Papyrus 46 — 1 Corinthians 13 (The Love Chapter)
Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind
The short answerWhat is this leaf?
This is a leaf of Papyrus 46 — the earliest substantial copy of the letters of the Apostle Paul, written around AD 200 — carrying almost all of 1 Corinthians 13, the “Love Chapter” read at weddings and funerals the world over. On these two sides you can read the setup (“earnestly desire the greater gifts… and yet I show you a more excellent way”) and then the great hymn itself: “though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love…” “Love is patient, love is kind… love never fails.”
The leaf is remarkably well preserved, so most of what you see is real ink; the tear at one corner takes only the edges of the lowest lines. This page shows you exactly which letters survive and which are supplied — and two places where an ancient corrector went back over the text, including a rare wording found in this manuscript.
The featureThe Love Chapter, at the source
The words the whole world knows. No passage of Paul is read more often than 1 Corinthians 13. Papyrus 46 lets us read it in the oldest copy that survives — “love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy… love never fails” — written within about a century and a half of Paul himself. The leaf runs to verse 11 (“when I was a child, I spoke as a child”), stopping just short of the famous close, “now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.”
A rare reading, corrected in by hand. In verse 5 the common text says love “does not seek its own.” Here a corrector has added a small ΜΗ (“not”) above the line, so this manuscript reads that love “does not seek the things that are not its own” — a distinctive wording preserved in P46. A few lines up, in 12:26, another corrector’s touch adjusts the word for “all.” These are the fingerprints of real scribes at work on the text.
Line by lineThe Greek exactly as it sits on the leaf
Transcribed from the INTF transcription (NTVMR, 𝔓46 folio 54) and shown in the majuscule capitals the scribe used, with the original line breaks. Sacred names keep their overline. The photograph sits beside each side so you can compare the letters directly.
Front — 1 Corinthians 12:24–13:1 (“a more excellent way”)
Back — 1 Corinthians 13:2–11 (“love is patient, love is kind”)
Word by wordRead it, sound it out, and see the meaning
The whole leaf, word by word: the Greek on the leaf, a transliteration to sound it out, and a word-for-word English gloss, with the smooth translation after each passage. Words in a gold box appear (at least partly) on the fragment; grey words in [brackets] are supplied; the small raised word is the corrector’s addition.
God tempered the body together — 1 Corinthians 12:24–25
24 …God composed the body together, giving more abundant honor to the inferior part, 25 that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
If one suffers, all suffer; if one is honored, all rejoice — 1 Corinthians 12:26
26 When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. When one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (The first hand wrote “all” as ΠΑΝ; a corrector adjusted it toward ΤΑ / ΠΑΝΤΑ.)
You are the body of Christ; God set gifts in the church — 1 Corinthians 12:27–28
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracle workers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, and various kinds of languages.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? — 1 Corinthians 12:29–30
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with various languages? Do all interpret?
A still more excellent way — 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:1
31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. Moreover, I show you a most excellent way. 1 If I speak with the languages of men…
…and of angels, but have not love — 1 Corinthians 13:2
1 …and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.
Though I give all I have — without love, nothing — 1 Corinthians 13:3
3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. (P46 reads “that I may boast” — ΚΑΥΧΗΣΩΜΑΙ — where some texts read “that I may be burned.”)
Love is patient, love is kind — 1 Corinthians 13:4–5
4 Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, 5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek what is not its own, is not provoked, takes no account of evil. (A distinctive P46 reading: a corrector adds ΜΗ, so the leaf reads “does not seek the things that are not its own” — ΤΟ ΜΗ ΕΑΥΤΗΣ.)
Love rejoices with the truth; bears all things — 1 Corinthians 13:6–7
6 Love doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails — 1 Corinthians 13:8
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
We know in part; when the perfect comes — 1 Corinthians 13:9–11
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child… (The leaf ends here; “now these three remain: faith, hope, love — but the greatest of these is love” (13:13) is just beyond it.)
Reading the detailsTextual notes
“Does not seek what is not its own” (13:5). Where most manuscripts read that love “does not seek its own” (ΟΥ ΖΗΤΕΙ ΤΑ ΕΑΥΤΗΣ), a corrector here inserts ΜΗ above the line, giving ΟΥ ΖΗΤΕΙ ΤΟ ΜΗ ΕΑΥΤΗΣ — “does not seek the things that are not its own.” It is a distinctive reading associated with P46.
The corrector at 12:26. In “all the members rejoice,” the first hand wrote ΠΑΝ and a corrector adjusted the word for “all” toward ΤΑ / ΠΑΝΤΑ — a small tidy-up of a slip.
“That I may boast” (13:3). P46 reads ΙΝΑ ΚΑΥΧΗΣΩΜΑΙ — “that I may boast” — where later manuscripts read “that I may be burned” (ΚΑΥΘΗΣΩΜΑΙ). The two differ by a single letter, and this early reading is much discussed.
Everyday spellings. The scribe writes as he spoke — ΤΕΙΜΗΝ for ΤΙΜΗΝ, ΥΜΕΙΝ for ΥΜΙΝ, ΓΕΙΝΩΣΚΟΜΕΝ for ΓΙΝΩΣΚΟΜΕΝ — the ordinary phonetic spellings of the period.
The manuscriptAt a glance
| This leaf | Folio 54: 1 Corinthians 12:24–13:1 (front) · 13:2–11 (back) |
|---|---|
| Whole codex | The letters of Paul as one book (Romans, Hebrews, 1–2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians) |
| Date | c. AD 175–225 (about the year 200) |
| Discovered | Egypt (the Fayum region); acquired in the 1930s |
| Held at | Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (P. Chester Beatty II); other leaves at the University of Michigan |
| Gregory–Aland no. | 𝔓46 (INTF doc. ID 10046) |
| Format | Single-quire papyrus codex; single column, ~24–26 lines per page here |
| Text type | An early Alexandrian-type text of the Pauline letters |
Why it mattersThe words read at every wedding
More than almost any passage in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13 has passed into the language of love itself: patient, kind, keeping no record of wrongs, bearing and hoping and enduring all things. Paul wrote it not about romance but about the life of a divided church — and it has spoken to both ever since.
Papyrus 46 lets us read those words in the oldest copy that survives, complete with the marks of the scribes who copied and corrected them. For a chapter this cherished, there is no earlier witness to hold.
Own this leaf
Manuscript Shop produces a museum-grade facsimile of this leaf of Papyrus 46 on real Egyptian papyrus, reproducing both sides — almost the whole of the Love Chapter — at its true size.
ReferencesSources
- Transcription (surviving text): INTF transcription of 𝔓46, New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room, doc. ID 10046, folio 54 (1 Corinthians 12–13).
- Manuscript images: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (P. Chester Beatty II); photographs from the Manuscript Shop listing.
- Editio princeps: F. G. Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, Fasciculus III: Pauline Epistles (London, 1936–37).
- Text & significance: Nestle–Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece; K. Aland & B. Aland, The Text of the New Testament.
- Word-for-word glosses follow standard tagged Greek New Testament data (STEP Bible, Tyndale House; Berean Interlinear).
- Smooth translation: World English Bible (public domain), ebible.org.