What is the earliest manuscript with χριστός written out?

[Ken Olson]

Crowd-sourcing here. What is the earliest known manuscript (or manuscripts) with the word χριστός written out (as opposed to the use of nomina sacra)? I think this came up in an earlier discussion by I can't find it at the moment. I mean χριστός in the sense of the Jewish Messiah, of course, preferably applied to Jesus.

Thanks,

Ken

[Secret Alias]

Implicit. My guess (and it's ei not i) Irenaeus Book 1 in the Marcosian section. He adds up or at least spells out the letters. "Chrestos" is implicit in a few of Justin and Clement's explanation of the nomen sacrum.

[Secret Alias]

Hurtado in The Earliest Christian Manuscripts (123-24) writes that uncontracted forms (of Ἰησοῦς, κύριος, θεός, or χριστός) are found in

an unidentified prayer or amulet text (P.Oxy. 407, #216 in appendix 1, all nomina sacra words consistently written in full), fragments of the Gospel of Mary (P.Oxy. 3525, #235 in appendix 1, one uncertain instance of an uncontracted Κυριε), the Michigan fragment of the Shepherd of Hermas (P.Mich. 130, #182 in appendix 1, one instance of Θεῳ written in full), and P72 (P.Bodmer VIII, ##166,168 in appendix 1, in addition to numerous other instances where [Κυριος] is treated as a nomen sacrum, three unabbreviated instances of Κυριος in 1 Pet. 3:12; 2 Pet. 1:2; 2:9; plus one more case at 2 Pet. 2:20, where the scribe put a supralinear stroke over Κυριου). Tuckett also cites P52 (RRyl. 457, #126 in appendix 1) as possibly having a couple of instances of Ιεσους in full, and P.Oxy. 656 (#4 in appendix 1, portions of a papyrus codex of Genesis with unabbreviated Θεος and Κυριος), and a few instances in P45 (P.Chester Beatty I, ##105 et al. in appendix 1) and in P46 (P.Chester Beatty II, ##137 et al. in appendix 1) where Κυριος is "left unabbreviated."

Most important among these is P⁷², which indeed has Χριστός in 1 Pet 3:2.

[Leucius Charinus]

ἀντί + Χριστός appears early (1 John and 2 John)
Χριστός by itself appears late,
Didn't mlinssen determine the earliest manuscript ?

[Ken Olson]

Thanks for the replies. The issue I'm interested in in the OP is scribal habits. If I'm a fourth century scribe, what do I write for the word Christ? I'm not trying to deduce the meanings of nomina sacra (not in this thread) and inscriptions may be relevant but are not decisive for scribal habits. It seems to me the evidence tilts in favor of a fourth century scribe using a nomen sacrum instead of writing out χριστός, but I'm wondering about how many exceptions there are.

Best,

Ken

PS - I found this thread from Lane Clapshaw on Jesus Christ being written out in Codex E (c. 600 CE?).

viewtopic.php?p=158669#p158669

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8768

[Leucius Charinus]

Andrew added to Jax's thread about Codex E a link to:

"NOMINA SACRA" IN CODEX E
Author(s): C. M. Tuckett
Source: The Journal of Theological Studies , OCTOBER 2006, NEW SERIES, Vol. 57, No. 2
(OCTOBER 2006), pp. 487-499
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23971715

This lists three occurrences of χριστός in full

2:31 Χρίστου
9:34 ΧΡ'στο?
!7:3 χριστός

This article mentions that the Latin columns in Codex E do not have any nomina sacra and that all the normally abbreviated words are written in full. Which is rare.

It also notes that (already mentioned above by SA):

P. Oxy 407 (a Christian prayer text which has 6eos, Ίηαοΰς, and χριστός in full)

Another link to P.Oxy 407 (dated 250-399 CE) has Χρειστου
https://rickbrannan.com/2018/04/26/stuf ... an-prayer/


ETA: Nag Hammadi Library

AFAIK "Christos" never appears in the entire NHL although "Chrestos" does appear along with masses of Coptic nomina sacra "XS" and "XRS"

So the evidence tilts heavily in favor of a fourth century scribe using the nomen sacrum.

[lclapshaw]

Thanks for the replies. The issue I'm interested in in the OP is scribal habits. If I'm a fourth century scribe, what do I write for the word Christ? I'm not trying to deduce the meanings of nomina sacra (not in this thread) and inscriptions may be relevant but are not decisive for scribal habits. It seems to me the evidence tilts in favor of a fourth century scribe using a nomen sacrum instead of writing out χριστός, but I'm wondering about how many exceptions there are.

Best,

Ken

PS - I found this thread from Lane Clapshaw on Jesus Christ being written out in Codex E (c. 600 CE?).

viewtopic.php?p=158669#p158669

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8768

Hi Ken, glad you found that thread, I was starting to think I was just flapping my lips in an empty room there for a while.

As far as I can tell, for the third and fourth centuries anyway, with only very rare exception, the overlined NS X_ or XP_ is used. There doesn't seem to be any preference for one or the other and some manuscripts have both in the same text.

Good luck with your project and do keep us updated.

Lane