Papyrus P52 (Rylands Library Papyrus P52)
Also known as: P.Ryl. III 457
Evidence card
A quick read on the physical object before the interpretive summary.
Text of the referenced verses
Public-domain English text of the verses represented by the fragment. P52 itself preserves only parts of these lines in Greek.
John 18:31 Pilate therefore said to them, "Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law." Therefore the Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,"
John 18:32 that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he should die.
John 18:33 Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium, called Jesus, and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
John 18:37 Pilate therefore said to him, "Are you a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."
John 18:38 Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" When he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no basis for a charge against him."
Why it matters
The most famous early NT fragment. A credit-card-sized scrap with a few verses from John 18 — long cited as the earliest surviving piece of the New Testament. Apologetics literature often dates it 'around AD 125', but recent paleographic work (Nongbri 2005, Orsini & Clarysse 2012) argues a wider 2nd-century range, possibly as late as AD 200.
What it contains
- John — 18:31-33, 18:37-38 (partial)
~0.5% of the claimed text is physically present.
Where & when
- Held at
- John Rylands Library, Manchester
- Discovery
- 1920 (acquired); identified 1934 by C.H. Roberts
Source trail
Named catalogues, editions, libraries, or scholarship used for this manuscript page.