The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 66

The number of letters per line varies considerably, on → from 25 to 32, and on ↓ from 23 to 31, hence only a rough estimate can be made of the number of lines per page. If we suppose an average of 24–26 letters per line and a normal text, there were probably some 40–43 lines per page. The width of the minimum surviving right-hand margin on ↓ is 5 mm. No top or bottom margins survive. This suggests on the ↓ side a written area of approximately 11 x 20 cm, and an overall page measurement of 12 x 22 cm. These estimates would fall within Turner’s Group 8.

The only text in the papyrological collections to overlap with 4494 is 0171 = P. Berol. 11863 + PSI I 2 + PSI II 124, a parchment codex assigned to c. AD 300. 4494 has several unique readings, some of which, but certainly not all, may be due to scribal carelessness. In addition to the works mentioned in the general introduction, S. C. E. Legg, Euangelium secundum Matthaeum (Oxford 1940), and, for the Old Latin, A. Jülicher, Itala: Das Neue Testament in altlateinischer Überlieferung I (revised by K. Aland; Berlin 1972), have been consulted.

↓
. . . . ] . . . .
ei]rene ep aute x 13

[ean de me he] axia: he eirene hymo[n]
[eph hymas epis]tropheto. kai hos ean me 14

5 [dexetai hyma]s mede akouei tous logous
[hymon exe]rchomenon hymon tes oi
[kias he tes po]leos he komes ex'maxa
[te ton konior to]n apo ton po[don

→
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . gene] 25

tai hos ho [didaskalos autou kai ho doulos]
hos ho ks Lord autou. ei [ton oikodespoten ep eka]
les[[e]]ian Beelzebul poso [mallon tous]
5 oikious autou. me oun [[b]] ph[obethete] 26

autous. ouden gar estin [kekalymme]
non ho ouk' apokalyph[hesetai kai]
[kr]ypton ho hou gnosdhe[setai ho lego] 27

[hymin en te s]ko[tia