Visual Guides
Manuscript Infocards
Each manuscript at a glance: its passage, its date, where it rests today, and its place in the story of Scripture.
Featured Infocards
Select an infocard to enlarge it and read its full museum label. New guides are added as each is completed.
Nash Papyrus
Predates the Dead Sea Scrolls as the oldest known Hebrew biblical manuscript.
New Testament Papyri
Early Greek papyri of the New Testament, ordered by number — from single verses to whole leaves, including every Ephesians folio of Papyrus 46.
Papyrus 9
“God is Love” — an early fragment of 1 John preserving 4:11-12 (recto) and 4:14-17 (verso).
Papyrus 18
An unusual single-leaf manuscript pairing Old and New Testament text — Exodus 40 from the Septuagint on one side, Revelation 1 on the other.
Papyrus 20
“Faith Demonstrated by Works” — one of the earliest surviving manuscripts of the Epistle of James.
Papyrus 24 — The Black Horse
An early fragment of Revelation preserving the third seal and the Black Horse, whose rider holds a pair of scales.
Papyrus 32
“Sound in the Faith” — an early fragment of Paul's Epistle to Titus.
Papyrus 37 — The Last Supper & Gethsemane
An early Greek leaf of Matthew: the Last Supper on the front, and Gethsemane, the betrayal and the arrest on the back.
Papyrus 46
An early codex of Paul's letters. Its Ephesians, Romans and 1 Corinthians leaves appear individually below.
Papyrus 46 — Ephesians 1:1–20
The opening of the Epistle to the Ephesians, on the blessings believers have in Christ, reproduced on both the front (recto) and back (verso).
Papyrus 46 — Ephesians 1:21–2:20
“By Grace You Have Been Saved” — reproduced on both the front (recto) and back (verso).
Papyrus 46 — Ephesians 2:21–4:1
“One Body in Christ” — reproduced on both the front (recto) and back (verso).
Papyrus 46 — Ephesians 4:2–25
“Walk Worthy of Your Calling” — reproduced on both the front (recto) and back (verso).
Papyrus 46 — Ephesians 4:26–5:25
“Walk as Children of Light” — reproduced on both the front (recto) and back (verso).
Papyrus 46 — Ephesians 5:26–6:18
On marriage, family, and the armor of God — reproduced on both the front (recto) and back (verso).
Papyrus 46 — Ephesians 6:21–Galatians 1:23 (Folio 7)
The closing of Ephesians running into the opening of Galatians, reproduced on both the front (recto) and back (verso).
Papyrus 46 — The Love Chapter
“Love is patient, love is kind” — the famous love chapter, reproduced on both the front (recto) and back (verso).
Papyrus 46 — Romans 8 (Folio 11)
“The Golden Chain of Salvation” — Romans 8:29–30, from foreknowledge to glorification, with Paul's great words of assurance.
Papyrus 47
“The Number of the Beast” — an early fragment of the Book of Revelation.
Papyrus 48
“The Failed Plot to Kill Paul” — a rare, irregularly shaped early fragment of the Book of Acts.
Papyrus 66 — For God So Loved the World
Jesus and Nicodemus, and the words of John 3:16, from one of the earliest substantial manuscripts of the Gospel of John.
Papyrus 72 — Warning Against Twisting Scripture
An early fragment of 2 Peter, warning against twisting the Scriptures.
Papyrus 72 — 1 & 2 Peter
“Jesus Called God” — a facing-pages codex opening from 1 & 2 Peter.
Papyrus 75
“Jesus Heals on the Sabbath” — one of the earliest and most complete early manuscripts of Luke and John.
Papyrus 78
“Beware of False Teachers” — one of the earliest surviving pieces of the Epistle of Jude.
Papyrus 87 — Philemon
The oldest known manuscript witness to Paul's Letter to Philemon, a letter of grace and reconciliation concerning Onesimus.
Papyrus 115 — The 616 Variant
A famous textual variant reading “616” rather than “666” for the Number of the Beast.
Papyrus 115 — The Fall of Satan
A recto/verso fragment preserving the vision of Satan cast down to earth.
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Septuagint
The ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament most familiar to Greek-speaking Jews and the first Christians. Arranged in canonical order.
Rahlfs 961 — The Promise to Abraham
Chester Beatty Biblical Papyrus IV, Folio 4: God's call of Abram and the promise that in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Rahlfs 832 — Abram & Lot
A fourth-century Septuagint codex leaf of Genesis 13, written in an even book hand: the strife between the herdsmen and Lot's choice of the Jordan plain.
Rebekah at the Well | BP V, f.3
A third-century AD Genesis papyrus from Egypt preserving portions of Genesis 24, including Rebekah's providential meeting at the well.
The Lord Blessed Job | Oxyrhynchus 3522
A rare 1st-century AD Septuagint papyrus fragment from the Book of Job, preserving the closing verses where the Lord restores Job's fortunes.
P. Köln IV 168 — Psalm 17
A small sixth-century Greek papyrus preserving David's prayer, “Incline your ear to me… show your marvelous mercy.”
Rahlfs 965 — I Will Shake the Heavens
Chester Beatty Biblical Papyrus VII, folios 20 and 93: Isaiah's oracle of the heavens shaken in the day of the LORD.
Papyrus 967 — The Son of Man
One like a son of man comes with the clouds of heaven and receives an everlasting kingdom, from an early Greek codex of Ezekiel, Daniel and Esther.
Papyrus 967 — The Story of Susanna
The close of Susanna, where Daniel exposes the false witnesses, followed by the scribe's subscription: “Peace to the one who wrote and to those who read.”
No manuscripts in this category match your search.
Hebrew Manuscripts & the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Nash Papyrus, long the oldest known Hebrew biblical text, beside manuscripts recovered from the Judean Desert from 1947 onward, among them early Greek translations.
Nash Papyrus
Predates the Dead Sea Scrolls as the oldest known Hebrew biblical manuscript.
Genesis 1 — 4Q7
Dead Sea Scroll fragments preserving the beginning of the Book of Genesis, replicated on real goat vellum.
Psalm 23 (Nahal Hever)
“He Leads Me Beside Still Waters” — a Psalms fragment discovered among the Nahal Hever caves near the Dead Sea.
4Q120 — The Divine Name (ΙΑΩ)
A Greek Septuagint fragment from Qumran Cave 4 that renders the divine name as ΙΑΩ (Iaō), a transliteration of the Tetragrammaton.
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Early Christian Writings
Writings from the first centuries of the Church, showing how Scripture was read, quoted and handed on.
Egerton Gospel — P. Köln VI 255
A second-century fragment of a noncanonical account of Jesus: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me.”
Melito's Peri Pascha
“On the Passover” — an early Christian homily on the Passover, among the earliest surviving Christian literature outside the New Testament.
Irenaeus — P.Oxy. 405
Part of Irenaeus' Against Heresies, copied within decades of its writing, quoting Matthew's account of the baptism of Jesus.
Athanasius — Letter to Dracontius
Nine Coptic papyrus fragments of Athanasius of Alexandria's letter urging the monk Dracontius to take up his calling as bishop.
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Collections & Sets
Manuscripts gathered by theme and presented together as a single set.
Earliest Witnesses to the Gospel
Four facsimiles of early witnesses to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John: 𝔓104, 𝔓137, 𝔓138 and 𝔓52.
The Earliest Johannine Manuscripts
Papyrus 52 and Papyrus 9, paired: the Gospel of John before Pilate and the First Letter of John on God's love.
The Old Testament Collection
Three Hebrew manuscripts together: Genesis 1 (4Q7), the Ten Commandments and Shema (Nash Papyrus), and Psalm 23 (5/6Hev 1b).
No manuscripts in this category match your search.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
ISAIAH 40:8
See These Manuscripts Up Close
Every guide pairs with a handcrafted replica. Explore the manuscripts themselves, or learn the terms behind them.