The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 7

1008. I CORINTHIANS vii-viii.

26.5 x 14 cm. Fourth century.

A fairly preserved leaf from a papyrus book, covering parts of the seventh and eighth chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The handwriting, a good-sized sloping uncial, may be assigned on its own evidence to the second half of the fourth century, and to this date the accompanying documents, which were of the late fourth or early fifth century, also point; 1009 and the Callimachus papyrus (1011) were discovered at the same time as this leaf. A rough breathing a mark indicating an 'h' sound is occasionally used, and a mark of elision omission of a vowel is found in line 7; a small comma, which is often not more than a dot, is sometimes employed to separate syllables when consonants occur in juxtaposition, and the same symbol is added after final consonants other than nu and sigma. Punctuation is effected by means of blank spaces, which, in the case of longer pauses, are exaggerated and accompanied by a marginal coronis a symbol used to mark the end of a section, the next line being at the same time made to protrude slightly to the left (lines 63 and 70). In addition to the common theological contractions, that of kosmos world (lines 36 and 40) is noticeable.

The text is not without interest. On the whole it is a good one, generally agreeing with the earliest uncials B Vaticanus and Aleph Sinaiticus and A Alexandrinus; for some exceptions see notes on lines 1, 29, and 43. Noteworthy coincidences with B may be remarked in lines 29 (punctuation), 41, and 61. A reading found in one cursive of the tenth century, "spirit of Christ" for "spirit of God" in 7:40, reappears in line 68. There are also five peculiar variants, at lines 5, 46, 49, 54, and 57; of these the last two are probably merely due to lipography accidental omission of text.

Verso.
vii. 18

...[let him be circumcised]. Was any man called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let each man in the calling in which he was called, in this let him remain. Were you called as a slave? Let it not be a concern to you. But if you are able to become free, rather use it. For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise, he who was called as a free