A Comparative Textual Analysis of 𝔓4 and 𝔓64+67

In a 1997 article T. C. Skeat suggested that 𝔓4 comes from the same four-gospel codex as 𝔓64+67. Subsequently, Peter Head and Scott Charlesworth have argued against this identification, mainly on the basis of codicological data. However, it is still possible that the same scribe copied them yet no one has made a comparative textual analysis of these papyri. In his original publication, Skeat included a brief analysis of the text of 𝔓4, providing “some basic facts.” Unfortunately his analysis is unsatisfactory in two ways: it concerns only 𝔓4 and it is based only on deviations from the Textus Receptus. This article presents a new textual analysis of 𝔓4 and 𝔓64+67 using a method devised by Kurt and Barbara Aland and subsequently developed by Kyoung Shik Min, in order to examine the textual quality, transmission character, and the nature of the readings in these papyri. The result shows that both 𝔓4 and 𝔓64+67 have a “strict” textual quality and a “strict” transmission character. The concern for careful copying reflected by the textual quality and transmission character of 𝔓4 and 𝔓64+67 correlates with their external features, which Roberts regarded as indicative of a “thoroughgoing literary production.”