November/December 2023 Alchemical Voice

MAGDALEN
PAPYRUS
Julie de Vere Hunt
Alchemical Voice - L2M - Issue 23
These three ancient scraps of papyrus have been
locked away in Magdalen College library for over a
century and yet could be one of the most important
documents in the world. Each fragment, the largest
of which is just 4.1cm x 1.3cm, makes up part of a
passage from the New Testament gospel of
Matthew.
With Greek script on both sides of the fragments,
phrases from the 26th chapter of Matthew describe
Jesus’ anointment in the house of Simon the leper at
Bethany and his betrayal to the chief priests by
Judas Iscariot.
Magdalen Gk17 papyrus
A German papyrologist named Dr Carsten Thiede
stumbled across them whilst visiting family in
Oxford in February 1994.
Dr Thiede believes these are the oldest examples of
New Testament ever found dating from the mid-1st
century - an actual eye witness account.
Dr Thiede noticed the papyrus was written in a
distinctive script common in the 1st. century BC but
petering out by the mid-1st century AD.
Papyri dating is complex, but it was
previously thought to be written in the 2nd
century.
Since the papyrus had been originally dated in the
1950’s, important research had been done on Greek
texts from Pompeii, Herculaneum and Qumran
enabling Dr Thiede to reassess the time period the
papyrus was likely to have written.
How had this mysterious ancient papyrus reached
the Old Library at Magdalen College, Oxford?
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