Greek Papyri from the Second Century

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I am truly fascinated by Papyrus 46. Some claim it to have been copied in the first century. Others say it was copied in the third. From all that I've read, I think it was copied in the mid second century. It is without doubt the earliest extant manuscript of any part of the New Testament.

It was copied entirely in upper case letters, without spaces between words, and generally no punctuation, accents, or breathing. If the scribe ran out of space at the end of the line before he finished a word, he just continue onto the next line. Each page is numbered at the top with Greek letters (which represent numbers).

Fifty-six leaves of P46 constitute Papyrus 2 of the Cheaster Beatty Collection in Dublin, Ireland, while another thirty leaves make up inventory number 6238 of the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Unfortunately pages of the document were sold by early 20th century antique dealers.

The University of Michigan makes their portion available to the public. I am getting pretty excited about it. I am learning the way these second-century scribes formed the letters of the Greek alphabet.

If you would like to see a photocopy of a page of this manuscript as it is in its present condition, click on the link below and see 2 Corithians 11:33 to 12:9 as it looked in the second century (It probably looked much the same as that which was originally written by the apostle Paul). These pages are remarkably well preserved.

http://www.bible-researcher.com/papy46big.html