Papyrus 48

Date: Early to Middle Third Century A.D.

Discovered: Oxyrhynchus, Egypt

Location: Florence, Italy: Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana

Contents: Acts 23:11-17, 25-29

Notes: This manuscript shows a large amount of variance from other known manuscripts.

 

Acts 23

¹¹ The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Cheer up, Paul, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must testify also at Rome.”

¹² When it was day, some of the Jews arranged help, banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. ¹³ There were more than forty people who had made this conspiracy. ¹⁴ They came to the chief priests and the elders, and said, “We have bound ourselves under a great curse to taste nothing until we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now therefore, we[i] encourage you all with to gather the council to inform the commanding officer that he should bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to judge his case more exactly. We are ready to kill him before he comes near even if we also perish.”

¹⁶ But Paul’s sister’s son heard they were lying in wait, and he came and entered into the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul summoned one of the centurions, and said, “Bring this young man to the commanding officer, for he has something to tell him.”

[..]

²⁵ He wrote a letter like this For he was afraid that the Jews, having siezed him, would kill him and afterward accuse him of taking money. So having written to them a letter in which it was inscribed:

²⁶ “Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings.

²⁷ “This man was seized by the Jews, and was about to be killed by them, when I came with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman. ²⁸ Desiring to know the cause why they accused him, I brought him down to their the council. ²⁹ I found nothing more… him to be accused about questions of their law, but not to be charged with anything worthy of death or of imprisonment.