Fragments of about 110 biblical manuscripts from Oxyrhynchus have been published to date. Ongoing work on the collection has now brought to light many more pieces of relevant books in Greek from the Roman period and Late Antiquity. Approximately 120 are of the Septuagint (the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek), 40 of books included in the New Testament, and 10 of the Apostolic Fathers and other early Christian literature. Many of the biblical verses attested were previously unknown from Greek papyri. The aim of our project is to produce authoritative first editions of these invaluable early manuscripts, providing a contribution of fundamental and lasting importance to the history of these texts and to our knowledge of early Christian literary culture.

Funding Body: Arts and Humanities Research Council

Duration: 1 November 2026–1 November 2030

People: 

Nikolaos Gonis, University College London (Project Lead)

Hugh Houghton, University of Birmingham (Project Co-Lead)

Alison Salvesen, University of Oxford (Project Co-Lead)

Amin Benaissa, University of Oxford (Project Co-Lead)

W. Benjamin Henry, University of Oxford (Research and Innovation Associate)

Existing literary histories of ancient Greek literature tend to focus almost exclusively on 'canonical' authors, dividing Christian from pagan literature and thus obscuring a number of key features. The project aims at correcting this perspective by studying the diffusion and circulation of non-canonical Greek hexameter poetry within the multilingual and multicultural context of Roman Egypt from the 1st to the 6th century CE. This poetry covers a wide range of genres over a period of time that saw momentous changes in the cultural, political and religious scene of Roman Egypt. Our vantage point will be that of Oxyrhynchus, a provincial metropolis in middle Egypt, that is, outside the main centres of power (Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch). The edition of many unpublished papyri of new hexameter poetry will substantially increase the existing body of evidence and will help us offer an interpretative framework for its cultural-historical analysis. Mapping the development of this literature over time enables us to see how traditional genres adapted to respond to the changed conditions of literary production. Comparison of this type of poetry with its closer analogue, the contemporary metrical graffiti and other inscriptions of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, is another important step towards a more comprehensive understanding of this type of literature and its literary, cultural and social value.

The main outputs of the project so far have been published in volumes LXXXVIII and LXXXIX of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

Funding Body: Arts and Humanities Research Council

Duration: March 2022–August 2026

People: 

Lucia Prauscello, University of Oxford (Principal Investigator)

Amin Benaissa, University of Oxford (Co-Investigator)

Nikolaos Gonis, University College London (Co-Investigator)

W. Benjamin Henry, University of Oxford (Researcher)

Michael McOsker, University College London (Researcher)

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (2015–2020)
 

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (2010–2015)