypso offers sounds a lot like what is promised t...
Read more

Achilles Tatius

Outline of the whole work at https://docs.google.com/document/d/11rmnyWDzCEN2surASr83wxULyQeh06K6y8eQQQ84Xrc/edit?usp=sharing Some closing thoughts on Achilles Tatius: Quite a mix of genres: paradoxography, geography, ecphrasis, legal speech/rhetoric, light philosophy. At times the narrative is clearly being constructed in order to provide an excuse for some setpiece, e.g. the description of the phoenix that ends book 3. Book placement: as that phoenix anecdote exemplifies, books often end in a high point, e.g. book 5 ends in the climactic lovemaking between Kleitophon and Melite. Women are underdeveloped in the text: we rarely see things from their perspective, and even when we do (e.g. Leucippe’s narration at the end of the work or Melite’s pleas in book 5), their motivations are thin. Leucippe is particularly bad – she never really arises above the level of passive, beautiful love interest. The work plays with the cliches of love (perhaps a motivating force for the genre as a whole)...
Read more

Solon 27

Solon 27 A child, still young, grows his teeth and throws them out in his first seven years (0-7). When god fulfills the next seven (8-14), he shows the signs of hebe. In the third (15-21), his beard and limbs grows, changing the skin's flower. In the fourth (22-28), everyone is by far the best in strength, when men reach the peaks of arete. In the fifth (29-35), it's time for a man to think about marriage and to seek the generation of children. In the sixth (36-42), a man's mind sharpens about everything, and he no longer wants to do dumb things. In the seventh (43-49) and eighth (50-56), he is by far the best in mind and tongue. Of both there are fourteen years. In the ninth (57-63), he still is able, but his tongue and wisdom are softer toward great arete. If he should achieve the tenth (64-70) and reach his full measure, not untimely would he obtain death's share. 
Read more