THE OXYRHYNCHUS PAPYRI

[to them, "Peace be with you." And having said] this,
[he showed the hands and the] side
5 [to them]. Therefore the disciples rejoiced
[having seen . . .

9 receive] the Holy Spirit original: "πνα αιον" (abbreviated form of pneuma hagion).
10 [If you forgive the] sins of any,
[they are forgiven them; if you retain any],
[they have been retained." But Thomas, one of] the
[twelve, who is called Didymus, was not]
[with them when Jesus original: "ιησ" (abbreviated form of Iesous) came].
15 [The disciples were saying to him], "We have
[seen the Lord original: "κν" (abbreviated form of kurion)." But he said to] them, "Unless
[I see in the hands the] mark . . ."

. . . . . . .

Fol. 1, verso. 3. Either "they were sent" (Westcott-Hort with אABCL) or "the ones sent" (Textus Receptus with later hands in אAC and other MSS.) may have been the reading of the papyrus. The length of the line is rather in favour of the omission of "the ones."

5. There is evidently no room in this line for "and they said to him," which is read before "why then" by all MSS. It is noticeable that א omits "and they asked him." The papyrus variant is the correlative of this, and suggests that the common reading is the result of conflation.

6. "Elijah" (אAC, &c., T.R.) is slightly more probable than "Elias" (W-H., with BL) in consideration of the length of the line.

8. "John": Ἰωάνης W-H., with B.

10. There can be no doubt that the papyrus agreed with אBCL in omitting "this is he" after "you know." The longer reading would make a line of thirty-four letters, which is clearly much too long. It is more difficult to decide between "the one after me" and "after me" (אB, W-H.). The omission of the article reduces the line to twenty-three letters, two of them being iotas, which is abnormally short. The first line of this column consists of twenty-three letters only, but it includes four omegas and no iota. But, of course, considerations of space are inconclusive for a single letter.

11. "I" was certainly not read by the papyrus before "not" (so A and other MSS., T.R.), and probably not after "I am" (so B, &c.), for its insertion would make the line longer than any other in this column. "I" is omitted in אCL, &c., and bracketed by W-H.

17. The first of the two dots over the iota of "behold" is visible.

24. The letter at the beginning of this line appears to be gamma; the vestiges are not consistent with tau or upsilon. If "I" is right here, "Israel" in the previous line must have been written in the uncontracted form.

Recto. 6. The first alpha of "I have testified" falls under the omega of "baptizing"; the supplement is therefore a trifle long, nineteen letters as against seventeen in the previous line.