Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Wednesday June 17 2026
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1 John 1:1-3-That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—. 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—. 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Joe (not his real name) was not a believer in the Bible. He and I had started studying together after his father had introduced us. As we were sharing a meal together at a local restaurant, he explained the primary reason for his skepticism to me.
Joe: Mark, I just don’t understand how you can have any confidence that what the Gospels say about Jesus Christ is historically accurate.
Mark: Well, I can give you lots of evidences that show the Gospels are historically reliable. Before I do that, how about you tell me why you disbelieve in them?
Joe: It’s because they were written decades or possibly centuries after Jesus Christ died. Our oldest copies of them are from the mid-second century, so how could you have any belief that they are reliable?
Mark: Well, let me share two things with you that I believe will encourage you on these matters.
Joe: Okay. Go for it.
Mark: The first one is P64.
Joe: Huh?
(End Of Relevant Conversation)
Many in our world are taught that the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are legends and not authentic history. They have been told that the oldest copies that we have of these Books date to nearly a century after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and that they are therefore untrustworthy in regard to how they portray Jesus of Nazareth.
However, there is a manuscript that has been found of the Gospel of Matthew which dates back to within a few years of Jesus’ death!
It is known as P64 (and also as the Magdalen Papyrus).
According to the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Munster, Germany, we have 5,805 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that predate the printing press. Remarkably, more than fifty date to before the year AD 300. These include P52 and P64 (a small fragment of Matthew 26). Remarkably, P64 includes the earliest known appearances of the names Jesus, Peter, and Judas Iscariot in any surviving manuscript. Jesus’ name appears twice. Even more astonishing, preserved within this tiny scrap are four sayings of Jesus, making it a priceless window into the earliest transmission of the Gospel. The script used in this fragment is Biblical Uncial—a large, rounded style of Greek writing in all capital letters. It’s the same script found in Codex Sinaiticus, the Christian Bible in Greek written well over sixteen hundred years ago. In true ancient fashion, there are no spaces between words, and punctuation is entirely absent. To date, we have 306 known manuscripts written in uncial script. Additionally, beginning around AD 800, a new style of Greek handwriting emerged—more fluid and cursive in form—known as minuscule. We have cataloged an impressive 2,856 manuscripts in this later script.…Credit for P64 finding its way to Magdalen College goes to Charles Bousfield Huleatt, a graduate of the college who, at the time, was serving as a chaplain at the Luxor Hotel on the Nile River in Egypt—a rather enviable assignment. Huleatt likely acquired the papyri in a local market, a common practice among Western visitors at the time. In December 1901, he sent them to Magdalen College for safekeeping, cautiously suggesting that they might date to the third century. P64 is often grouped with P4 and P67, all three fragments possibly hailing from the same codex. P64 is the oldest known manuscript of any portion of the Gospel of Matthew in existence. Preserved from a leaf of an early Christian codex, it contains portions of Matthew 26:7–8, 10, 14–15, 22–23, and 31–33. The text appears in two columns per page, with each line bearing approximately fifteen to sixteen Greek letters. The codex layout and handwriting style provide important clues to its date and context. Originally published by C. H. Roberts in Harvard Theological Review (1953), the manuscript was conservatively dated to the late second or early third century. In the 1990s, though, Professor Carsten Peter Thiede, a respected papyrologist and director of the Institute for Basic Epistemological Research in Paderborn, Germany, applied state-of-the-art technology to analyze the Magdalen Papyrus. Using a scanning laser microscope and advanced paleographic comparison, Thiede reached a bold conclusion. These fragments were penned not in the second century, as previously thought, but in the mid-first century AD—within living memory of Jesus of Nazareth.…These words, preserved on ancient papyrus, were part of the liturgical life of the early church. To find them in a manuscript possibly dated to the 50s AD brings us hauntingly close to the very events they describe. What do we gain if the Magdalen Papyrus is indeed a first-century document? Everything. It means that Matthew’s Gospel is not a theological invention crafted a century after the fact but a record created during the lifetimes of Jesus’ followers. It would be among the earliest Christian documents ever discovered and a testament to the early Church’s concern for accurate, textual preservation. This also lends serious weight to the historical reliability of the Gospels. The proximity of this manuscript to the events it describes undercuts claims that the New Testament is a mythical construction or a legend that evolved over time. The early church did not operate on theological hearsay. It operated on testimony. (Jeremiah J. Johnston, The Jesus Discoveries: 10 Historic Finds That Bring Us Face-to-Face with Jesus, 85-90 (Kindle Edition): Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers)
The dating of P64 means that not only was the writing of the New Testament Scriptures begun relatively quickly in the first century (within just a few years of Jesus’ death), but that there were still plenty of eyewitnesses around who would have quickly disproven Christianity if the Apostles had been making up lies and legends about Jesus Christ. This powerfully corroborates the reliability of the New Testament.
What a blessing it was to baptize Joe into Christ after our studies together.
Friends, you can build your life on the tried and proven Word of God.
JFather, thank You for Your Word that has withstood the wreck of ages. We praise You! In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.