1. The Earliest Manuscripts
The Bible Versions Study

2. Materials Timeline
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
Papyrus: 1st Century - beginning 4th Century
Vellum: 4th Cent. - 9th Cent.
Vellum & Paper: 9th Cent. - 15th Cent.
Gutenberg’s printing press, c. 1439
Hand-copied manuscripts ceased with the introduction of printing.

3. Major papyri discoveries
Arabs rolls, largely ignored
first large scale discovery, mostly fragments
famous work of Aristotle discovered
Oxyrhyncus - “tons” of papyri discovered in Egypt
Oldest portions of NT ever discovered
Linguistic importance
Manuscript importance

4. Most important papyri Chester Beatty Papyrus I (P45)
Chester Beatty Papyrus II (P46)
Chester Beatty Papyrus III (P47)

5. Most important papyri
John Rylands Papyrus - earliest known portion of the NT

6. The Great Uncials Vellum manuscripts (mss) ALL CAPITALS
212 known as of 1943
Many just fragments
Most important are intact or nearly intact copies of the whole New Testament

7. The Primary Uncials
Codex Vaticanus (“B” or “03”)

8. Codex Sinaiticus (“Aleph” or “01”)
The Primary Uncials
Codex Sinaiticus (“Aleph” or “01”)

9. The Primary Uncials Codex Alexandrinus (“A” or “02”)
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (“C” or “04”)

10. The Primary Uncials Codex Bezae (“D” or “05”) Codex Washingtonianus I
(“W” or “032”)