The Way To Yahuweh
I am Yahuweh – That is My Name
Isaiah 42:8

Ancient Papyrus Transcription: Papyrus 47

February 21st, 2024

Been quite a while since I posted a new transcription of an ancient papyrus (or well, posted at all tbh!), so I won’t dilly-dally too much here.

Papyrus 47, also officially known as Papyrus Chester Beatty III, is one of the oldest and largest papyrus codices to contain text from the Book of Revelation chapters 9-17. There are in fact only five other papyrus manuscripts to contain text from the Book of Revelation dated before 300 CE. Four of these contain text only from one or two chapters, or as in the case of Papyrus 115 are very, very fragmented (these five are all available from the Downloads page).

Papyrus Chester Beatty III is therefore in a league of its own, being a near complete collection of ten leaves (20 pages). They contain the bulk of the middle section of Revelation. It does unfortunately lack chapters 1-8 and anything from 17:3 to the end of chapter 22, though for something that was likely found in a pot buried in someone’s grave that’s quite the miracle.

Transcription of the manuscript along with the usual very-woodenly-literal translation can be found via the Downloads page or by clicking this direct link for the PDF.

Any issues with the PDF, please use the contact form to let me know.