The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 60

.....? was[...]? liv[.......]?. death and were troubl[ed]?[...]?
...?][? ].?a[.]?them..?melted.?[?

XMΓ: see most recently LVI 3862 i note; R. W. Daniel & F. Maltomini, Supplementum Magicum II 62.2 note.

1–2 Ps. 75 beginning, "God is known in Judea, His name is great in Israel." 3–4 ibid. 6 "All the senseless in heart were troubled." 8 ibid. 4 "There He shattered the powers of the bows, weapon and sword and war."

2 "He was established," the last two letters very cursively written, but we have not found a better reading (other options fail on the last letter, which does not match the cursive form).

3–4 Paraphrase Ps. 75.3 "And His place was made in peace, and His habitation in Zion." Is. 40.9 "Proclaiming Zion," 52.7 "Proclaiming the hearing of peace," Acts 10.36 "Proclaiming peace."

3 "But," the last character apparently the cross-bar and lower curve of epsilon in the literary shape, the cross-bar cut by an upright descending from above the line. We might interpret this as (i) "but" with a dittography of the following epsilon deleted, or perhaps even overwritten with a small alpha; or (ii) "but," with something, possibly eta, superscript above epsilon. Perhaps (ii) might represent "allelouia hallelujah," but we can produce no parallel for the abbreviated form. (i) would be an addition to the psalm text, but intelligible enough in itself.

4 "Senseless": the next trace, suggesting sigma, is merged with the tau of "in," suggesting a correction. The Psalm text has "the senseless," of which "senseless" could be an itacistic spelling. But "te" then remains to be accounted for. On the other hand, it seems unlikely that the copyist intended other plural variations of "senseless," words otherwise not attested.

"And," below alpha a long trailing stroke, as if the copyist had written "ai" in ligature and then added the iota separately.

5–6 Zech. 1.11 "All the earth is inhabited and rests." 1 Peter 3.16 "with meekness and fear." Ps. 49.14 "Render to the Most High your vows," and often.

6 "Paying": apparently "do," not "don" or "don" (for "don").

7 After "offering," a long thin oblique descending from right to left into the next line, then a short thick oblique descending from left to right. A section mark? or "a," i.e. "allelouia hallelujah," cf. 3?

8 Here the right-angle paragraphos a horizontal stroke used as a punctuation mark opens the line, and touches the initial epsilon at half height; in 10 it comes between the lines in the usual way.

10–11 Ps. 67.2 "Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered, and let those who hate Him flee from before His face."

11 "Enemies" or perhaps "haters."

12 ....., fourth perhaps epsilon. ]., top of upright. ]., possibly right-hand curve as of omicron? "Were troubl[ed]," cf. 3?

13 "their [hearts] trembled" (the final nu represented only by upright traces on the edge) seems possible: 1 Macc. 12.28 "They were afraid and trembled in their hearts."

† K. TREU