A Newly-Published New Testament Gospels Fragment—with Text from Another Gospel Too?
A quick guide to discussions about the recently published Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5575
An ancient fragment that includes portions from the New Testament Gospels has recently been published.
But sayings from the New Testament Gospels isn’t all that this fragment includes.
This piece of papyrus—known as Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5575–also seems to include at least a few lines from the Gospel of Thomas.
You’re likely to see all sorts of speculations about the contents of this text throughout the next few weeks. What I’ve put together for you here is a quick guide from some reliable voices to bring you up to date on the discussion.
What Is Included in P. Oxy. 5575?
First off, what exactly is included in this text? Michael Kruger provides a summary:
On August 31, 2023, the 87th volume of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri was published—and therein we learn of a remarkable fragment, P.Oxy. 5575. The internet has been buzzing about it ever since.… The first notable feature of this fragment—and the feature that’s generated most of the online buzz—is the unique mix of content it contains. According to the original editors, it apparently contains a conglomeration of material from Matthew (6:25–26, 28-33) and Luke (12:22, 24, 27–31), laid alongside portions from the Gospel of Thomas (27, 36, 63).
Mark Goodacre has provided a helpful synopsis of the texts in English: P.Oxy. 5575, Matthew, Luke, Thomas. If you want to see the text in Greek, Peter Gurry has placed the Greek text of the fragment alongside possible parallel texts in the Gospels According to Matthew and Luke, as well as Gospel of Thomas: Synopsis of P.Oxy. 5575. Gurry has also pointed out—rightly, in my view—that the assertion of material from Luke’s Gospel is somewhat “precarious.”
How Early Is Too Early to Date?
Part of what makes this fragment so significant is its purportedly early date of composition.
The original editors assigned a date in the second century, which would place P.Oxy. 5575 among the earliest fragments of any New Testament texts. Later editors placed the composition somewhat later, in the late second or early third century.
Brent Nongbri—who has frequently, with well-researched rationale, questioned the early dating of manuscripts based on paleography—does raise some valid issues related to a date in the second or third century. Nevertheless, the fragment does seem to be particularly early.
Why Does P. Oxy. 5575 Mix Canonical and Non-Canonical Texts?
So why does this text include portions from the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas? Michael Kruger again:
The early Christians probably used the miniature codex format for a number of reasons including private reading, portability for long journeys, and sometimes even in a “magical” sense, thinking it provided protection for the one who possessed it. But they also used this tiny format to carry what we’d call “apocryphal” writings—books not approved by the ecclesiastical authorities. For example, we have miniature codices that contain the Gospel of Mary, the Acts of Paul, the Acts of Peter, the Protevangelium of James, the Apocalypse of Peter, and more. While we have no way to know for sure how P.Oxy. 5575 functioned, it may have been a sayings-of-Jesus collection, drawn from a variety of sources, that early Christians used for private devotional reading and possibly for taking on journeys.…
Christians … were quite willing to use a variety of Jesus material in the second century, drawn from many sources (oral and written), as long as it was helpful and edifying. But this didn’t mean they drew no distinctions between canonical and non-canonical content. Clement of Alexandria, for example, is able to cite favorably from the Gospel of the Egyptians and the Gospel of the Hebrews (and many other non-canonical works)—but, at the same time, he makes clear he considers only the four Gospels as canonical. Thus, even though a wide variety of material could be used, it wasn’t all necessarily regarded as Scripture.
Michael Holmes describes several possibilities regarding how and why these texts were brought together in this way in this particular fragment:
Put the two issues together—a relatively early date, and a unique interweaving of sayings known from Luke and Matthew with a saying known only from the Gospel of Thomas—and the questions and possibilities overflow. As the editors observe,
5575 may be from a sayings collection, or, given the flow from one saying to another, perhaps a discourse. One possibility is that it represents, or is closely related to, a work which was not dependent upon Gos. Thom. but rather served as a source for it.
Or, alternatively, the Gospel of Thomas may be a source for the saying in this fragment—a view that would, in light of the fragment’s early date, require a major re-assessment for the composition of Gospel of Thomas (of these last two possibilities, the former seems far more likely).
Here’s a video introduction to the fragment for anyone who wants to learn more: