Analysis of Papyrus 66 and Papyrus 75 (Gospel of John)

Hello,

In this thread I'll teach you about Papyrus 66 and Papyrus 75, two old manuscripts of the Gospel of John that predates the NT (4th century). Pay attention to the words in red, you may starting ask yourself about the "word of god".

1. Dating

Papyrus 66: First half of the 3rd century (about 200-250 B.C.). Newer than Papyrus 75.

Papyrus 75: End of the second and beginning of the third century A.D. (about 175-225 A.D.). Older than Papyrus 66.
==============================================
2. Writing

Papyrus 66: The scribe of the papyrus wrote in larger characters as they progressed, in order to fill the codex. He leaves the impression that it was written to be read in loud voice to the christian congregation.

Papyrus 75: The scribe of the papyrus leaves great impression that it was written to be read in loud voice to the christian congregation.
==============================================
3. Corrections

Papyrus 66: The scribe roduced several regular single readings which reveals his interpretation of the text...The countless errors of the scribe indicate that he was inattentive... The scribe forgot many of the words that he was copying...

As the result, he had to continuously stop his reading and make many corrections.

Note the scribe was not worried about preserving any text.

Papyrus 75: The scribe made several corrections, but there was no attempt "to revise the text for a second copy, and in fact no systematic correction has been made at all"
==============================================
4. Insertions

Papyrus 66: The scribe did on his own a fill in gaps. Example: In John 1:49, the scribe inserted in the speech of Nathaniel the following expression to Jesus "you are the Son of God".

Papyrus 75: It is a fact well known that the produced text by the scribe of the papyrus is very precise. It is also known that the text of the papyrus was the type used in the formulation of the Codex Vaticanus; the text is similar to the B, demonstrating concordance of about 85%.
==============================================
5. Omission

Papyrus 66: In 17:11, the scribe wrote "Father, keep through my name those whom you have given me" instead of "Father, keep through your own name those whom you have given me"

Papyrus 75: The scribe of the papyrus shows a clear tendency in making grammatical and stylistic improvements according to the tradition of Alexandrina's scribes, the scribe had the tendency to shorten his text, particularly pronouns.
==============================================
6. Deturpations

Papyrus 66: Some of the singular variants also show that the scribe was interested in helping the readers understand the text better.

In 6:1, the scribe erased the expression "of Tiberias", because his christian egyptian readers probably didn't know that the Sea of Galilee was also called Sea of Tiberias.

In 8:36, the scribe changed "you will be free" to "you are free"

In 17:11, the scribe omitted "that they are one, just as we are" to preserve the thematic unit of the final prayer of Jesus.

The omission in 17:18, if not accidental, could have also been done with the interest to preserve the thematic unit of 17:17-19, that is about santification.

In 19:5, the scribe omitted the whole phrase, being as follows: "And he said unto them, Behold the man"

In 19:16, the scribe omitted the phrase "and carried the cross by himself", so as to conform to the synoptic Gospels.

In 19:28 the following phrase as omitted: "that the scriptures would be fulfilled" to avoid the problem of identification of a Scripture of the Old Testament: "I am thirsty".

Papyrus 75: However, his omissions of the text almost never exceeded a word or two, probably because he copied word by word and syllable by syllable.