Papyrus 45

Papyrus 45

New Testament manuscript papyri uncials minuscules lectionaries
Folios 13-14 with part of the Gospel of Luke
Name	P. Chester Beatty I
Sign	${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}$45
Text	Gospels, Acts
Date	c. 250
Script	Greek
Found	Egypt
Now at	Chester Beatty Library
Cite	F.G. Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri (London: E. Walker), 1933
Size	30 leaves; 10 in x 8 in
Type	eclectic text-type
Category	I

Papyrus 45 (${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}$⁴⁵ or P. Chester Beatty I) is an early New Testament manuscript which is a part of the Chester Beatty Papyri. It was probably created around 250 in Egypt. It contains the texts of Matthew 20-21 and 25-26; Mark 4-9 and 11-12; Luke 6-7 and 9-14; John 4-5 and 10-11; and Acts 4-17. The manuscript is currently housed at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland, except for one leaf containing Matt. 25:41-26:39 which is at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna (Pap. Vindob. G. 31974).

The manuscript is heavily damaged and fragmented. The papyrus was bound in a codex, which may have consisted of 220 pages, however only 30 survive (two of Matthew, six of Mark, seven of Luke, two of John, and 13 of Acts). All of the pages have lacunae, with very few lines complete. The leaves of Matthew and John are the smallest. The original pages were roughly 10 inches by 8 inches. Unlike many of the other surviving manuscripts from the 3rd century which usually contained just the Gospels, or just the Catholic letters, or just the Pauline epistles, this manuscript possibly contained more than one grouping of New Testament texts. This hypothesis is attributed to the use of gatherings of two leaves, a single-quire that most other codices had.