The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 5

and swine have been cast night and day, and hast cleansed and wiped the outside skin which also the harlots and flute-girls anoint and wash and wipe and beautify for the lust of men ; but within they are full of scorpions and all wickedness. But I and my disciples, who thou sayest have not bathed, have been dipped in the waters of eternal life which come from . . . But woe unto the . . .’

3-7. This sentence is very obscurely worded, and perhaps corrupt. The contrast is, we think, between punishment in this life and in the world to come; hence we prefer zoois living to zoois animals. The use of zoios, a poetical word employed also by Xenophon, is curious, but en tois zoiois among the animals seems to yield no sense. The absence of an object for apolambanousin they receive (e.g. the reward) is awkward, even if one could be supplied from the sentence preceding l. 1; and after alla kai but also a phrase to balance en tois zoiois among the living would be expected. Possibly some words have dropped out; the scribe seems to have been rather prone to omission. For kolasin punishment in reference to the next world cf. Matt. xxv. 46; basanos torment is not so used in the N. T., though cf. Matt. xviii. 34. hupomenousin they endure may be future, but the present tense makes a better contrast to apolambanousin they receive.

8. hagneuterion place of purification: this term is not found elsewhere in connexion with the Temple, and what the author of this gospel exactly meant by it is not clear. The context shows that it was within the inner enclosure, and ll. 12-3, where 'treading this hagneuterion' corresponds to 'walking in the temple', suggest that it was a large open court rather than a particular room, especially as the term hagneuterion is not a suitable description for any of the known rooms in Herod’s Temple. The ‘Chamber of Washers’ (Middoth v. 4) was employed for cleansing the inwards of the offerings, not for ceremonial ablutions. If hagneuterion implies a place where rites of purification were performed, the only part of the Temple to which the name would be at all appropriate is the space round the brazen laver, which stood between the Temple-porch and the altar, having succeeded to the ‘molten sea’ of Solomon’s Temple (cf. l. 25, note). But this is not likely to be the meaning, for the brazen laver was in the court of the priests, which could not be entered by lay Israelites except for purposes of sacrifice, and other indications in the papyrus suggest that Jesus and His disciples had not penetrated further than the ‘court of the men of Israel’, which was outside the priests’ court. If hagneuterion is legitimately used of the ‘court of the men of Israel’, the term seems to be applied to it not because it was a place where purification was performed but because it could only be entered by Israelites who were perfectly pure. But it may be doubted whether the author of this gospel had any clear conception of the topography of the Temple, and the employment of the term hagneuterion may be a mere error.

10. Phariseos tis archiereus a certain Pharisee, a chief priest: by archiereis chief priests in the N. T. and Josephus are meant primarily the high priest actually in office and his predecessors, but also secondly members of the families from which the high priests were drawn. There is therefore no necessity for this person to have been the high priest in office at the moment. Most of the high priests were Sadducees, and hence are often in the N. T. contrasted with the Pharisees, but instances of high priests who were Pharisees occur. The combination is therefore quite legitimate, and such a person is particularly appropriate as the champion of external purity.

Leueis Levi: the reading is extremely doubtful, but neither Annas nor Caiaphas is admissible.