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Tyndale Bulletin 46.1 (1995) 43-54. EXPLORING THE COMMON IDENTIFICATION OF THREE NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS: P4 , P64 AND P67 Philip W. Comfort Summary This article explores the common identity of three very early Gospel manuscripts. Some scholars have believed that p4,, p64 and p67 all came from the same codex; others have doubted. The newly proposed dating of p64 to the late first century makes this exploration all the more vital. This article examines the provenance and paleography of all three papyri in an attempt to demonstrate a common scribe. Then the article presents an argument for dating p4 to the second century. I. Introduction Carsten Thiede has recently published a redating of the manuscript known as p 64, which has three fragments of Matthew’s Gospel. Formerly dated ca. 200, Thiede has now dated this manuscript to the first century.1 This dating, if accurate, is extremely significant because it places a manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew within the same century it was written. The manuscript p 64 (at Magdalene College Library. Oxford: Gr. 17) has been identified as belonging to the same Matthean codex 67 64 as p (at Fundación San Lucas Evangelista, Barcelona: inv. no. 1). p contains Matthew 26:7-8, 10, 14-15, 22-23, 31-33, and p67 preserves portions of 3:9, 15; 5:20-22, 25-28. p 64 was first published in 1953 by 1C.P. Thiede, ‘Papyrus Magdalen Greek 17 (Gregory-Aland p64): A Reappraisal’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie 105 (1995) 13-20; reprinted above, Tyndale Bulletin 46 (1995) 29-42. 44