That Papyrus with Sayings of Jesus
A papyrus was made of plant fibers and a popular way of writing documents, taking notes, and so on in ancient times. This was a budget writing method, and there were more durable (and expensive) materials. They can last a long time in the right conditions. Oxyrhynchus was a city in Egypt that had a passel of papyri (including biblical writings) in garbage dumps. There are many reasons biblical material could be there, such as mistakes, copies may have been upgraded to better material — or the owners realized they were not valid. Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 3522 (I can't legally use 5575), Wikimedia Commons / public domain There are many manuscripts and fragments, and they keep scholars quite busy. The Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5575 has sayings that are attributed to Jesus as well as short quotes from real Gospels. Surprisingly, even this spurious piece has value, helping researchers date other materials and so forth. Also, it helps reveal the how seriously people took the biblical manuscript c