Grenfell B.P., Hunt A.S. Greek Papyri

Oxford University Press, 1903. — 134 p. — (Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire).The present Catalogue of the Greek papyri and vellum MSS. in the Cairo Museum includes all those received up to the end of 1901. Prior to the year 1897, with the exception of the Gospel of Peter and the other important discoveries at Akhmim published in 1892 by the Mission Archeologique Francaise, the Museum's collection was limited to a few well-preserved documents and a large quantity of fragments, which were for the most part gummed down on sheets of cardboard, in some cases probably concealing writing on the back. These consisted of (1) early Ptolemaic papyri from the cartonnage of mummies found in the Fayoum, and closely related to the Petrie Papyri edited by Dr. Mahafty; (2) some later Ptolemaic fragments from the cartonnage of mummies found at Akhmim ; (3) a few late Ptolemaic documents from Gebelen, belonging to the same find as those published in our Greek Papyri, Series I and II ; (4) many fragments of the Roman and late Byzantine periods, of uncertain provenance ; (5) some complete documents and numerous fragments of the fourth century, mainly from Ashmunen, forming part of a find of which the major portion is preserved in the Rainer collection at Vienna. Of these miscellaneous papyri the chief Ptolemaic specimens have been edited by ourselves, others of various periods by Dr. E. J. Goodspeed and a few by other scholars. The importance of the unpublished Papyri is not great ; but we give in the present volume the texts of three interesting theological pieces, (1) a fragment of an uncanonical gospel (10735), (2) a fragment concerning the correspondence between Christ and Abgarus (10736), and (3) a Christian prayer (10696).