The Nash Papyrus is a set of four papyrus fragments acquired in Egypt in 1898 by W. L. Nash, secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. Here are some key pieces of information about it:
History
Date: The fragments date from about 150 to 100 BC, although Stanley A. Cook initially dated them to the 2nd century AD.
Discovery: They were first described by Stanley A. Cook in 1903 and are currently held at Cambridge University Library.
Composition
Text: The papyrus contains the Ten Commandments in Hebrew, followed by the beginning of the Shema Israel prayer.
Format: It is twenty-four lines long, with a few letters missing at each edge.
Origin: Its exact origin is unknown, but it probably comes from the Fayum region of Egypt.
Importance
Text: The text of the Ten Commandments combines parts of Exodus 20.2-17 with parts of Deuteronomy 5.6-21.
Variants: Some of the papyrus's substitutions are also present in the Septuagint version of Exodus, a Greek translation of the .
Curiosity: One curiosity is the omission of the phrase "house of bondage" to designate Egypt, which could indicate where the papyrus was written.
The Nash Papyrus is a precious historical document that offers a glimpse of the ancient biblical texts and of their transmission through the centuries.