Papyrus 46 (𝔓46) — Romans 9–10
If You Confess with Your Mouth
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 the heart of Romans 9 and 10. The front runs through the close of Romans 9, where Paul quotes Hosea and Isaiah on God’s mercy to Jew and Gentile alike; the back holds the “word of faith” of Romans 10:8–11, the passage that says salvation is as near as your own mouth and heart: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The two sides of this leaf are damaged along their edges, so the very end of Romans 9:33 is lost in the gap between them and the outer margins of the back are supplied from the known text. What survives on the front is remarkably legible; this page shows you exactly which letters survive and which are restored.
The featureThe word of faith, near you
“The word is near you.” In Romans 10:8–10 Paul takes up words from Deuteronomy and turns them into the heart of his gospel: you do not have to climb to heaven or descend to the depths to find salvation — “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Then comes the promise this leaf is named for: ΕΑΝ ΟΜΟΛΟΓΗΣΗΣ… — “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” This leaf of Papyrus 46 is one of the earliest copies of that promise that survives anywhere.
Line by lineThe Greek exactly as it sits on the leaf
Transcribed from the surviving text of 𝔓46 folio 13 and shown in the majuscule capitals the scribe used, with the original line breaks. Sacred names keep their overline; grey bracketed letters are supplied where the papyrus is torn.
Recto — Romans 9:22–32 (God’s mercy to Jew and Gentile; the remnant)
Verso — Romans 10:1–11 (the word of faith; “if you confess… you will be saved”)
Word by wordThe whole leaf, letter by letter
The entire leaf — Romans 9:22–32 on the front and 10:1–11 on the back — word by word: the Greek as it sits on the papyrus, a transliteration to sound it out, and a word-for-word English gloss. Sacred names carry the scribe’s overline. Words in a gold box appear (at least partly) on the fragment; grey words in [brackets] are supplied from the known text.
Vessels endured — Romans 9:22
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,
The riches of his glory — Romans 9:23
23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory—
Called from Jews and Gentiles — Romans 9:24
24 us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
“I will call them my people” — Romans 9:25
25 As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.”
“Children of the living God” — Romans 9:26
26 “It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”
Isaiah cries: only the remnant — Romans 9:27
27 Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
The Lord will finish his work — Romans 9:28
28 for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”
“Unless the Lord had left us a seed” — Romans 9:29
29 As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.”
Gentiles attained righteousness — Romans 9:30
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
Israel and the law of righteousness — Romans 9:31
31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness.
They stumbled over the stone — Romans 9:32
32 Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
The stumbling stone — Romans 9:33
33 even as it is written… (The leaf breaks off here; the Isaiah citation that completes 9:33 is lost before the back begins at 10:1.)
Paul’s prayer for Israel — Romans 10:1
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved.
Zeal, but not knowledge — Romans 10:2
2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
Ignorant of God’s righteousness — Romans 10:3
3 For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
Christ, the end of the law — Romans 10:4
4 For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The righteousness of the law — Romans 10:5
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.”
The righteousness of faith speaks — Romans 10:6
6 But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down);
“Who will descend into the abyss?” — Romans 10:7
7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)”
The word is near you — Romans 10:8
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith which we preach:
If you confess with your mouth · the word of faith — Romans 10:9
9 that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
With the heart, with the mouth · the word of faith — Romans 10:10
10 For with the heart one believes resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation.
Everyone who believes — Romans 10:11
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”
Reading the detailsTextual notes
The confession in 10:9. Where many later manuscripts read simply “that Jesus is Lord,” this leaf writes the fuller ΚΝ ΙΗΝ ΧΡΝ — ΚΥΡΙΟΝ ΙΗΣΟΥΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΝ, “Lord Jesus Christ” in the accusative, as the object of “confess.” We keep the smooth translation in its familiar form and note the manuscript’s longer reading here.
The sacred names. Surviving as overlined ink are ΘΥ/ΘΝ (God, 9:27; 10:2–3), ΚΣ (Lord, 9:28–29), ΧΡΣ (Christ, 10:4) and ΧΝ (Christ, 10:6–7). In the confession of 10:9 the names ΚΝ ΙΗΝ ΧΡΝ straddle the torn edge and are half-supplied.
Everyday spellings. The scribe writes as he spoke — ΚΑΤΑΛΙΜΜΑ for ΚΑΤΑΛΕΙΜΜΑ (“remnant,” 9:27) and ΕΝΚΑΤΕΛΕΙΠΕΝ for ΕΓΚΑΤΕΛΙΠΕΝ (“left,” 9:29) — the ordinary phonetic spellings of the period.
The manuscriptAt a glance
| This leaf | Folio 13: Romans 9:22–32 (recto) · 10:1–11 (verso); the end of 9:33 not preserved |
|---|---|
| Whole codex | The letters of Paul as one book (Romans, Hebrews, 1–2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians) |
| Date | AD 175–225 (about the year 200) — a scholarly estimate, not a fixed year |
| Discovered | Egypt (traditionally said to be the Fayum; the exact find-spot is uncertain); 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 |
| Format | Single-quire papyrus codex; single column, ~26 lines per page here |
| Text type | An early Alexandrian-type text of the Pauline letters |
Why it mattersSalvation as near as your mouth
Romans 10:9–10 is one of the most quoted promises in the New Testament: salvation is not out of reach in heaven or the deep, but as near as a word confessed and believed. In a single sentence Paul joins confession “with the mouth” and faith “in the heart” — and around it, in Romans 9–10, he wrestles with the place of Israel and the reach of God’s mercy to the nations.
Papyrus 46 lets us read those words in the oldest copy that survives, written within about a century and a half of Paul himself. For a passage this central to Christian belief, there is no earlier continuous witness.
Own this leaf
Manuscript Shop produces a museum-grade facsimile of this leaf of Papyrus 46 on real Egyptian papyrus, reproducing both sides — the remnant of Israel and the word of faith — at its true size.
ReferencesSources
- Transcription (surviving text): 𝔓46 folio 13 (Romans 9–10), from the manuscript images of P. Chester Beatty II.
- Manuscript images: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (P. Chester Beatty II); other leaves at the University of Michigan.
- 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.