P.Mich.inv. 917 / Recto

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Record Details

Inventory Number

P.Mich.inv. 917

Processing Number

3917

Section/Side

Recto (page 45) + Verso (page 46)

Image Side

Recto

Background and Physical Properties

Publ./Side

Recto (page 45) + Verso (page 46)

Material

Pap

Size

a:13.2 x 23.2 cm; b: 3 x 1.5 cm; c: 1.5 x 7 cm; d: 0.2 x 0.2 cm

Items

4

Lines

p. 45: 34 lines; p. 46: 32 lines

Mounted

Yes

Negative

Yes

Conservation Status

Under this number 26 separate mounts are comprised. Of these, Nos 1 to 6 inclusive contain single leaves. No 7-8 contains in one mount a small part of each of two sepatate leaves. Nos 9 to 14 are sheets or double leaves containg four pages each; in all these cases the two leaves forming the sheet are still attached at the middle. Nos 15 to 25 are single leaves again, and no 26 contains four very small unplaced fragments, and two others which may not have belonged to the Hermas manuscript. The unplaced fragments show only two or three letters each.

The sheets or double leaves belonged to the middle of the book. But one side of every sheet, in most cases the left as it would lie with the book open at the middle, has suffered considerably, so that even in this part of the book some pages are adly frayed and lacerated. Of the single leaves a few are well preserved, but most of them have considerable portions broken away; and some are reduced to mere fragments.

The papyrus used was of fine quality, thin and well polished, and it still retains something of its original toughness and pliability.

Palaeographic Description

The extreme measurements of the double leaves are at present 24.3 cm in height and 22.1 in breadth. Since all the margins have been broken away to a greater or less extent, the original size is somewhat uncertain; 25 by 22.5 or 23 cm is a reasonable estimate. Thus the book, when closed, was a tall volume, a little more than twice as high as it was wide.

The columns of writing vary from 19 to 20 cm in height and are usually 8-9 cm wide, though some are no more than 7 cm. The space between the two columns on a sheet, which varies from 2 to 3 cm is rather narrow in view of the circumstances that the book appears. It have consisted of one very large quire, each successive sheet lying inside the preceding ones. The scribe's practice was not very regular either in the number of lines allowed for a page or in the number of letters making a line. The commonest page-length is 30 lines; but the number runs as low as 28 and as high as 34, and there are several pages of 31 oe 32 lines. The variation in the length of the lines is even greater. Not taking into account several lines which have not been filled out completely, we find that there are lines with as few as 14 letters and as many as 24. The breadth of the columns and the distance between them are not much affected by the lessening of the number of letters in the line; the hand is simply more spreading. The variation in the length of the line considerably increases the difficulty of reconstructing the text when the right margin is broken away.

The pages were numbered in the middle of the upper margin by a hand different from that which wrote the text, and certainly later.

When the book was closed, the side of the papyrus leaf where the fibers run vertically was out and the other side where the fibers run in a horizontal direction was in.

At the time of the numbering of the pages, the book probably consisted of a single gathering of 43 sheets, or 172 pages. It had originally contained 6 more sheets, and it is probable that still another was added, outside of them all. This served as a cover to protect the written leaves.

The whole text of the manuscript is written in one hand, a fairly large, well-formed, moderately sloping uncial of the type which paleographers have somewhat vaguely called oval, because the curves of such letters as epsilon, theta, an sigma are elliptical or oval rather than circular. The writer was evidently an accomplished scribe, but it may be that his skill was acquired in professional letter writing rather than in the copying books.Certainly his work is even and regular, and lapses into a cursive style only in a few cases when alpha is made without lifting the pen, and is connected with the following iota. He uses a relatively small omicron and a flat omega, which has only a slight wave in the base and occasionally none at all. Both omicron and omega are st slightly above the base line. Attention may be called to the deeply notched mu and to the beta in which the lower loop is closed by a straight line that is often carried on to the right beyond the descending curve. The scribe often uses a slight hook or starting stroke in making both horizontal and vertical strokes.

Status

published

Library

Ann Arbor

Contents

Date

second half of the IIIrd century A.D.

Origin

unknown

Provenance

probably Theadelphia (Batn-el-Hatit), Themistou meris, Arsinoite nome, province of Egypt or Lycopolis (Assiut), Upper Egypt

Acquisition

November 1922; Acquired by Dr. Askren - British Museum from Fayoum; Purchased from Humanistic Research Fund

Language

Greek

Genre

Literary; christian

Author

Hermas (?)

Type of Text/Title of Work

Christian literature: The Sphepherd of Hermas, Similitudines (GCS 48, 51, 8-82, 1)

Content

The Sphepherd of Hermas, Similitudines, preserving the beginning of VIII, 6

Translation

The translation is Roberts-Donaldson's as in the http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/shepherd.html

(page 45) (Sim. VIII:) After the Shepherd had examined the branches of them all, he said to me, "I told you that this tree was tenacious of life. You see," he continued, "how many repented and were saved." "I see, sir," I replied. "That you may behold," he added, "the great mercy of the Lord, that it is great and glorious, and that He has given His Spirit to those who are worthy of repentance." "Why then, sir," I said, "did not all these repent?" He answered, "To them whose heart He saw would become pure, and obedient to Him, He gave power to repent with the whole heart. But to them whose deceit and wickedness He perceived, and saw that they intended to repent hypocritically, He did not grant repentance, lest they should again profane His name." I said to him, "Sir, show me now, with respect to those who gave in the branches, of what sort they are, and their abode, in order that they hearing it who believed, and received the seal, and broke it, and did not keep it whole, may, on coming to a knowledge of their deeds, repent, and receive from you. a seal, and may glorify the Lord because He had compassion (page 46) upon them, and sent you to renew their spirits." "Listen," he said: "they whose branches were found withered and moth-eaten are the apostates and traitors of the Church, who have blasphemed the Lord in their sins, and have, moreover, been ashamed of the name of the Lord by which they were called. These, therefore, at the end were lost unto God. And you see that not a single one of them repented, although they heard the words which I spake to them, which I enjoined upon you. From such life departed? And they who gave them in withered and undecayed, these also were near to them; for they were hypocrites, and introducers of strange doctrines, and subverters of the servants Of God, especially of those who had sinned, not allowing them to repent, but persuading them by foolish doctrines. These, accordingly,

Papyri.info Link

https://papyri.info/apis/michigan.apis.3926

Information on Publications

Publications

Series and Volume	Editor	Year	Pg/Nr	Photo	SB	Preferred Citation	Corrections
HThR 18	Bonner C	1925	115-27		Bonner C, HThR 18, 115-27, 1925
Shepherd of Hermas P.Mich. 129	Bonner C	1934	39-126	Pl I-V	Bonner C, Shepherd of Hermas P.Mich. 129, 39-126, 1934, Pl I-V

Information on Publications--Bibliography

Bibliography

About the authorship, date of composition, bibliography see the site: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/shepherd.html

Van Haelst 0660; K.Aland, Repertorium II, KV38; LDAB 1097

edition based on: M. Whittaker, Die apostolischen Väter I. Der Hirt des Hermas [Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 48, 2nd edn. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1967

Cataloging

Cataloger

NL

Year Begin

250

Year End

300

Technical Details

Collection

Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS UM)

Image Size

5043 x 5929

File Size

4 MB

Record

3917

Link to this Item

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/apis/x-3917/917_17r.tif content_copy

Related Links

IIIF

Manifest

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/apis:3917 content_copy