The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM): Manuscripts

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM): Manuscripts

[First posted in AWOL 13 December 2013, updated 26 January 2021]

The requirements that need to be satisfied for using these images in publication vary from manuscript to manuscript. Each possessing institute or individual has its own requirements. If you wish to publish any of these images, you will need to get permission from CSNTM first. We can then direct you to the contact person of the institute that owns the manuscript(s) for further instructions. CSNTM does not charge for the use of these images, though the institute that owns the manuscripts may. At minimum, CSNTM needs to be credited with the photographs and the possessing institute needs to be credited with ownership of the manuscript in all research for which these images are used. For more information about usage of manuscript images, contact info@csntm.org

In order to find your way through the images of manuscripts, you should download the scripture index for each manuscript (it's the first document on each manuscript's page). Only a few manuscripts currently have a scripture index, but more are coming.

Press Release
2 March 2015

In the summer of 2013, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) digitized the Greek biblical papyri housed at the Chester Beatty Library (CBL) in Dublin, Ireland. The Chester Beatty collection includes some of the earliest and most important Greek biblical manuscripts in the world. In addition to these biblical manuscripts, CSNTM also digitized several extra-biblical Greek papyri that are part of the CBL collection.

For the first time, images of two of these extra-biblical Chester Beatty manuscripts have now been made available:

1) The Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres the Magicians
Jannes and Jambres is an apocryphal work. Its text is fragmentary and dated from the 3rd-4th century.

2) Enoch and Melito
Enoch is an extra-biblical work. Melito is an early Christian homily. The text is from the 4th century.

These texts are uniquely significant, as they contain an early witness to rare works for which only a handful of copies have survived, and in the case of Jannes and Jambres, this is the only Greek manuscript known to exist.