The Gospel of Saint Luke

The Gospel of Saint Luke

Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles

c. AD 250

BP I (P45), ff. 13r-14r

Commentary:
The Gospel of Luke 11: 50 – 12: 12 and 13: 6-24. This Chester Beatty papyrus codex is the oldest book in the world to contain these New Testament texts in a single volume. Until its discovery, only small papyrus fragments of single Gospels were known. This book showed that the four Gospels and the Acts were compiled into one volume much earlier than many scholars had expected. In total, parts of 60 out of an estimated 220 leaves survive. The folios containing Mark and most of Luke's Gospel are the oldest known copies of these texts.