Papyrus 16 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by š¯”“16, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. Originally, it may have been part of a papyrusmanuscript of the Pauline Corpus of letters, but now only contains Philippians 3:10-17; 4:2-8.[1] The manuscript has been paleographically assigned to the late 3rd century.[1]
The manuscript is written in a documentary hand.[1] There are about 37-38 lines per page.[1] Grenfeld and Hunt conjectured that š¯”“15 and š¯”“16 might have been part of the same manuscript. Both manuscripts have the same formation of letters, line space, and punctuation.[1]
The nomina sacra are written in an abbreviated way. The text was not corrected.[2]
The Greek text of this codex is a representative of the Alexandrian text-type (rather proto-Alexandrian). Aland placed it in Category I.[3] This manuscript diverges from the text of UBS4 8 times, from Codex Vaticanus 9 times, and from Codex Sinaiticus 10 times. P16 diverges from readings of the majority of all New Testament manuscripts 11 times.
^ abcdeComfort, Philip W.; David P. Barrett (2001). The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers. p. 93. ISBN978-0-8423-5265-9.
