Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 24:1-2 (1987) 37-61
NEW GREEK FRAGMENTS OF BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPTS
IN THE CHESTER BEATTY LIBRARY
As many scholars have experienced first-hand, the dry sands of Egypt and the
arid caves of the Judaean Desert are not unique in yielding papyri from time to time.
Libraries too have proven to be exciting places to investigate for anyone interested in
unearthing unknown texts. Among these the Chester Beatty Library and Gallery of Oriental Art, Dublin, has been no exception. The list of known papyri in its possession has been
growing steadily over the years. In the following pages we will devote our attention to a)
Greek materials and, more particularly, b) the series of manuscripts initiated by Frederic G.
Kenyon in 1933 with the publication of Chester Beatty Biblical Papyrus I (Gospels and
Acts). The sole exception to the above is a well-known snippet of P. Bodmer XX.
The series published by Kenyon reached number XII with the appearance of
Enoch and Melito, all of them manuscripts acquired by Alfred Chester Beatty in the early
1930s. In my own publication of two manuscripts of the Greek Psalter in 1978 this series
was continued with the approval of the Chester Beatty Library. Consequently, the Greek
Biblical series has at present reached XVIII. For the convenience of the reader we list here
the post-Kenyon manuscripts:
XIII Psalms 72:6-75:13, 77:1-88:2 (Two Manuscripts of the Greek Psalter, Analecta
Biblica 77. Rome, 1978). Rahlfs no. 2149
XIV Psalms 31:8-11, 26:1-6, 8-14, 2:1-8 (Ibid.). Rahlfs no. 2150
XV Acts of Phileas plus Psalms 1:1-4:2 (The Acts of Phileas Bishop of Thmuis
[Including Fragments of the Greek Psalter]. Cahiers d' Orientalisme 7. Geneva,
1984). Rahlfs no. 2151 (Pss)
XVI Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres (cf. J. H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha vol. 2, pp. 427-42. New York, 1985)
XVII Luke 14:7-14 (see below)
XVIII Job 9:2-3, 12-13 (see below). Rahlfs no. 854
As is evident the term "Biblical" has been interpreted in a wider rather than a
narrower sense, in conformity with the example set by Kenyon for Papyrus XII.
In what follows only letters outside of parentheses constitute new text. Readings
within square brackets are, of course, reconstructions by the editor. Scribal corrections
and lectional signs in previously edited portions of text have been ignored. For Genesis,
Numbers, Job and Psalms the editions of the Gbttingen Septuagint have been used and
their text is cited as Gk.
