PAPYRUS FRAGMENTS P⁹⁶³

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Chester Beatty Papyrus VI. Portions of fifty leaves (of which twenty-eight are substantially preserved) out of an original total of 108, of a codex containing the books of Numbers & Deuteronomy, written in a small & good hand which cannot be later than the middle of the second century, with the columns to the page. It is thus the earliest extant MS, of the Greek Bible with the exception of fragment 957, & the earliest example of a papyrus codex at present known. It contains portions of Numbers from v.12 onwards (principally xxv.-xxxvi.) & of Deut.i.20-.17, xviii.22-end. A few fragments of this MSS are in possession of the university of Michigan. It is noteworthy that while the text of Numbers is most akin to that of B, in Deuteronomy it is conspicuously not in agreement with B, but rather with G & Θ.

Description & picture from 'Our Bible & the Ancient Manuscripts' by Sir Frederick Kenyon (1895 - 4th Ed. 1939) Pg 65 & Plate VII. (Page fragment illustrated: 27.5 x 12.5cm.) 
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