Papyrus 137

Papyrus 137 (designated as 𝔓¹³⁷ in the Gregory-Aland numbering system) is the earliest surviving manuscript of the Gospel of Mark. It is a late 2nd or early 3rd century fragment of the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark (verses 7–9 on the recto side and 16–18 on the verso side.) The fragment is from a codex and has been published in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus series as P.Oxy. LXXXIII 5345.

The fragment preserves parts of the bottom five lines (recto and verso) of a leaf; which could represent the first page of a single quire codex; and which may be reconstructed as having 25 lines per page with a written area of 9.4cm x 12 cm. On the recto side, the papyrus strips are laid vertically, while on the verso side they are laid horizontally. It is the earliest surviving witness to the text that it covers; otherwise the only early papyrus witness to Mark is in six surviving leaves of Papyrus 45, dated to the 3rd Century, which nowhere overlaps with the text in 𝔓¹³⁷. Letters on the verso survive clearly, but those on the recto are seriously abraded. The handwriting is in a formal bookhand which the editors propose as having the characteristics of the "‘Formal Mixed" hand (juxtaposing narrower and wider letter forms) elsewhere found in dateable documents of the later second and third centuries. The editors propose the fragments Papyrus 103 and Papyrus 77 of the Gospel of Matthew, also from Oxyrhynchus and conserved at the Sackler Library, as being the closest New Testament papyri to 𝔓¹³⁷ in handwriting and date.

The term 'Holy Spirit' at verse 8 on the recto is shortened from πνευματι to π̣̅ν̣̅ι as a nomen sacrum. Also in verse 8 on the recto, the dative preposition εν('in') is not found in 𝔓¹³⁷ either before 'water' or before 'Holy Spirit'; whereas the standard text of Mark in Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28) has the dative preposition in the second instance only; "..he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit", following in this the Codex Sinaiticus. In omitting a dative preposition in both instances at verse 8, 𝔓¹³⁷ supports the alternative reading of this verse in Mark of the Codex Vaticanus and all editions of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece up to NA25. All four canonical Gospels introduce their accounts of the ministry of Jesus with these words from John the Baptist. In the Gospel of Luke (3:16) the dative preposition is found before 'Holy Spirit' but not before 'water'; whereas in the Gospel of Matthew (3:11) and the Gospel of John (1:33) both 'water' and 'Holy Spirit' are preceded by the dative preposition. The fragment otherwise supports no established variant readings from the standard texts for Mark; although the name of 'Jesus' is omitted from verse 17 at the third line of the verso, possibly through parablepsis as a scribal error. The editors note that the space presumed on the recto above the preserved lines of the fragment would imply an opening text of Mark of very similar length to that witnessed in the Codex Sinaiticus; contrary to the proposals of Karl Lachmann and others that some of these verses (especially 2 and 3) might be later intrusions.

It is currently housed at the Sackler Library (P. Oxy. LXXXIII 5345) in Oxford.

𝔓¹³⁷ was first published in 2018, but rumours of the content and provenance of a yet unpublished Gospel papyrus had been widely disseminated on social media since 2012, following a claim by Daniel B. Wallace that a recently identified fragmentary papyrus of Mark had been dated to the late first century by a leading papyrologist, and might therefore be the earliest surviving Christian text.

In May 2018, Bart D. Ehrman discussed the First-Century Mark (FCM) issue on his personal blog, taking into consideration his February 2012 debate with Wallace at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

Like many of you, I have many questions about the bizarre way the discussion of the so-called "First-Century Gospel of Mark" unfolded. I was intimately connected with the first announcement of the discovery, which was made precisely in order to trump me in a public debate. As it turns out, the announcement was based on false information acquired through hearsay. But that's the past, and Dan Wallace has apologized, so that is that.

Several days earlier, Wallace had given an apology on his personal blog: