GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5
A Greek parchment leaf preserving Romans 4:23-5:3 and 5:8-13. One of the earliest physical witnesses to Paul's teaching on justification, peace with God, and Christ's death for sinners.
- Artifact date
- 3rd to early 4th century AD
- Findspot
- Egypt; precise excavation context is unknown
- Current location
- Museum of the Bible Collection, Washington, DC, MS 113
What archaeologists can actually examine
A Greek parchment leaf preserving Romans 4:23-5:3 and 5:8-13. The object or complex is catalogued under the names Uncial 0220, Wyman Fragment, Museum of the Bible MS 113. one Greek parchment leaf preserving Romans 4:23–5:3 and 5:8–13. Its evidentiary force is specific: One of the earliest physical witnesses to Paul's teaching on justification, peace with God, and Christ's death for sinners. The cited collection records and scholarly treatments agree on the identity of the evidence while allowing normal differences over date, reconstruction, and interpretation. This dossier therefore distinguishes the observable artifact, the historical reconstruction built from it, and the biblical comparison made on the site. It does not ask the object to prove claims beyond the text, image, context, or manuscript leaves that actually survive.
A specifically identified archaeological record
The evidence is tied to Uncial 0220, Wyman Fragment, Museum of the Bible MS 113 and distinguished from similarly themed records by its own physical identity, custody, and scholarly catalog history.
The physical evidence defines the claim
The surviving evidence consists of one Greek parchment leaf preserving Romans 4:23–5:3 and 5:8–13, so conclusions are limited to what that material directly preserves.
Its historical setting is explicit
The dossier places the evidence in 3rd to early 4th century AD and separates that context from any earlier event or person remembered by it.
A calibrated biblical connection
One of the earliest physical witnesses to Paul's teaching on justification, peace with God, and Christ's death for sinners.
Uncertainty remains visible
The verso is difficult to read and the date range should not be narrowed beyond current palaeographic study. The verso is difficult to read and dating remains palaeographic; the leaf is an early witness to selected verses, not an independent proof of Pauline authorship.
Follow the evidence from discovery to debate
Move through the find in a deliberate order: establish its provenance, examine the surviving object, place it in time, and then weigh the scholarly interpretation.
How the find came to light
GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5 entered modern study through the recovery, cataloguing, or excavation history reflected in its institutional records. The relevant place is Egypt; precise excavation context is unknown, while the evidence is now associated with Museum of the Bible Collection, Washington, DC, MS 113. Modern catalog names—including Uncial 0220, Wyman Fragment, Museum of the Bible MS 113—can obscure the fact that the dossier concerns one physical object, one dispersed manuscript, or one closely defined archaeological complex. Scholars established its identity by combining find information, material examination, script or inscriptional study, comparison with related evidence, and collection history. Because modern custody and ancient context are not the same thing, this record states both separately. Where the exact ancient findspot, chain of ownership, or original architectural position is uncertain, that uncertainty remains part of the record rather than being filled with a confident story.
What you are looking at
one Greek parchment leaf preserving Romans 4:23–5:3 and 5:8–13. The description begins with what can be examined rather than with the conclusion a reader might want it to prove. Its date is conventionally expressed as 3rd to early 4th century AD. Names and catalog identifiers—Uncial 0220, Wyman Fragment, Museum of the Bible MS 113—link publications and collection systems, but they do not create additional independent evidence. The surviving format, language, imagery, or inscription determines what questions the object can answer. In manuscript cases, a leaf or codex directly witnesses only the passages that survive; in monumental and burial cases, architecture, find context, lettering, and associated decoration must be read together. The physical evidence is therefore substantial but bounded. Damage, dispersal, reuse, loss, restoration, and later movement into a museum or archive all affect how confidently the ancient whole can be reconstructed.
Where it belongs in history
GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5 belongs to 3rd to early 4th century AD. The two sides preserve Paul’s movement from Abrahamic faith and justification to peace with God, suffering, hope, and Christ’s death for sinners. Dates in this collection distinguish a securely dated inscription or archaeological horizon from a broader palaeographic or stylistic estimate. The stated range should not be narrowed merely for narrative neatness. Historical context helps explain why the evidence exists: manuscripts reflect copying and reading communities; royal monuments communicate political claims; synagogue art frames communal memory; and funerary inscriptions preserve identities and hopes in the setting of burial. Context also guards against anachronism. A later witness may preserve an earlier text or memory without becoming contemporary evidence for the original event. The dossier uses the artifact to illuminate the period to which it actually belongs and labels any connection to an earlier biblical person, text, or episode as transmission, reception, background, or direct attestation as appropriate.
Consensus, questions, and debate
The verso is difficult to read and dating remains palaeographic; the leaf is an early witness to selected verses, not an independent proof of Pauline authorship. The main interpretive problem is not whether the evidence exists, but how far it can responsibly be carried. Cataloguers, excavators, epigraphers, palaeographers, textual critics, and historians may emphasize different features or propose different reconstructions. This record follows the most conservative claim shared by the cited evidence and then identifies the stronger proposals as interpretations. The verso is difficult to read and the date range should not be narrowed beyond current palaeographic study. Disagreement is especially important where wording is damaged, fragments are dispersed, iconography is multivalent, or a later object is compared with an earlier biblical setting. The result is neither dismissal nor overstatement: the artifact retains its value while the reader can see which conclusions are direct, which are probable, and which remain contested.
The biblical record beside the artifact
One of the earliest physical witnesses to Paul's teaching on justification, peace with God, and Christ's death for sinners. The linked passages are Romans 4:23-5:3; Romans 5:8-13. These citations are selected because they name the text transmitted, provide the historical comparison, or preserve the biblical tradition later represented by the artifact. They do not imply that every object is contemporary with the passage. The two sides preserve Paul’s movement from Abrahamic faith and justification to peace with God, suffering, hope, and Christ’s death for sinners. Readers should therefore use the connection at the correct level: direct textual witness for surviving manuscript verses; political or geographic background for royal monuments; and reception history for later inscriptions, mosaics, or burials. That calibrated connection makes the artifact genuinely useful without turning resemblance, shared vocabulary, or later commemoration into proof of an event the evidence does not independently document.
Romans 4:23–25
23Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Romans 5:1–3
1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
Romans 5:8–13
8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11And not only [so], but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
12Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
A responsible historical conclusion
One of the earliest physical witnesses to Paul's teaching on justification, peace with God, and Christ's death for sinners. The evidence matters because it gives material form to a world otherwise encountered mainly through transmitted texts. It lets readers ask precise questions about writing materials, language, political geography, communal worship, burial, memory, and the movement of biblical traditions. The object’s value does not depend on claiming that archaeology can prove theology. Instead, it shows where surviving evidence intersects with named places, passages, people, textual transmission, or later reception. The distinction is particularly important in an extensive database: this dossier contributes a defined object and claim rather than repeating a broader record already present. Its relevance is strongest when read alongside its explicit limitations and the primary sources linked below.
Authoritative sources
Institutional catalogs, excavation reports, and academic publications let you examine the evidence beyond this summary.
Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts: GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5
Center for the Study of New Testament ManuscriptsThe collection or project record used to identify GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5, its catalog designation, physical form, present custody, and documented contents.
Pepperdine University: GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5
Pepperdine UniversityA scholarly or institutional treatment used for the date, provenance, textual or archaeological context, and the principal interpretive cautions surrounding GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5.
Institute for New Testament Textual Research: GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5
Institute for New Testament Textual ResearchA separate catalog, edition, or research publication used to check the surviving evidence, historical setting, and limits assigned to GA 0220: The Wyman Fragment of Romans 4-5.