NASH PAPYRUS năsh pə pī’ rəs. The Nash Papyrus is an early fragment of the Heb. OT and contains Exodus 20:2-17 (or Deut 5:6-21) and the Shema (6:4, 5). It is somewhat damaged and apparently is not a fragment of a Bible scroll but rather the fragment of a collection of texts for liturgical, or educational purposes.

The papyrus was dated in the 2nd or 1st cent. a.d. by those who first examined it, but others would date it earlier, possibly in the pre-Christian era. Albright, on the basis of palaeographical indications, dated it from the Maccabean period (165-137 b.c.), and Kahle dated it before the destruction of the Temple in a.d. 70. Before the discovery of the DSS, the Nash Papyrus was the oldest Heb. MS of the OT text. It was purchased from a native by W. L. Nash and first published in 1903 by S. A. Cooke. It consists of a single sheet, not from a scroll, of unknown origin.

The sixth and seventh commandments appear in reverse order, and the Shema is introduced by a phrase not in the traditional MT but found in the LXX.

Bibliography W. F. Albright, “A Biblical Fragment from the Maccabean Age: The Nash Papyrus,” JBL, 56 (1937), 145-176; W. F. Albright, “On the Date of the Scrolls from ’Ain Feshka and the Nash Papyrus,” BASOR, 115 (1949), 10-19.