The manuscripts themselves

c. AD 125

The Rylands Fragment of John (P52)

A scrap of John's Gospel about the size of a credit card, and for most of a century the oldest piece of the New Testament anyone had.

When

c. AD 125–225 — a range on purpose. The older textbooks say "about 125"; later scholars show the handwriting could be a century younger.

Language

Greek

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

John Rylands Library, University of Manchester (Greek Papyrus 457)

Contains

John 18:31–33 · John 18:37–38

The front of the Rylands fragment, John 18:31–33 — John Rylands Library, public domain

c. AD 150

The Oxyrhynchus Mark Fragment (P137)

A scrap of Mark the size of a matchbox — famous for six years as a first-century discovery it turned out not to be.

When

Late second to early third century AD (c. 150–250), as published — not first century

Language

Greek

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Egypt Exploration Society, housed with the Oxyrhynchus Papyri at Oxford

Contains

Mark 1:7–9 · Mark 1:16–18

Both sides of the Oxyrhynchus Mark fragment, Mark 1:7–9 and 1:16–18 — public domain

c. AD 175

Chester Beatty Papyrus I (P45)

The oldest surviving book that holds all four Gospels and Acts together — though only a fifth of it is left.

When

c. AD 175–250 (third century; the narrower c. 175–225 is a palaeographic estimate)

Language

Greek

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Chester Beatty, Dublin (Papyrus I); one leaf at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna (Pap. Vindob. G. 31974)

Contains

Matthew · Mark · Luke · John · Acts

Two leaves of Chester Beatty Papyrus I, Luke 11–13 — Chester Beatty, public domain

c. AD 175

Chester Beatty Papyrus II (P46)

The oldest substantial copy of Paul's letters — and it already treats Hebrews as one of them.

When

c. AD 175–250 (Kenyon: c. 200–250). Brent Nongbri cautions that the datable comparison handwriting comes almost entirely from scrolls while this is a codex, and leaves a later date open.

Language

Greek

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Chester Beatty, Dublin (56 leaves); University of Michigan Papyrus Collection, Ann Arbor (30 leaves, P.Mich. inv. 6238)

Contains

Romans · Hebrews · 1 Corinthians · 2 Corinthians · Ephesians · Galatians · Philippians · Colossians · 1 Thessalonians

A Michigan leaf of P46 at 1 Corinthians 2–3 — University of Michigan, public domain

c. AD 175

Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV (P75)

Luke and John in a single early book — the copy that proved Codex Vaticanus was preserving an old text, not inventing one.

When

c. AD 175–350 — contested. Martin & Kasser: c. 175–225. Turner: c. 225–275. Orsini & Clarysse (2012): 200–250. Nongbri (2016): c. 350.

Language

Greek

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Hanna Papyrus 1, Mater Verbi)

Contains

Luke 3:18–24:53 · John 1–15

Named in 3 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV at Luke 14 — Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, public domain

c. AD 200

Papyrus Bodmer II (P66)

A nearly complete Gospel of John, with a working scribe's corrections still visible on the page.

When

c. AD 200–350 — genuinely contested. Martin: c. 200. Orsini & Clarysse (2012): 200–250. Orsini (2015): c. 250–325. Nongbri (2014): early fourth century.

Language

Greek

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny (Geneva)

Contains

John

Named in 2 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

A page of Papyrus Bodmer II, the Gospel of John — public domain

c. AD 200

Chester Beatty Papyrus III (P47)

The oldest substantial copy of Revelation — ten leaves from the middle of the book.

When

Third century AD (c. 200–300)

Language

Greek

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Chester Beatty, Dublin (Papyrus III)

Contains

Revelation 9:10–17:2

Chester Beatty Papyrus III at Revelation 13:16–14:4 — Chester Beatty, public domain

c. AD 250

Papyrus Bodmer VII–VIII (P72)

The oldest surviving copy of 1 Peter, 2 Peter and Jude — bound into somebody's private anthology.

When

Third to fourth century AD (c. 250–350)

Language

Greek

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Papyrus Bodmer VIII, 1–2 Peter); Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny (the rest of the codex)

Contains

1 Peter · 2 Peter · Jude

The end of 2 Peter in Papyrus Bodmer VIII — Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, public domain

c. AD 300

Codex Vaticanus

A 4th-century Greek manuscript of the Christian Bible held at the Vatican Library; the other principal Alexandrian witness alongside Sinaiticus.

When

c. 300–350 CE

Language

Greek

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome (Vat. gr. 1209)

Contains

Septuagint (mostly complete) · New Testament (incomplete — missing parts of Hebrews, Pastorals, and Revelation)

Named in 11 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

Codex Vaticanus at the end of 2 Thessalonians and the start of Hebrews — public domain

c. AD 330

Codex Sinaiticus

A 4th-century Greek manuscript of the Christian Bible, one of the two earliest substantially complete witnesses to the Septuagint and New Testament.

When

c. 330–360 CE

Language

Greek

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

British Library (largest portion); also Leipzig University Library, Russian National Library, St. Catherine's Monastery

Contains

Septuagint (partial) · New Testament (complete) · Epistle of Barnabas · Shepherd of Hermas (partial)

Named in 12 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

Codex Sinaiticus, the opening of Matthew — public domain

c. AD 350

Codex Washingtonianus (the Freer Gospels)

Four Gospels in an unusual order — and one saying of Jesus that appears in no other manuscript on earth.

When

Fourth to fifth century AD (c. 350–450)

Language

Greek

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art (Freer Gallery of Art), Washington, D.C. (F1906.274)

Contains

Matthew · John · Luke · Mark

Codex Washingtonianus at Mark 16:12–17 — the page carrying the Freer Logion, public domain

c. AD 380

Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis

Greek on the left page, Latin on the right — and a book of Acts noticeably longer than anyone else's.

When

c. AD 400 (late fourth or fifth century)

Language

Greek and Latin (facing pages)

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Cambridge University Library (MS Nn.2.41)

Contains

Matthew · John · Luke · Mark · Acts · 3 John (fragment)

Named in 7 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

Codex Bezae at John 3:26–4:1 — Cambridge University Library, public domain

c. AD 400

Codex Claromontanus

Paul's letters with Greek and Latin side by side — and a list, tucked between two books, of which writings its owner counted as Scripture.

When

Fifth to sixth century AD (c. 400–550)

Language

Greek and Latin (facing pages)

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (Grec 107)

Contains

Pauline epistles · Hebrews · an early canon list (the Catalogus Claromontanus)

Codex Claromontanus at Colossians 1:28–2:3, the Greek side — public domain

c. AD 400

Codex Alexandrinus

A fifth-century Greek Bible in four volumes — with two letters of Clement bound in at the end, and a lost book still listed in its own index.

When

c. AD 400–440 (fifth century)

Language

Greek

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

British Library, London (Royal MS 1 D. V–VIII, four volumes)

Contains

Septuagint (most) · New Testament (most) · 1 Clement · 2 Clement · Psalms of Solomon (listed in the index; leaves lost)

Named in 6 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

Codex Alexandrinus at the end of Luke, with its decorative tailpiece — British Library, public domain

c. AD 400

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus

A fifth-century Bible that somebody scrubbed off and wrote over — and that scholars read anyway.

When

Biblical text: fifth century AD. Overwritten in the twelfth century.

Language

Greek

Written on

Parchment (palimpsest — reused)

Where it is now

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (Grec 9)

Contains

New Testament (fragmentary, 145 leaves) · Old Testament (fragmentary, 64 leaves)

Named in 1 footnoted passage where the manuscripts differ.

Codex Ephraemi: the faint Bible underneath, the later sermons written across it — public domain

c. 150 BC

The Nash Papyrus

A scrap of Egyptian papyrus carrying the Ten Commandments and the Shema — the oldest Hebrew Bible text known until the Dead Sea Scrolls turned up.

When

c. 150–100 BC (middle of the second century BC)

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Cambridge University Library (MS Or.233)

Contains

Exodus 20 / Deuteronomy 5 (the Ten Commandments, blended) · Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (the Shema)

The Nash Papyrus, the Ten Commandments and the Shema — first published 1903, public domain

c. AD 800

The Cairo Geniza Fragments

A synagogue storeroom in Old Cairo that nobody emptied for nine hundred years — and roughly 200,000 pieces of writing came out of it.

When

Roughly AD 800–1900; the biblical material is largely ninth to thirteenth century

Language

Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Greek

Written on

Parchment and paper

Where it is now

Cambridge University Library (Taylor-Schechter Collection, c. 193,000 fragments); further holdings in Oxford, Manchester, New York, St Petersburg and elsewhere

Contains

Hebrew Bible fragments (many books) · Ben Sira (Hebrew) · Origen's Hexapla (a palimpsest leaf) · liturgy, letters and legal documents

A Geniza palimpsest carrying a leaf of Origen's six-column Hexapla — Cambridge University Library, public domain

c. AD 895

The Cairo Codex of the Prophets

A Hebrew Bible of the Prophets whose scribe signed and dated it — and whose date scholars have been arguing about ever since.

When

Colophon: AD 895. Contested — a number of scholars place the surviving manuscript in the tenth or eleventh century and read the colophon as copied from an older exemplar.

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Karaite community, Cairo

Contains

Joshua · Judges · 1–2 Samuel · 1–2 Kings · Isaiah · Jeremiah · Ezekiel · The Twelve

The Cairo Codex of the Prophets, the opening of Joshua — public domain

c. AD 920

Aleppo Codex

A 10th-century Hebrew manuscript of the entire Tanakh with full Masoretic apparatus; considered one of the most authoritative witnesses to the Masoretic Text.

When

c. 920–930 CE

Language

Hebrew (with Aramaic Masoretic apparatus)

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum; Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem

Contains

Tanakh (partial — Pentateuch largely missing)

The Aleppo Codex, a page of Deuteronomy — public domain

c. AD 1000

The Samaritan Pentateuch

The first five books, kept by a community that split from Judaism long ago, in their own alphabet — and differing from the Jewish text in thousands of places.

When

Oldest surviving manuscripts: c. eleventh to thirteenth century AD. The text tradition behind them is far older.

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

The Samaritan community at Nablus; further manuscripts in libraries worldwide

Contains

Genesis · Exodus · Leviticus · Numbers · Deuteronomy

Named in 1 footnoted passage where the manuscripts differ.

A detail of the Samaritan community's oldest scroll at Nablus — Library of Congress, public domain

c. AD 1008

The Leningrad Codex

The oldest complete Hebrew Bible that survived in one piece — and the book almost every modern Old Testament is translated from.

When

AD 1008 (the colophon supports 1008, possibly 1009)

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Russian National Library, St Petersburg (Firkovich B19a)

Contains

The complete Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)

Named in 15 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

The Leningrad Codex at Genesis 14–15 — Russian National Library, public domain

c. 150 BC

Great Isaiah Scroll

The oldest substantially complete Hebrew manuscript of the book of Isaiah; found at Qumran among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

When

Late 2nd century BCE (c. 125 BCE)

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Contains

Isaiah

Named in 1 footnoted passage where the manuscripts differ.

The Great Isaiah Scroll at Isaiah 53 — photograph Ardon Bar-Hama, public domain

c. 100 BC

The Second Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵇ)

The other Isaiah scroll from Cave 1 — less complete than the famous one, and far closer to the Hebrew Bible we print today.

When

First century BC (commonly dated c. 50–25 BC on the handwriting)

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Contains

Isaiah (parts, mostly chapters 38–66)

c. 100 BC

The Palaeo-Hebrew Exodus Scroll (4Q22)

A copy of Exodus written in the old pre-exilic alphabet — and its text is the Samaritan kind, in a Jewish library.

When

c. 100–25 BC

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem

Contains

Exodus (substantial parts of chapters 6–37)

c. 50 BC

The Samuel Scroll from Cave 4 (4QSamᵃ)

A Hebrew copy of Samuel that often agrees with the ancient Greek translation against the standard Hebrew — and answers a puzzle the English Bible had been carrying for centuries.

When

c. 50–25 BC (on the handwriting)

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem

Contains

1 Samuel · 2 Samuel

c. 50 BC

The Greek Minor Prophets Scroll (8ḤevXII gr)

A Greek Old Testament from the Judaean desert that somebody had already gone through and corrected against the Hebrew — and that leaves the name of God in the old letters.

When

c. 50 BC – AD 50

Language

Greek (with the divine name in Hebrew letters)

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem

Contains

The Twelve Minor Prophets (parts, in Greek)

c. AD 1

The Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5)

Forty-odd psalms from Qumran — in a different order from your Bible, with extra poems mixed in.

When

First half of the first century AD (c. AD 1–50)

Language

Hebrew

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Contains

Psalms (about forty, mostly from Psalms 101–150) · Psalm 151 · additional compositions

The Great Psalms Scroll from Cave 11 — Library of Congress, public domain

c. 285 BC

Septuagint

The Greek translation tradition of the Hebrew Bible, begun in the 3rd century BCE; a textual family rather than a single manuscript.

When

Initial Pentateuch translation c. 285–247 BCE (under Ptolemy II); remaining books over the following c. 300 years

Language

Greek (Koine)

Written on

Various (parchment, papyrus)

Where it is now

Multiple witnesses across collections; no single location

Contains

Torah / Pentateuch · Prophets · Writings · Apocrypha / Deuterocanon (in most manuscripts)

Named in 2 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

Papyrus 967, a 3rd-century Greek copy of Ezekiel and Daniel — public domain

c. AD 250

The Crosby–Schøyen Codex

One of the oldest bound books in the world — an Egyptian Christian's reader, in Coptic, with 1 Peter and Jonah inside.

When

c. AD 250–350 (some assessments run earlier, into the third century)

Language

Coptic (Sahidic dialect)

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Private collection (sold at auction in 2024)

Contains

1 Peter · Jonah · 2 Maccabees 5:27–7:41 · Melito, On the Passover · an unidentified homily

c. AD 300

Papyrus Bodmer III (the Bohairic John)

The oldest manuscript of the Coptic dialect that became the Egyptian church's liturgical Bible — a complete Gospel of John from the fourth century.

When

Fourth century AD (c. 300–400)

Language

Coptic (proto-Bohairic dialect)

Written on

Papyrus

Where it is now

Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny (Geneva)

Contains

John · Genesis 1:1–4:2

c. AD 350

Codex Vercellensis

The oldest surviving Gospels in Latin — from before Jerome, in the rough translation the Latin churches were already using.

When

Fourth century AD (c. 350–400)

Language

Latin

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Biblioteca Capitolare, Vercelli, Italy

Contains

Matthew · John · Luke · Mark

Named in 6 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

Codex Vercellensis at John 16:23–30, the Old Latin Gospels — 1896 plate, public domain

c. AD 463

The Syriac Pentateuch of AD 463/464 (BL Add. 14425)

The oldest biblical manuscript that tells you the year it was written — a Syriac Pentateuch, copied in AD 463 or 464.

When

AD 463/464, by its own colophon

Language

Syriac

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

British Library, London (Add MS 14425)

Contains

Genesis · Exodus · Numbers · Deuteronomy

The Syriac Pentateuch of AD 463/464, British Library Add. 14425 — 1896 plate, public domain

c. AD 500

Codex Ambrosianus (the Syriac Old Testament)

The earliest complete Old Testament in Syriac, and the manuscript the modern scholarly edition is built on.

When

Sixth to seventh century AD

Language

Syriac

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan (B. 21 inf.)

Contains

The complete Old Testament in Syriac

c. AD 500

Codex Argenteus (the Silver Bible)

The Gospels in Gothic, written in silver and gold on purple parchment — nearly all that survives of an entire language's Bible.

When

c. AD 500–550

Language

Gothic

Written on

Purple-dyed parchment

Where it is now

Uppsala University Library, Sweden (DG 1)

Contains

Matthew · John · Luke · Mark

Codex Argenteus, silver and gold on purple parchment — Uppsala University Library, public domain

c. AD 692

Codex Amiatinus

The oldest complete Latin Bible in Jerome's translation — made in the north of England and carried toward Rome.

When

c. AD 692–716

Language

Latin

Written on

Parchment

Where it is now

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (Amiatino 1)

Contains

The complete Bible in Latin (Vulgate)

Named in 15 footnoted passages where the manuscripts differ.

Codex Amiatinus, the scribe Ezra at his book cupboard — Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, public domain