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The Oxyrhynchus Papyri

The Remarkable Discovery You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

By Stephen J. Patterson

Discovered in the Egyptian desert over a century ago, the Oxyrhynchus Papyri have provided invaluable insights into the life and times of an early Roman Christian community of the Nile Valley. As our author explains, these priceless documents, which include everything from little-known gospels to revealing personal letters, intimately portray the beliefs and daily lives of ordinary Romans and Christians, making them one of the greatest archaeological finds ever.

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Footnotes

1.

André Lemaire, “Burial Box of James the Brother of Jesus,” BAR 28:06; Birger A. Pearson, “Judas Iscariot Among the Gnostics,” BAR 34:03; see Hershel Shanks, First Person: “‘The Tomb of Jesus’—My Take,” BAR 33:04.

Endnotes

1.

B.P. Grenfell, “The Oldest Record of Christ’s Life: The First Complete Account of the Recent Finding of the ‘Sayings of Our Lord,’” McClure’s Magazine (October 1897), p. 1027.

2.

Peter Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2007).

3.

See Alexander Jones, Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1999).

4.

POxy 2783, as cited by Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, p. 133.

5.

POxy 3059, as cited by Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, p. 135.

6.

POxy 119, as cited by Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, p. 129.

7.

Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, p. 127.

8.

From A.S. Hunt and C.C. Edgar, Select Papyri, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard, 1932), vol. 1, p. 106.

9.

POxy 1757, as cited by Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, p. 127.

10.

POxy 744, from Hunt and Edgar, Select Papyri, vol. 1, pp. 294–295.

11.

POxy 1148, from Hunt and Edgar, Select Papyri, vol. 1, p. 198.

12.

POxy 1415, as cited by Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, p. 170.

13.

See Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish, p. 69.