hatsoff

It seems like this information should be common on the net, but for some reason I can't seem to find the answer to this question: What is the identity and date of composition of the oldest complete or near-complete ms. for each New Testament book? Everything I can find seems to focus on the oldest fragments, not full texts.

Any help would be appreciated.

hatsoff

I will update this second post as more information becomes available.

Matthew -- P64/P67 c.200? (significant portions; Mt3:9,15;5:20-22,25-28;26:7-8,10,14-15,22-23,31-33); P45 (Chester Beatty) c.225? (significant portions; Mt20:24-32;21:13-19;25:41-26:39)

Mark -- P45 (Chester Beatty) c.225? (significant portions; Mk4:36-40;5:15-26,38-6:3,16-25,36-50;7:3-15,25-8:1,10-26,34-9:9,18-31;11:27-12:1,5-8,13-19,24-28)

Luke -- P75 (Bodmer) c.200? (significant portions; Lk3:18-22,33-4:2,34-5:10,37-6:4,10-7:32,35-39,41-43,46-9:2,4-17:15,19-18:18;22:4-24:53); P45 (Chester Beatty) c.225? (significant portions; Lk6:31-41,45-7:7;9:26-41,45-10:1,6-22,26-11:1,6-25,28-46,50-12:12,18-37,42-13:1,6-24,29-14:10,17-33)

John -- P66 (Bodmer) c.200? (mostly complete, John 1:1-6:11; 6:35-14:26, 29-30; 15:2-26; 16:2-4, 6-7; 16:10-20:20, 22-23; 20:25-21:9, 12, 17); P45 (Chester Beatty) c.225? (significant portions; Jn10:7-25,30-11:10,18-36,42-57)

Acts -- P45 (Chester Beatty) c.225? (significant portions; Ac4:27-36;5:10-21,30-39;6:7-7:2,10-21,32-41,52-8:1,14-25,34-9:6,16-27,35-10:2,10-23,31-41;11:2-14,24-12:5,13-22;13:6-16,25-36,46-14:3,15-23;15:2-7,19-27,38-16:4,15-21,32-40;17:9-17)

Romans -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (significant portions, Rm5:17-6:3,5-14;8:15-25,27-35,37-9:32;10:1-11:22,24-33,35-15:9,11-16:27)

1 Corinthians -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (mostly complete; 1Cr1:1-9:2,4-14:14,16-15:15,17-16:22)

2 Corinthians -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (mostly complete; 2Cr1:1-11:10,12-21,23-13:13)

Galatians -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (mostly complete; Gl1:1-8,10-2:9,12-21;3:2-29;4:2-18,20-5:17,20-6:8,10-18)

Ephesians -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (mostly complete; Ep1:1-2:7,10-5:6,8-6:6,8,20-24)

Philippians -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (mostly complete; Ph1:1,5-15,17-28,30-2:12,14-27,29-3:8,10-21;4:2-12,14-23)

Colossians -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (mostly complete; Cl1:1-2,5-13,16-24,27-2:19,23-3:11,13-24;4:3-12,16-18)

1 Thessalonians -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (significant portions; 1Th1:1,9-2:3;5:5-9,23-28)

2 Thessalonians -- ???

1 Timothy -- ???

2 Timothy -- ???

Titus -- P32 (Rylands) c.200? (significant portions; Titus 1:11-15;2:3-8)

Philemon -- ???

Hebrews -- P46 (Chester Beatty) c.200? (mostly complete; Hb1:1-9:16,18-10:20,22-30,32-13:25)

James -- ???

1 Peter -- P72 (Bodmer) c.250? (complete; 1Pt1:1-5:14)

2 Peter -- P72 (bodmer) c.250? (complete; 2Pt1:1-3:18)

1 John -- ???

2 John -- ???

3 John -- ???

Jude -- P72 (Bodmer) c.250? (complete; Jude 1-25)

Revelation -- ???

mountainman

Some relevant notes on DATING TECHNOLOGIES

1) Paleographical citations:

Every single citation that you have listed above has been
dated by the process of paleography (handwriting analysis).
Therefore one must be specific in these citations in
that you should specify how the date was derived.


2) Carbon dating citations:

There are only two carbon dating citations relevant to the
NT writings that I am aware of:

a) The binding on the gThomas (Nag Hamadi) === 360 CE
b) The gJudas (recently available) ====== 280 CE (+/- 60 years)

3) The oldest surviving CODEXES

See this thread: Dating and role in textual transmission of Codexes A, B and Aleph

The dating ascribed to the oldest existing codexes is later that
the end of the fourth century.

hatsoff

I'd really appreciate some more help on this, if possible. I know if anyone can create a reference collection like this on the fly, it's the folks at BC&H.

Roger Pearse

You probably should bear in mind that manuscripts that date from antiquity are often incomplete and have lost leaves during their passage down the centuries. Our only manuscript of the 5th Decade of Livy has lost books 46-50. I myself have handled a manuscript of Jerome's Chronicle written around 440 (within 20 years of the author's death) and while the manuscript was substantially complete the first 20-odd leaves had been lost. The manuscript was later 'mended' (badly) by some replacement leaves written in the 15th century.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

gregor

I think the following thread had a nice summary of mss evidence starting from oldest and scrapiest to more complete copies.

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...threadid=33716

CX indicated later that he might try for a more comprehensive summary, but I don't think it ever materialized.