SCROLLS · CODICES · PAPYRI

Manuscripts across the centuries

The Bible reaches us through copies made by hand: scrolls, bound books and scraps of papyrus. Follow every dated copy through time, choose a book to see the copies that hold it, find where they are kept today, then browse them all.

RECORDS

5,269

DATED

3,115

OLDEST DATED

410–230 BC

TRADITIONS

17

GREEK NEW TESTAMENT

1,809

LIBRARIES

68

PICTURED

29 ★

01 · THROUGH TIME · BOOK BY BOOK

Every dated copy, by time and by book

3,115 dated records on one line of time. A copy dated only by century is spread across its century. Choose a tradition to open it across the whole chart; then point at a copy to read it below, and choose it to open the record. Under each name: how many copies have a date and can be placed, of all we hold.

Choose a tradition to open it across the whole chart.

02 · WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

From Chicago to Sinai, who keeps them

2,042 records name a holder this page can place, in 53 cities. Scroll on the map to zoom in and out, and drag to move it; choose a city or a card to see what is kept there, oldest first. 709 more name a holder not yet placed; their records still show it.

The Near East and the Caucasus 7 places · 104 records

North America 12 places · 184 records

Europe 49 places · 1,773 records

03 · EVERY MANUSCRIPT

The great witnesses, then every record

The famous copies on one shelf, oldest first in each family; below them the whole catalogue, by kind, searchable.

A shelf for each family, oldest first. 29 cases hold an openly licensed picture; where none is free to use, our own drawing of the form stands in. Choose a case to open its record.

Hebrew Bible The scrolls and the Masoretic codices

Greek Papyri and the great parchment codices

Early translations Syriac, Latin, Gothic, Coptic, Ge'ez and Armenian

Point at a case to read it here.

Choose a kind to narrow the list, or search by name, number, library or book. 5,269 records from Wikidata, the ETCBC Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriaca.org.

GREEK NEW TESTAMENT

GREEK OLD TESTAMENT

HEBREW BIBLE

EARLY TRANSLATIONS

5,269 records

Page 1 of 176

  • 4Q52 4Q52 410–230 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q542 4Q542 395–181 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q70 4Q70 375–200 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q30 4Q30 360–165 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q114 4Q114 355–160 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q504 4Q504 355–150 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q17 4Q17 c. 300–200 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q101 4Q101 c. 300–200 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 5Q1 5Q1 c. 300–200 BC Qumran, Cave 5
  • 6Q1 6Q1 c. 300–200 BC Qumran, Cave 6
  • 6Q2 6Q2 c. 300–200 BC Qumran, Cave 6
  • 4Q206 4Q206 360–120 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q47 4Q47 355–100 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q521 4Q521 355–100 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q46 4Q46 c. 250–200 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q176 4Q176 355–60 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q23 4Q23 355–55 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q267 4Q267 355–55 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q541 4Q541 355–55 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q259 4Q259 350–55 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 1QIsaᵃ Great Isaiah Scroll 351–53 BC Qumran, Cave 1
  • 4Q109 4Q109 250–150 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q213 4Q213 344–53 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q375 4Q375 345–50 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q416 4Q416 345–50 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q3 4Q3 340–50 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q27 4Q27 340–50 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q28 4Q28 200–150 BC Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q53 4Q53 349 BC – AD 18 Qumran, Cave 4
  • 4Q249 4Q249 349 BC – AD 18 Qumran, Cave 4

04 · KEEP GOING

Read them more closely

Three studies on this site look closely at real manuscripts; the apologetics question and the scholars follow on from them.

05 · BEHIND THE RECORDS

What the records reach, and where they come from

How much of the manuscript tradition the open catalogues hold, and the sources behind every record on this page.

HOW FAR THE OPEN DATA REACHES

The open data holds about 31% of the Greek New Testament manuscripts in the official register, but nearly all of the oldest: 95% of the papyri and 90% of the majuscules. Most of what is missing is mediaeval. Another catalogue we consulted does not allow its records to be republished, so nothing from it is shown.

Only 75 of the 1,571 Greek Old Testament records carry a date; most are a catalogue number alone. The 954 scroll records give where each was found but no present holder; 439 of them carry a date, most of them the period of their script.

WHERE THIS COMES FROM

  • Wikidata, catalogue records, CC0.
  • English Wikipedia, dates, materials and contents for 1,877 records, CC BY-SA 4.0; each record links its article.
  • ETCBC Dead Sea Scrolls, transcriptions by Martin G. Abegg, Jr., James E. Bowley and Edward M. Cook; Text-Fabric conversion by Jarod Jacobs, Martijn Naaijer and Dirk Roorda. CC BY-NC 4.0, non-commercial.
  • Dead Sea Scroll dates: Popović et al. 2025, PLOS ONE e0323185 (radiocarbon, palaeography and AI estimates), CC BY 4.0; English Wikipedia's Qumran cave lists and its radiocarbon table, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Syriaca.org, 194 Syriac biblical manuscripts after William Wright's catalogue, CC BY 3.0.
  • Wikimedia Commons, 29 pictures, each credited where it appears.
  • Natural Earth, the land outline of the map, public domain.

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