Sayings of Jesus (Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5575)

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5575 is a small leaf of Greek papyrus, written on both sides, that preserves a run of sayings attributed to Jesus. It was published in 2023 in volume 87 of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and its editors date the handwriting to the second century. Mark M. Mattison’s translation, with his notes on the parallels, is given here.

The damaged lines speak of a rich man who died, of not worrying about food and clothing, of fasting from the world, of the birds and the grass of the field, and of seeking the kingdom. They closely resemble Matthew 6, Luke 12 and sayings 27, 36 and 63 of the Gospel of Thomas, and seem to combine these strands.

Whether the fragment comes from a known gospel, a lost sayings collection or an anthology drawn from several sources is still an open question, as is its exact relation to the other traditions. What it shows clearly is that sayings of Jesus in forms close to the Synoptic Gospels and Thomas were being copied in Egypt in the second century.