Discovery of one of the earliest papyrus fragment found to date, shows that Scripture has not been changed and that Jesus declares that every one who is of the truth hears His voice. Christ had foretold that He would be crucified.
The earliest manuscript of the New Testament was discovered about 50 years ago. P52 is a small papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John (18:31-33 on the front; 18:37-38 on the back), and it has been dated to about 125 AD. This makes it a very important little manuscript, because John has been almost unanimously held by scholars to be the latest of the four gospels. So if copies of John were in circulation by 125, the others must have been written considerably earlier. Moreover, the Gospel of John's greater theological development when compared with the other three gospels has led some scholars to conclude it was written as late as 120 or even 150 AD. The P52 fragment seems to make such late dates impossible.
The papyrus is written on both sides, and the surviving portion also includes part of the top and inner margins of the page. The characters in bold style are the ones that can be seen in Papyrus 52.
Gospel of John 18:31-33 |
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 Papyrus: preserved at the John Rylands Library. Photo: courtesy of JRUL |
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Gospel of John 18:37-38 |
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 Papyrus: preserved at the John Rylands Library. Photo: courtesy of JRUL |
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