event · E0476

Rylands Greek Papyrus 458 פפירוס ריילנדס יווני 458

Eight small fragments of a Greek papyrus roll of Devarim (Deuteronomy), preserving parts of chapters 23–28, written in the middle of the second century BCE — generally regarded as the earliest surviving manuscript of the Septuagint, the Greek Torah. Believed to come from the Fayum in Egypt, the fragments were acquired in 1917 through J. Rendel Harris and published by C. H. Roberts in 1936; they are held by the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester (P. Ryl. Gk. 458; Rahlfs 957).

The papyrus fragments of Rylands Greek Papyrus 458 — scraps of a Greek Deuteronomy roll of the second century BCE, mounted for display. — Photo: unknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I. Who

Hebrew: פפירוס ריילנדס יווני 458
Also known as: P. Ryl. 458, Rahlfs 957, earliest Septuagint fragment
Era: second-temple

II. When

Traditional: c. 3586–3611 AM — the academic date laid onto the AM scale
Civil (computed): 3586–3611 AM · 175–150 BCE
Academic: c. 175–150 BCE
Date range: written c. 175–150 BCE (mid-2nd century, palaeographic)
Duration: ≈25 years
Precision: approximate

Why it matters

Tradition tells of the Torah rendered into Greek for King Ptolemy by seventy-two elders; the Talmud in Megillah recounts the story and its miracle, and dates it to early Ptolemaic Egypt. These scraps of papyrus are the oldest physical copy of that translation anywhere in the world — a Greek Devarim circulating in the Egyptian countryside within about a century of the traditional translation story, while the Second Temple stood and the Chashmonaim fought their wars. Whatever one concludes about the Aristeas legend, the physical fact stands: by the mid-second century BCE the Torah spoke Greek, and most of the ancient world would meet it in this version first.

V. How do we know

Claim	Evidence	Confidence	Sources
The papyrus consists of eight fragments of a roll of Devarim in Greek — preserving parts of chapters 23–28 (23:24–24:3; 25:1–3; 26:12, 17–19; 27:15; 28:31–33 among them) — acquired for the John Rylands Library in 1917 through J. Rendel Harris and published by C. H. Roberts in 1936. It is P. Ryl. Gk. 458, Rahlfs 957, in the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, and is believed to come from the Fayum.	archaeology external	★★★★★	Papyrus Rylands 458 — contents, acquisition, publication C. H. Roberts, Two Biblical Papyri in the John Rylands Library (Manchester, 1936)
Dated palaeographically to the middle of the second century BCE, it is generally regarded as the earliest surviving manuscript of the Septuagint — the oldest physical witness to the Torah in Greek, roughly contemporary with the earliest Greek biblical fragments from Qumran and older than any other Greek Bible manuscript known. "Earliest" is by a narrow margin: the Greek Torah fragments from Qumran cave 4 are dated to the same general horizon; the Rylands papyrus is conventionally given priority.	archaeology external	★★★★☆	Papyrus Rylands 458 — date and status as earliest LXX witness
Rabbinic tradition recounts the making of the Greek Torah for "King Ptolemy" — the Talmud in Megillah tells of seventy-two elders placed in seventy-two chambers who rendered the Torah identically, listing the passages they altered — placing the translation in early Ptolemaic Egypt, generations before this copy was written. The papyrus is not evidence for the story's details; it is physical proof that a Greek Torah existed and circulated in Egypt within about a century of the tradition's setting. Framed honestly: the Talmudic account (and the Letter of Aristeas) are traditions about the translation's origin; the papyrus attests the translation's early existence, not the narratives about it.	rabbinic archaeology	★★★★☆	Megillah 9a (the translation for King Ptolemy) Papyrus Rylands 458 — significance for Septuagint origins

Referenced by: Papyrus Fouad 266