Paul Parvis: P.Oxy 78.5129 and the Transmission of the Text of the Apologies of Justin Martyr

P.Oxy 5129, splendidly edited in 2012 by W.B. Henry, is a tiny scrap of a parchment codex, dated to the fourth century by its editor, containing on both recto (hair side) and verso (flesh side) portions of three lines of text – a mere seventy-seven letters in all – from Justin’s First Apology 50.12 and 51.4—5. As exiguous as the fragment is, it provides important new evidence for the transmission of the text of the Apologies, which depends essentially on the sole manuscript of independent standing (Parisinus graecus 450, or A, dated by the scribe to 11 September 1364) and fragments in Eusebius. The new fragment not only sheds light on the circulation of the text in Late Antiquity, but, more importantly, has not inconsiderable implications for our evaluation of the reliability of the text of A.Since the eighteenth century editors and critics have been divided between those (like Munier) who broadly defend the integrity of the text of A and those (like Harnack, Schmid, and Marcovich) who think it reflects frequent and serious corruption. (Denis Minns and I took the latter view in our Oxford edition of 2009.) The Oxyrhynchus fragment contains in its small compass three variants from the text of A, one minor and two – both plausible – of appreciably more significance.Apart from its direct contribution to the reconstruction of the text, P.Oxy 5129 strongly supports the view that the text as transmitted by A invites considerable surgery.