Most Skeptics think of the Christian Bible as at times strange/bizarre/macabre. Most people, including Skeptics though, are blissfully unaware of some of the evidence that GMatthew did not originally have any title. Apologists will posture that solid evidence for "Matthew" as part of the original title is that there is no evidence that it ever had any other name in its title. The earliest manuscript evidence though indicates that it did not/may have not had any name in its title. In order:
1) Papyrus 1
The first (and only) leaf starts with 1:1 and there is no evidence of any title above.Papyrus 1 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering) designated by "{\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}{\mathfrak {P}}1", "ε 01 (von Soden)", is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew dating palaeographically to the early 3rd century. It is currently housed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum (E 2746),[1] and was discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.
2) The Flyleaf for the above:
No evidence for "Matthew" and this was presumably added after 1).Grenfell and Hunt, the editors of this papyrus, noticed that the text on the flyleaf was written in a different hand and suggested that the three lines “may have formed a title of some kind.” They provided the following transcription of the title:
εγεν̣[
παρ[
μητ̣[
3) Vaticanus
Vaticanus looks like the earliest Manuscript to have a title for GMatthew (or any Gospel):The Codex Vaticanus (The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209; no. B or 03 Gregory-Aland, δ 1 von Soden) is regarded as the oldest extant manuscript of a Greek Bible (Old and New Testament), one of the four great uncial codices.[1] The Codex is named after its place of conservation in the Vatican Library, where it has been kept since at least the 15th century.[2] It is written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial letters and has been dated palaeographically to the 4th century.[3][4]
The Inscriptio of the Gospel Attributed to Matthew
Note that in Vaticanus all four Gospel titles have the same style = After "Name". This indicates that the purpose of the titles in Vaticanus was to distinguish the Gospels from each other and not necessarily to present an existing title.
Thus we have no direct extant evidence that while GMatthew stood alone (as it was originally intended) "Matthew" was in its title or that it had any title. This coordinates with the observation that as far as we know orthodox Christianity, which is based on the claim of known historical witness to the Gospel narrative, actually started with non-orthodox Christianity (Paul & "Mark"), which was based on no known historical witness to the Gospel narrative (revelation).
Nota Ben = Do you have a Thread on P1?
Joseph
As of today, I am the only winner of the 12 December Election!
