EGERTON, PAPIRI. — A group of papyri acquired by the British Museum and perhaps originating partly from Oxyrhynchus and partly from the Arsinoite nome; catalogued among them, under no. 1, is the celebrated papyrus of the mimiambs of Herondas, edited by Kenyon (Classical Texts) in 1891. Usually, however, when this collection is mentioned, reference is made to the importance of its papyri that bear on Christianity. They are: no. 2, containing the text of a fragment of an apocryphal Gospel; no. 3, from the third century, probably containing a commentary on a Gospel text; no. 4, also from the third century, containing a passage from II Par.; no. 5, from the fourth or fifth century, containing a leaf of a liturgical book, perhaps related to the “Mass of the Faithful” of the Byzantine rite.
Justifiably, great importance was attached to p. E. 2, from the second or third century, which bears no. 1 in the edition of Bell and Skeat. Various subjects are touched upon in it: Jesus’ discourse to the Jewish lawyers (cf. Io, 3, 19-27); an allusion to the Jews’ attempt to stone Jesus (cf. Io, 8, 59); the episode of the healing of the leper (Mt, 8, 2-4; Mc, 1, 40-44; Lc, 5, 12-14); the question concerning the tribute to be paid to kings (Mt, 22, 16 ff.); a final episode alludes to a miraculous sowing of Jesus in the Jordan, of which the canonical Gospels make no mention. The discussion concerns the relationship of this new text to the canonical Gospels, since it is neither a patchwork of known Gospels nor part of an already known apocryphal work; nor has the hypothesis that it is a fragment of the so-called Gospel of the Egyptians been demonstrated.