Papyrus 77 (𝔓77) — Matthew 23
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”
The short answerWhat is this leaf?
This is the single surviving leaf of Papyrus 77 — one of the earliest copies of the Gospel of Matthew we possess, written as early as the late second century and recovered from the sands of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Its two sides carry the close of Jesus’ great denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees and, on the back, his tender lament: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often would I have gathered your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.”
The leaf is broken on every side, so only part of each line survives. This page shows you exactly which letters are real ink on the papyrus and which are supplied by scholars from the known text of Matthew — and it lets you see a small correction the scribe made, still visible on the leaf.
The featureAmong the oldest Matthews — and a scribe’s own correction
One of the earliest copies of Matthew. Papyrus 77 is dated by its handwriting to as early as the late second century — placing it among the very oldest witnesses to the Gospel of Matthew anywhere in the world. Its text is careful and clean, and stands especially close to Codex Sinaiticus, one of the great fourth-century Bibles — showing that this stream of the text was already fixed a century or more before.
Corrections you can still see. In the lament over Jerusalem (verse 37) a corrector left his marks twice on this one line. He emended the first hand’s misspelled ΕΛΕΙΚΑ to ΕΛΗΚΑ (both the scribe’s attempts at ΗΘΕΛΗΣΑ, “I wanted”), and a few words later he squeezed a missing ΚΑΙ (“and”) in above the line. Little moments like this — a real person reading back over the work and fixing it — are part of what makes an early manuscript feel alive.
Line by lineThe Greek exactly as it sits on the leaf
Transcribed from the INTF transcription (NTVMR, 𝔓77 folio 1) and shown in the majuscule capitals the scribe used, with the original line breaks and the scribe’s own high dots for punctuation. The photograph sits beside each side so you can compare the letters directly.
Front — Matthew 23:30–34 (“you serpents… I send you prophets”)
Back — Matthew 23:35–39 (the lament over Jerusalem)
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 scribe’s own correction.
“If we had lived in the days of our fathers” — Matthew 23:30
30 …and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
“You testify against yourselves” — Matthew 23:31
31 Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
“Fill up the measure of your fathers” — Matthew 23:32
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
“You serpents, you brood of vipers” — Matthew 23:33
33 You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
“I send you prophets, and you will kill them” — Matthew 23:34
34 Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will flog in your synagogues…
“…to the blood of Zechariah” — Matthew 23:35
35 …to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. (The scribe writes “Zachariou” with the section abbreviated at the torn top of the page.)
“All these things will come on this generation” — Matthew 23:36
36 Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation. (“You” is spelled ΥΜΕΙΝ for ΥΜΙΝ — an ordinary phonetic spelling.)
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often would I have gathered you” — Matthew 23:37
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! (A corrector worked twice on this verse: he emended the first hand’s misspelled ΕΛΕΙΚΑ to ΕΛΗΚΑ (both the scribe’s attempts at ΗΘΕΛΗΣΑ, “I wanted”), and he inserted a missing ΚΑΙ above the line before “you were not willing.” The scribe also spells “hen” ΟΡΝΙΞ for ΟΡΝΙΣ.)
“Your house is left to you” — Matthew 23:38
38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate. (Here P77 appears to read simply “your house is left to you,” without the word “desolate” (ΕΡΗΜΟΣ) that most manuscripts add — a debated reading.)
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” — Matthew 23:39
39 For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Reading the detailsTextual notes
The corrector at work (23:37). Two of his marks survive on this verse. First, the opening word of the lament: the first hand wrote ΗΘΕΛΕΙΚΑ — a garbled spelling of ΗΘΕΛΗΣΑ (“I wanted”) — and a corrector emended it to ΗΘΕΛΗΚΑ. Second, before “you were not willing” the first hand omitted ΚΑΙ, and a small ΚΑΙ was added above the line to put it back. Together they are among the clearest signs anywhere of a scribe’s work being read back and corrected.
“A hen” — ΟΡΝΙΞ. Where the standard text spells “hen” ΟΡΝΙΣ, P77 writes ΟΡΝΙΞ — an everyday phonetic spelling of the period (and “you” appears as ΥΜΕΙΝ for ΥΜΙΝ).
“Your house is left to you” (23:38). Here P77 appears to read simply “your house is left to you,” without the word “desolate” (ΕΡΗΜΟΣ) that many manuscripts add. Scholars debate the reading at this exact spot; the surviving text on the leaf is short of room for the extra word.
The manuscriptAt a glance
| This leaf | Matthew 23:30–34 (front) · 23:35–39 (back) |
|---|---|
| Contents | A single leaf — the end of Jesus’ woes and the lament over Jerusalem |
| Date | Late 2nd to early 3rd century (paleographic) |
| Discovered | Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, by B. P. Grenfell & A. S. Hunt; published as P. Oxyrhynchus 2683 |
| Held at | Sackler Library (Bodleian Libraries), University of Oxford |
| Gregory–Aland no. | 𝔓77 (INTF doc. ID 10077) |
| Format | Single-column papyrus codex leaf; a careful hand with punctuation |
| Text type | Alexandrian, Category I; closest affinity with Codex Sinaiticus |
Why it mattersMatthew, very near the source
Almost nothing of Matthew survives from so early. Papyrus 77 gives us a clean, carefully written window onto the Gospel perhaps only a century after it was composed — and the words it preserves are among the most searching in all the Gospels: the warning against hypocrisy, and the ache of Jesus’ love for a city that would not come to him.
Because its text runs so close to the great later Bibles, this small leaf is a quiet witness that the Gospel we read today was already being copied, with care, in the earliest generations of the church.
Own this leaf
Manuscript Shop produces a museum-grade facsimile of this leaf of Papyrus 77 on real Egyptian papyrus, reproducing both sides — the last of the woes and the lament over Jerusalem — at its true size.
ReferencesSources
- Transcription (surviving text): INTF transcription of 𝔓77, New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room, doc. ID 10077, folio 1 (Matthew 23).
- Manuscript images: Sackler Library, University of Oxford (P. Oxy. 2683); photographs from the Manuscript Shop listing.
- Editio princeps: P. J. Parsons, in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. XXXIV (London, 1968), no. 2683.
- 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.