::The Muddled History of P46::

It is a sad fact that such an important and well preserved text as this should have fallen victim to the practices of early 20th century antiquities dealers. The fact that this papyrus was purchased on the antiquities market, rather than unearthed as part of a scientific excavation, presents many problems to modern scholars. Questions about the origin, use, and age of this papyrus are difficult to answer because of the lack of an archaeological context for this papyrus. For example, the stratigraphy of the site could have provided information useful for dating the papyrus. Also, the geographic location of the site, as well as the type of site (residence, monastery, e.g.) could have provided useful information about how early New Testament texts were used and circulated throughout Egypt.

While the questions above still linger today, there were even more questions to be asked in 1931 when the first fragments of this codex began to appear. The original acquisitions by Chester Beatty included several different NT papyri as well as 10 leaves of the Pauline Epistles. Because most of the leaves were still physically joined in pairs, and because the codex consisted of a single quire (for more about codices and quires, see Ancient Book Forms), the original size of the quire could be estimated with good accuracy. However, the contents were missing, and this papyrus was not considered to be one of the best from group which Mr. Beatty had obtained.

Over the next few years, however, more leaves from the codex began to come to light, and today this codex is among the most important early examples of NT writing. Unfortunately, it was not a simple task to reassemble the codex that the dealers had destroyed. Following Kenyon's publication of the original ten leaves in 1934, it was discovered that the University of Michigan had thirty additional leaves of the same codex, six of which had been bought in 1931 and the remaining twenty-four in 1933. With this discovery, now forty leaves had been discovered, and it was hoped that soon the remaining leaves might be found. However, after two years with no new discoveries, Henry Sanders, a papyrologist at the University of Michigan, published the 30 Michigan leaves along with the 10 Beatty leaves already published. Very soon after this publication, it was announced that Chester Beatty had managed to acquire 46 additional leaves from the same codex. These new leaves were published by Kenyon, along with the previously published leaves, in 1936. This publication turned out to be the last, and the 86 leaves are all that now survive from the original 104-leaf codex.

If the codex had not been mutilated by the dealers who sold it, this confusion surrounding its publication could have been avoided. Nevertheless, perhaps one can find a silver lining in this story; because the text now resides in separate collections on both sides of the Atlantic ocean, it can be enjoyed by a much wider audience of researchers and visitors.

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