RYLAND, PAPYRI OF. - The library dedicated to the memory of John R. was founded in Manchester in 1899 and within a few years secured a place among the most celebrated. An important part of its manuscripts consists of large collections of domestic papyri, Greek, Coptic, Arabic, and a few Latin ones. They were published gradually in large “catalogues” that provide an accurate description and the text. Among the Greek and Coptic papyri are various biblical papyri, two of which, Ryl. Gk. 457 and 458, though small, are of exceptional value.
The papyrus Ryl. Gk. 457, designated P. 52 in Gregory’s system, was published in 1935. It is a fragment of the *Gospel of St. John*, found in Egypt, containing remains of 14 lines from chapter 18. Its importance derives from the fact that, in the judgment of leading palaeographers, it was written in the first half of the 2nd century A.D.; it is therefore the oldest fragment of the New Testament.
Since the papyrus was part of a codex that circulated in Egypt at that time, probably in Middle Egypt, and the *Gospel of St. John* originated in distant Asia Minor, it must have been written in the first century. The publication of this papyrus thus dealt a death blow to the opinion of radical critics that the *Gospel of St. John* was composed only in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. The fragment is written on both sides, so that the text missing between the two preserved passages can be reconstructed and the original size of the leaf determined.
The papyrus Ryl. Gk. 458, published in 1936, contains remains of 14 verses from *Deut.* 23-28 in the Septuagint version. Having been written in the 2nd century B.C., barely a century after the origin of the Greek version, it is one of the oldest fragments of this version and one of the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament.
It is, however, already affected by some transcriptional errors. The agreement of later codices with this papyrus shows with what care and fidelity the sacred text was transmitted through the centuries. Also of interest are several rather rare variants found in manuscripts of the Lucianic recension, which thus reveal how ancient the roots of this recension are.