A First—Researchers Identify Owner of Ancient New Testament Papyrus

Teresa Neumann : Jan 6, 2011
Owen Jarus - Unreported Heritage News

"The documents reveal a business relationship Leonides had with a member of the early church."

A report in Heritage News reveals that a Princeton University researcher, Professor AnneMarie Luijendijk, has identified the owner of a New Testament papyrus, dated from 316 A.D., as being an Egyptian flax merchant by the name of Aurelius Leonides.

"It is the first and only ancient instance where we know the owner of a Greek New Testament papyrus," writes Luijendijk in an article recently published in the Journal of Biblical Literature. "For most early New Testament manuscripts, we do not know where they were found, let alone who had owned them." (Photo: Heritage News)

According to the report, the document—containing the first seven verses of Paul's Letter to the Romans—was discovered in the late 19th century at the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, about 160 kilometers south of Cairo.

Click on the link provided to read details of how researchers came to their conclusions as to ownership of the document.