New Testament · book 43
John
What tradition claims
John the apostle
AD 70 – AD 100
Critical scholarship
AD 90 – AD 110
The gap
Claimed start: AD 70Gap: 65 yearsEarliest MS: AD 150today
Earliest manuscript: Papyrus P52 (Rylands Library Papyrus P52)
Earliest complete copy
Claimed start: AD 70Gap: 265 yearsEarliest MS: AD 350today
Earliest manuscript: Codex Sinaiticus
Notes
John has the earliest physical attestation of any NT book. P52 (~AD 125-200) preserves a few verses of John 18; P66 (~AD 200) preserves most of John. The pericope adulterae (John 7:53-8:11) is missing from all the earliest manuscripts and is regarded by virtually all scholars as a non-original — though widely loved — story.
Disputed passages in John
Passages in this book that aren't in the earliest manuscripts, or read differently in them.
Later addition1 John 5:7-8
The Comma Johanneum
Not in any Greek manuscript before the 14th century. A late Latin addition that entered the KJV via Erasmus's third edition.
Later additionJohn 7:53 – 8:11
The woman caught in adultery (Pericope Adulterae)
Not original to John. Missing from every early Greek manuscript. First appears in Codex Bezae (~AD 400).
All witnesses on file (7)
- Papyrus P52 (Rylands Library Papyrus P52) · AD 100 – AD 200 (~AD 150)
- Papyrus P66 (Bodmer II) · AD 150 – AD 250 (~AD 200)
- Papyrus P75 (Bodmer XIV-XV) · AD 175 – AD 225 (~AD 200)
- Papyrus P45 (Chester Beatty I) · AD 200 – AD 250 (~AD 225)
- Codex Washingtonianus · AD 350 – AD 450 (~AD 400)
- Codex Bezae · AD 380 – AD 420 (~AD 400)
- Curetonian Gospels (Old Syriac) · AD 400 – AD 500 (~AD 450)