Papyrus 66 — John 7–8 (Light of the World)
I Am the Light of the World
The short answerWhat is this leaf?
These are two facing pages of Papyrus 66 — one of the earliest near-complete copies of John, written around AD 200. The front carries the end of the Feast of Tabernacles debate: the temple officers who came back empty-handed (“never has a man spoken like this”), the Pharisees’ scorn, and Nicodemus asking whether the law condemns a man unheard. The back opens one of the most quoted lines in all of John: “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.”
But the reason scholars reach for this leaf is what is not on it. The scribe runs straight from John 7:52 to 8:12 — the famous story of the woman caught in adultery (7:53–8:11) simply is not here. P66 is one of the oldest witnesses to a text of John without that passage.
The featureThe leaf without the woman caught in adultery
A famous gap. The story of the woman caught in adultery — “let him who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 7:53–8:11) — is one of the best-loved passages in the Gospels. Yet the earliest and best manuscripts of John do not contain it, and its style and vocabulary differ from the rest of the Gospel. Papyrus 66, copied around AD 200, is one of those witnesses: on this very leaf the text of 7:52 is followed immediately by 8:12, with no break for the story. You can see the join for yourself — “no prophet arises out of Galilee” runs straight into “Again therefore Jesus spoke to them.”
A working scribe, correcting himself. P66 is famous for the sheer number of corrections its scribe (and a later hand) made. This leaf alone carries four: at 7:46 a long, colourful reading trimmed back; at 7:52 two words swapped in order; and two simple slips of the pen — ΚΟΤΙΑ fixed to ΣΚΟΤΙΑ (“darkness”) and ΓΕΩ to ΕΓΩ (“I”). We show the first hand’s ink and note each correction.
Line by lineThe Greek exactly as it sits on the leaf
Transcribed from the INTF transcription (NTVMR, 𝔓66 pages 51–52) 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 — John 7:45–52 (the officers and Nicodemus)
Back — John 7:52 → 8:12–16 (“the light of the world”)
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; the small overlined words are sacred names.
The officers return empty-handed — John 7:45–46
45 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken like this…”
“Never did a man speak like this” — John 7:46–48
46 “…Never did a man speak like this man!” 47 The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you? 48 Have any of the rulers believed in him…?” (In 7:46 the first hand wrote the longer reading — ΟΥΤΩΣ ΑΝΟΣ ΕΛΑΛΗΣΕΝ ΩΣ ΟΥΤΟΣ ΛΑΛΕΙ Ο ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ — and a corrector shortened it to “a man spoke thus.”)
“Has any ruler believed?” — Nicodemus speaks — John 7:48–50
48 “…Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this multitude that doesn’t know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them…
“Does our law judge a man unheard?” — John 7:50–51
50 …Nicodemus, who came to him before, being one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him…?”
“Are you also from Galilee?” — John 7:51–52
51 “…and knows what he does?” 52 They answered him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search…”
“I am the light of the world” — John 7:52 → 8:12
52 “…and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” 12 Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me…” (The scribe goes straight from 7:52 to 8:12: John 7:53–8:11 — the woman caught in adultery — is not on this leaf.)
“will not walk in the darkness” — John 8:12–13
12 “…will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” 13 The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony…” (In 8:12 the first hand wrote ΚΟΤΙΑ; a corrector fixed it to ΣΚΟΤΙΑ, “darkness.”)
“I know where I came from” — John 8:13–14
13 “…Your testimony is not valid.” 14 Jesus answered them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from…” (In 8:14 the first hand wrote ΓΕΩ; a corrector fixed it to ΕΓΩ, “I.”)
“You judge according to the flesh” — John 8:14–15
14 “…but you don’t know where I came from, or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.”
“My judgment is true” — John 8:16
16 “Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me…”
Reading the detailsTextual notes
The missing passage (7:53–8:11). The story of the woman caught in adultery is not on this leaf; 7:52 is followed directly by 8:12. This matches the other earliest manuscripts of John (including 𝔓75, Vaticanus, and Sinaiticus), which also lack the passage. It is one of the clearest single-leaf demonstrations of that fact.
The long reading at 7:46. The first hand wrote the fuller, more vivid form — “never did a man speak thus, as this man speaks” (ΟΥΤΩΣ ΑΝΟΣ ΕΛΑΛΗΣΕΝ ΩΣ ΟΥΤΟΣ ΛΑΛΕΙ Ο ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ); a corrector reduced it to the shorter “a man spoke thus.” We show the first hand’s surviving ink and note the correction.
Word order at 7:52. The first hand wrote “out of Galilee the prophet” (ΕΚ ΤΗΣ ΓΑΛΙΛΑΙΑΣ Ο ΠΡΟΦΗΤΗΣ); a corrector transposed it to “a prophet out of Galilee.”
Two slips of the pen. At 8:12 the scribe first wrote ΚΟΤΙΑ and a corrector added the initial sigma, giving ΣΚΟΤΙΑ (“darkness”); at 8:14 he wrote ΓΕΩ, corrected to ΕΓΩ (“I”). Both are shown as first-hand ink with the correction noted — emendations, not deletions.
Everyday spellings. The scribe writes as he spoke — ΕΚΙΝΟΙ for ΕΚΕΙΝΟΙ, ΕΓΙΡΕΤΑΙ for ΕΓΕΙΡΕΤΑΙ, ΜΑΡΤΥΡΙΣ for ΜΑΡΤΥΡΕΙΣ, ΥΜΙΣ for ΥΜΕΙΣ, ΙΜΙ for ΕΙΜΙ — the ordinary phonetic spellings of the period.
The manuscriptAt a glance
| These pages | Pages 51–52: John 7:45–52 (front) · 7:52 + 8:12–16 (back) |
|---|---|
| Whole codex | The Gospel of John, nearly complete (chapters 1–14 almost entire, with fragments of 15–21) |
| Date | c. AD 200 (some scholars a little later) |
| Discovered | Egypt; part of the Bodmer Papyri, acquired in the 1950s |
| Held at | Bodmer Library, Cologny (Geneva) |
| Gregory–Aland no. | 𝔓66 (P. Bodmer II; INTF doc. ID 10066) |
| Format | Multi-quire papyrus codex; single column, ~15–25 lines per page; heavily corrected |
| Text type | An early, mostly Alexandrian text of John with many singular readings |
Why it mattersAn early witness you can hold
Papyrus 66 is one of the two or three most important early copies of John’s Gospel. It is old enough — around AD 200 — to sit within a century or so of the Gospel’s composition, and complete enough to read continuously. On this one leaf you can watch a scribe at work: writing, slipping, and correcting, and copying a text of John that did not yet contain the story of the woman caught in adultery.
For the words “I am the light of the world,” and for the question of where the adultery passage belongs, there are few earlier witnesses to hold than this.
Own this leaf
Manuscript Shop produces a museum-grade facsimile of this leaf of Papyrus 66 on real Egyptian papyrus, reproducing both sides — the officers and Nicodemus, and “I am the light of the world” — at its true size.
ReferencesSources
- Transcription (surviving text): INTF transcription of 𝔓66, New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room, doc. ID 10066, pages 51–52 (John 7–8).
- Manuscript images: Bodmer Library, Cologny; photographs from the Manuscript Shop listing.
- Editio princeps: V. Martin, Papyrus Bodmer II: Évangile de Jean (Cologny–Geneva, 1956–58).
- Text & significance: Nestle–Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece; K. Aland & B. Aland, The Text of the New Testament; B. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (on John 7:53–8:11).
- 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.