The Christ Hymn on the Oldest Copy of Paul: Papyrus 46, Philippians
Late in the second century, a scribe in Egypt copied Paul’s letter to the Philippians onto a papyrus codex — the same volume that had already gathered ten of Paul’s letters into a single book. One leaf of that codex still survives, and on it the text climbs from Paul writing in chains straight into one of the most extraordinary passages in all of Scripture: the Christ Hymn of Philippians 2. We have now reproduced that leaf at true scale, and it is the newest release in the Wes Huff Collection.
What survives on the leaf
The front of the leaf (the recto) carries Philippians 1:17–28. Here Paul is in prison, writing about rival preachers, his own uncertain future, and the settled joy underneath it all — the passage that gives us “to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Turn the leaf over and the verso runs from 1:30 into 2:12, where Paul’s appeal for unity and humility opens out into the hymn the early church may have sung about Christ himself.
You can read the whole leaf for yourself — the ancient Greek set letter by letter beside a plain-English translation — on the companion Papyrus 46 — Philippians reading page.
Why Papyrus 46 matters
Papyrus 46 is the oldest substantial copy of Paul’s letters in existence. It is a single-quire codex — one enormous stack of sheets folded once and sewn down the middle — that once held ten of Paul’s epistles in a single book. Eighty-six leaves survive today, now divided between the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin and the University of Michigan, and the Philippians leaves belong to the Dublin portion.
Dated by palaeographers to roughly AD 175–225, it brings us within about a century and a half of Paul himself — close enough that its readings sit directly behind the modern critical Greek New Testament that translators still work from. For anyone who cares about Paul, it is the nearest thing we have to seeing his letters as the earliest churches first bound and read them together. We reproduce several of its most-loved leaves, from the “Love Chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13 to Romans 8.
The Christ Hymn, in an ancient hand
What makes this leaf remarkable is where it ends up. Philippians 2:6–11 is often called the Christ Hymn, and it holds one of the highest statements about Jesus anywhere in the New Testament: that though he was “in the form of God,” he emptied himself, took the form of a servant, and humbled himself to death on a cross — and that God therefore exalted him and gave him the name above every name. Whether Paul quoted an existing hymn or composed it himself, scholars across the spectrum agree it is very early. To find it here, copied out within a few generations of Paul, is to see that confession already settled in the life of the church.
“who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself… he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name… that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” — Philippians 2:6–11 (World English Bible)
Hold the evidence
Like every piece in the collection, this replica is reproduced on genuine Egyptian papyrus — the same reed-based material the original scribe wrote on — at the leaf’s true size, and set in a front-and-back acrylic display so both the recto and the verso can be read. Each one is made to order by hand through a multi-week replication process.
The Papyrus 46 — Philippians replica is $269, or $289 with the display stand, and joins the rest of the Wes Huff Collection. You can browse every manuscript we make, by book and passage, on the collection page — or start reading this one, word by word, on its reading page.
Dates and holdings follow the standard scholarly references, including Philip W. Comfort and David P. Barrett, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts, and the Kurzgefasste Liste of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF), Münster. Palaeographic dates are given as ranges because specialists continue to debate them. Scripture quotation is from the World English Bible (public domain).