EGERTON, PAPYRI. - A group of papyri belonging to the British Museum through acquisition, possibly partly from Oxyrhynchus or the Arsinoite nome. Among them, catalogued as no. 1, is the famous Herondas mimiambus papyrus, edited by Kenyon (Classical Texts) in 1891. However, when this collection is mentioned, it is usually for the importance of its papyri relating to Christianity. These include: no. 2, containing the text of a fragment of an apocryphal Gospel; no. 3, from the 3rd century, with a probable commentary on a Gospel text; no. 4, also from the 3rd century, with a passage from 2 Paralipomena; no. 5, from the 4th-5th century, containing a leaf from a liturgical book, possibly related to the "Mass of the Faithful" of the Byzantine rite.
Great importance was rightly given to P. Egerton 2, from the 2nd or 3rd century, which in the edition by Bell and Skeat bears the number 1. It touches on various topics: Jesus' discourse with the Jewish lawyers (cf. Jn 3:19-47); an allusion to the attempt by the Jews to stone Jesus (cf. Jn 8:59); the account of the healing of the leper (Mt 8:2-4; Mk 1:40-44; Lk 5:12-14); a question about paying tribute to kings (Mt 22:16 ff.); and a final episode alludes to a miraculous sowing of Jesus in the Jordan, not mentioned in the canonical Gospels. The discussion revolves around the relationship of this new text to the canonical Gospels, as it is neither a cento of known Gospels nor part of a previously known apocryphon, nor is the hypothesis that it is a fragment of the so-called Gospel of the Ebionites demonstrated.