7Q5

[1] In 1972, the Spanish papyrologist Jose O'Callaghan argued that the papyrus was in fact a fragment of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verses 52 and 53.

While most scholars have been unpersuaded by this argument, a vocal minority continue to support the identification of the fragment as a part of the Gospel of Mark.

[4] The Greek text below shows O'Callaghan's reconstruction with bold font representing proposed identifications with characters from 7Q5:[5] συνηκαν επι τοις αρτοις, αλλ ην αυτων η καρδια πεπωρω- μενη.

και εξελ- θοντων αυτων εκ του πλοιου ευθυς synēkan epi tois artois, all ēn autōn ē kardia pepōrō- menē.

The decisive parts of the analysis were “recorded by a TV team from the Bavarian Television Company, ARD.”[14] From the examination of line 2 of fragment 7Q5 under the stereo microscope, Thiede believed he saw the diagonal middle stroke of a NU, "as demanded by the identification of 7Q5 as Mark 6:52-53”[15] Yet, another examination by Stephen Pfann using the Rokefeller Museum's Olympus SZ4045 Zoom Stereo Microscope with an Olympus Cold Light Illuminator 3000 detected no traces of the alleged diagonal and instead concluded that the original editors were correct in reading an iota: "The iota is absolutely an iota.