Papyrus P77: Matthew 23:30–34 in a Greek Witness

Both pieces derive from the Oxyrhynchus papyrus discoveries and are held in Oxford. Their separate publication numbers reflect modern processing, not two ancient books. The larger piece appeared as P.Oxy. XXXIV 2683; decades later editors recognized the smaller P.Oxy. LXIV 4405 as a direct join from the same leaf. That history is archaeologically instructive: excavation produces fragmented archives, and identifications can improve long after removal from the ground. The city-level provenance is secure, but no available record identifies an ancient owner, church, or exact use-context within Oxyrhynchus.

The joined pieces measure roughly eight centimeters across and preserve thirteen extant lines per side; scholars estimate the original codex page had about twenty lines and perhaps measured around ten by fifteen centimeters including margins. The trained hand uses slight word separation, middle-point punctuation, paragraph marks, a rough breathing, and diaeresis. The scribe corrected at least two places, including adding a missed conjunction above the line in Matthew 23:37. Those readerly aids and corrections complicate the stereotype of early Christian books as crude copies. Broken lower and side edges nevertheless leave several readings uncertain.

Palaeographers place P77 in the later second or early third century; CSNTM conservatively displays second–third century. There is no explicit date, so claims such as 125–150 should be identified as narrower proposals rather than settled fact. The book belongs among the earlier surviving witnesses to Matthew in Roman Egypt. Similarities of hand and format have prompted a proposal that P77 and P103 came from the same codex, but that relationship is not universally treated as established and requires material as well as palaeographic comparison. Even if correct, it would enlarge the surviving Matthew sample without identifying the codex's users.