The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 15

general it may be said that P, as might be expected, holds an intermediate position. Though open to criticism especially for its verbosity, to which much of its comparative length is due, the Syriac has at any rate some of the advantages claimed for it by Dr. Rendel Harris, in places reproducing the original more faithfully than BJ and retaining words and phrases which the Greek redactor discarded. The latter often preserves the language of Aristides with much fidelity, but he treats the original with some freedom, making such short cuts and readjustments as seemed suitable for his purpose, and not confining himself to ‘necessary modifications’. On the whole then the present discovery appears to place the Syriac version, if not in the flattering position suggested by Dr. Harris, yet in a more favourable light than that accorded to it by Dr. Armitage Robinson and by Raabe (op. cit., pp. 37-8). If the prudent critic must still ‘hesitate to pronounce that the Greek is defective’, he should exercise a corresponding caution in condemning matter peculiar to the Syriac. With P as guide, the task of sifting the wheat from the chaff may now be undertaken with a better chance of success.

Fol. 1, recto. Plate I.

6 lines lost

7 ] filthy/polluted

4 lines lost

Fol. 2, recto. Plate I.

(they are) thinking that the breath of the winds is God original: "ζοντες την τω[ν] α[νε]μων πνοην θν ειναι" [they are] wandering, for it is clear to us that it serves another, sometimes [for] it increases, sometimes [it] ceases. Therefore it is [com]pelled by someone The text is heavily fragmented; translation follows reconstructed sense.

Fol. 2, verso.

v. from sign to sign vi.

it is carried daily, both setting and
rising, to warm the
30 plants and the vegetation for
the use of human
beings; since it also [has]
divisions, [along]
35 with the rest of the [st]ars, and
being [less]
than [the heaven],
it increases [a lot, and]
diminishes [and an eclipse]