Nash Papyrus
The Nash Papyrus is a collection of four ancient papyrus fragments, dating to the mid-second century BCE, that contain a Hebrew inscription of the Ten Commandments—drawn from a mixed textual tradition of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5—followed by the opening of the Shema prayer from Deuteronomy 6:4–5, representing the oldest surviving Hebrew biblical manuscript prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Acquired in Egypt around 1902 by Walter Llewellyn Nash, an English physician and secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, the fragments were purchased from an antiquities dealer and reportedly originated from the Fayyum region, though their exact provenance remains uncertain. Nash donated the papyrus to Cambridge University Library in 1903, where it was first published and analyzed by biblical scholar Stanley A. Cook, who initially dated it to the second century CE before later scholarly consensus refined the estimate to circa 150 BCE based on paleographic analysis of its early pre-Herodian square Hebrew script. The text, spanning 24 lines with some lacunae, likely served a liturgical purpose, such as a daily prayer aid or phylactery, reflecting Second Temple Jewish practices that included reciting the Decalogue before the Shema, a custom alluded to in the Mishnah (Tamid 5:1). Its content shows close affinities with the Septuagint Greek translation of the Torah, particularly in the Exodus portions, underscoring the fidelity of that version to pre-Masoretic Hebrew traditions used by Egyptian Jewish communities. Prior to 1947, the Nash Papyrus held unparalleled significance as the earliest physical evidence of the Hebrew Bible's transmission, offering insights into textual variants and devotional life in the Hellenistic period.[1]Discovery and Provenance
Acquisition
The Nash Papyrus, consisting of four fragments joined to form a single sheet, was acquired in Egypt in 1898 by Walter Llewellyn Nash, then secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, from a local dealer in antiquities.[2] Nash, a British antiquarian and collector, purchased the pieces during a period when European and American antiquarians frequently obtained ancient artifacts through informal transactions in Egypt.[3] The provenance of the papyrus is uncertain, though it is alleged to originate from the Fayum region, a known source of papyri due to its historical significance in ancient Egyptian waste deposits.[3] Like many such acquisitions at the time, no formal excavation records exist, reflecting the unregulated nature of the early 20th-century antiquities trade in Egypt, where dealers often sourced items from clandestine digs or rubbish mounds without documentation or legal oversight.[4] This market flourished from the 1880s to the 1930s, enabling private collectors to amass significant holdings, but it also contributed to the loss of contextual archaeological information.[5] Following its purchase, the papyrus remained in Nash's private collection for several years before he donated it to Cambridge University Library in 1903, where it has been preserved since.[2] This transfer marked the beginning of its institutional custody, shortly before its first scholarly publication by Stanley A. Cook.[6]Initial Publication
The Nash Papyrus was first described and published by the biblical scholar Stanley A. Cook in his article "A Pre-Massoretic Biblical Papyrus," which appeared in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology in 1903. In this seminal work, Cook offered a meticulous transcription of the fragmented Hebrew text, accompanied by photographic plates that documented the four joined pieces for the first time, enabling scholars to examine its paleographic features and content directly. His analysis emphasized the papyrus's non-Masoretic character, noting its liturgical arrangement of the Ten Commandments followed by the Shema Yisrael, and positioned it as a key witness to early Jewish textual traditions; Cook initially dated it to the 2nd century CE based on the script. The publication elicited immediate interest among biblical scholars, who hailed the Nash Papyrus as the oldest known Hebrew manuscript of a biblical text prior to the 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.[7] This recognition stemmed from its dating to the 2nd century CE (later refined to the 2nd century BCE by paleographic analysis), which predated other extant Hebrew fragments by centuries, prompting widespread acclaim for its potential to illuminate pre-rabbinic scriptural practices. For instance, just months after Cook's article, Francis Crawford Burkitt issued a detailed response in the Jewish Quarterly Review, praising the find's authenticity and underscoring its value in bridging gaps in Hebrew textual history. Cook's work rapidly catalyzed comparative textual studies, particularly with the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint, as scholars like Burkitt highlighted shared variants—such as the unique ordering of commandments and phrasing in the Shema—that suggested common ancient sources diverging from the later Masoretic tradition. These early investigations, building directly on Cook's transcription and images, established the papyrus as a pivotal artifact for understanding textual fluidity in Second Temple Judaism, influencing subsequent philological debates.[8]Physical Description
Material and Condition
The Nash Papyrus consists of four fragments assembled from a single sheet of papyrus, measuring approximately 14 cm in height by 6 cm in width when joined. The material is papyrus, produced from the Cyperus papyrus sedge plant, which was cultivated in the marshy regions of the Nile Delta in ancient Egypt. The fragments were reportedly acquired from the Fayyum area in Egypt, a site known for preserving ancient papyri due to its arid conditions.[9][7][10] The papyrus exhibits significant wear, appearing very dark yellow from age and handling, with a brittle texture prone to tearing and surface damage. It features holes, losses, and tattered edges, rendering some portions barely legible, though the main body of the text remains decipherable. Environmental factors, including exposure to humidity outside arid Egyptian conditions and repeated handling, have contributed to its degradation, as papyrus decays rapidly in moist climates.[11][12] Upon its initial description in 1903, the fragments were gummed to a card for stability, a common early 20th-century conservation method for fragile papyri. The artifact is now housed at Cambridge University Library, where it has undergone further preservation, including protective mounting and digitization efforts in 2012 to minimize handling and ensure long-term accessibility.[11][13]Script and Dating
The Nash Papyrus is written in an early semi-cursive form of the Jewish square script, a style prevalent in Hellenistic Judaism that blends lapidary and more fluid elements derived from the Aramaic alphabet. This script features letter heights of approximately 2 mm, with forms such as the aleph and yod showing transitional characteristics between earlier Paleo-Hebrew influences and the developing square Hebrew used in later manuscripts.[8][14] The semi-cursive nature suggests it was intended for practical use, possibly as a personal or liturgical aid, rather than monumental inscription.[15] Paleographic analysis forms the primary basis for dating the papyrus, with initial assessments by Stanley A. Cook in 1903 proposing a 2nd-century CE origin based on script comparisons to known Hebrew texts. However, W. F. Albright's 1937 reexamination, drawing on inscriptional evidence from the Maccabean era, shifted the date to the late 2nd century BCE, around 150–100 BCE.[16][17] Frank Moore Cross further refined this in 1955 to circa 150 BCE or earlier, emphasizing typological evolution in letter forms like the bet and kaph when compared to 3rd-century BCE Aramaic papyri and early Hasmonaean inscriptions.[14] Post-2000 paleographic studies have solidified the 2nd-century BCE attribution through detailed comparisons to other Egyptian Jewish papyri, such as those from the Faiyum region, confirming shared scribal conventions in letter spacing and ductus. For instance, Ingrid Himbaza's analysis (2001–2002) highlights alignments with Qumran fragments, while Esther Eshel, Hanan Eshel, and Armin Lange (2010) underscore the script's consistency with diaspora artifacts from the Ptolemaic period.[15] These evaluations exclude later dates by noting the absence of Herodian formalizations evident in 1st-century CE texts.[18] Originating in Ptolemaic Egypt (circa 305–30 BCE), the papyrus reflects the scribal practices of Jewish diaspora communities, where Hebrew texts were copied for religious observance amid Greek cultural influences, as seen in the script's adaptation for papyrus media over leather or stone.[19] This context positions it as a key example of pre-Dead Sea Scrolls textual transmission in the Hellenistic world.[20]Contents
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments on the Nash Papyrus constitute a pre-Masoretic Hebrew rendition of the Decalogue, blending phrasing and motifs from Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21 while exhibiting distinct textual variants. Spanning roughly the first 20 lines of the 24-line inscription, the text opens with God's self-identification and the exodus from Egypt, then enumerates the commandments in a sequence that prioritizes the Sabbath observance immediately after the prohibition against misusing God's name, followed by honoring parents. This placement aligns with the standard biblical order but integrates Deuteronomic elements, such as expanded rationale for the Sabbath tied to creation and manumission. The overall structure emphasizes ethical and cultic prohibitions, culminating in warnings against coveting, though with abbreviated details compared to the Masoretic Text (MT).[11][21] A notable deviation appears in the sequence of the sixth through eighth commandments, listing the ban on adultery before murder and theft—a order matching the Septuagint and Philo's tradition, rather than the MT's prioritization of murder before adultery. Omissions include the full "house of bondage" phrase in the exodus reference and detailed expansions on idolatry's consequences, streamlining the narrative for possible liturgical use. The coveting commandment lacks the MT's comprehensive list of possessions, focusing instead on the neighbor's wife, house, field, servants, livestock, and general "anything," using both "covet" (ḥāmad) and "desire" (ḥāwaṯ) verbs in succession. These features reflect an early, non-standardized textual tradition predating the Dead Sea Scrolls.[11][22] The Hebrew text, as transcribed by F.C. Burkitt from the fragmented papyrus, is reconstructed with brackets for lacunae; a line-by-line English translation follows, highlighting key deviations from the MT (based on Exodus/Deuteronomy). The transcription uses paleo-Hebrew script adapted to square characters for readability.| Line | Hebrew Transcription (Reconstructed) | English Translation | Key Deviation from MT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם. לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל פָּנָי. לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה לְךָ פֶסֶל וְכָל תְּמוּנָה אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וַאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת... | I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any image of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath... | Omits "out of the house of bondage"; idolatry description abbreviated, lacking full consequences like generational punishment.[11] |
| 3–4 | לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת שֵׁם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהוָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִשָּׂא אֶת שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא. זָכוֹר אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ. שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָּל מְלַאכְתֶּךָ. וְיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבַּת לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה כָל מְלָאכָה... | You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave unpunished one who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work... | Includes punishment clause from Exodus; Sabbath rationale mixes creation (Exodus) and manumission (Deuteronomy), but omits full servant/stranger list.[11][21] |
| 5 | כַּבֵּד אֶת אָבִיךָ וְאֶת אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ. | Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. | Direct from Deuteronomy; adds "that it may be well with you" in some reconstructions, absent in Exodus version.[11] |
| 6 | לֹא תִנְאָף. | You shall not commit adultery. | Placed before murder, unlike MT (murder first in Exodus/Deuteronomy). No conjunctions linking commands.[21] |
| 7 | לֹא תִרְצָח. | You shall not murder. | Follows adultery, aligning with Septuagint order rather than MT.[21] |
| 8 | לֹא תִגְנֹב. | You shall not steal. | Concludes the reordered triad; phrasing identical to MT but contextually shifted.[21] |
| 9 | לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁוְא. | You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. | Simplified "vain witness" phrasing, echoing Septuagint; omits "against your neighbor" in some fragments but reconstructed.[11] |
| 10–20 | לֹא תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ. לֹא תִתְאַוֶּה בֵּית רֵעֶךָ שָׂדֵהוּ וְעַבְדּוֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ שׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמוֹרוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶךָ. | You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. | Abbreviated list vs. MT's fuller possessions; uses dual verbs "covet" and "desire" sequentially, with wife separate from house/goods as in Deuteronomy. Omits vineyard or other specifics.[11][21] |