P52

Having been inspired by my research on the New Testament scribes, I decided I would try to reproduce the P52 fragment.

The first thing to get right was the shape.

As you can see, the fragment has a very unique shape. In fact, it's so recognized among the New Testament scholarly community that people have made memorabilia out of it, including ties. 

Since I didn't have any fancy equipment, I had to do it the hard way. I literally put a piece of paper up against my monitor and traced the outline of the image the best I could. Next, I transferred the tracing to the papyrus itself using a pencil, and then, using a straightedge razor, I cut the papyrus to the shape. Finally, I wrote the text on the papyrus (both sides) and aged it. It wasn't a perfect replica, but it did look good. I ended up giving it to a friend before I could manage to take a picture of it. One of these days I will manage to get a picture and upload it here.

The day after I gave my friend the P52 fragment, he and I went somewhere epic. Stay tuned to find out where!