P.Oxy. IV 654: A Greek Opening of the Gospel of Thomas

Grenfell and Hunt recovered the fragment in the Oxyrhynchus excavations and published it in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part IV, in 1904 as another collection of sayings attributed to Jesus. The British Library preserves it as Papyrus 1531. At publication, the full literary identity remained uncertain; comparison after the Nag Hammadi discovery established that it preserves the prologue and early sayings of the Gospel of Thomas. This identification joins two separate archaeological discoveries without erasing their textual differences. P.Oxy. 654 remains a Greek artifact from Roman Egypt, whereas the complete Coptic version is transmitted in a fourth-century codex from Upper Egypt. Excavation gives the Greek fragment a secure urban provenance, but no room, owner, teacher, or congregation can be linked to its use. Its discard among Oxyrhynchus material cannot reveal whether the book was valued, worn out, censured, or simply lost.

Unlike the other two Greek Thomas witnesses, P.Oxy. 654 was copied on the back of a reused documentary roll. The surviving Greek contains the work’s incipit—introducing “secret sayings” spoken by Jesus and written by Didymus Judas Thomas—and portions of the first sayings about interpretation, seeking, the kingdom, and life. Writing on the verso of an earlier document provides a practical glimpse of economical book production. The text uses contracted sacred names and contains corrections, while torn edges remove portions of nearly every line. Greek wording and order sometimes diverge from the Coptic manuscript, warning editors against treating either witness as a mechanical duplicate. The Commons file reproduces the artifact itself, not a hypothetical restored roll. Its caption should state that only a fragment survives and that visible handwriting belongs to the Greek Christian reuse; it does not show a complete “Gospel of Thomas scroll.”

Paleography usually places the Christian writing in the third century. The older documentary text on the other side demonstrates reuse but does not supply a simple date for the Gospel hand; the two writing events must be distinguished. A copied third-century prologue implies an earlier exemplar but cannot determine how long the text had circulated or whether all later sayings were already present. Oxyrhynchus offers a context of multilingual administration and Greek literary culture where Christians used both new codices and reused materials. Thomas’s sayings format differs from the narrative architecture of the four canonical Gospels, yet its themes share the wider Christian concern with Jesus’ words, interpretation, discipleship, and the kingdom. The manuscript belongs within early Christian reception after the canonical Gospels were in circulation. Its material economy may reflect convenience, but it cannot by itself demonstrate poverty, secrecy, marginality, or sectarian status.