Dishna Papers

[1][2] The Dishna Papers were found in 1952 at Pabau near Dishna, Egypt, the ancient headquarters of the Pachomian order of monks; the discovery site is not far from Nag Hammadi, where the secreted Nag Hammadi library had been found some years earlier.

The manuscripts were covertly assembled by a Cypriote, Phokio Tano of Cairo, then smuggled to Switzerland,[3] where they were bought by Martin Bodmer (1899–1971).

Books V and VI of Homer's Iliad (P1), and three comedies of Menander (Dyskolos (P4), Samia and Aspis) appear among the Bodmer Papyri, as well as gospel texts: Papyrus 66 (P66), is a text of the Gospel of John,[7] dating around 200 AD, in the manuscript tradition called the Alexandrian text-type.

[10] Plans announced by the Foundation Bodmer in October 2006[11] to sell two of the manuscripts for millions of dollars, to capitalize the library, which opened in 2003, drew consternation from scholars around the world, fearing that the unity of the collection would be broken.

[12] The papyri had been sold for an undisclosed "significant" price to Frank Hanna III, of Atlanta, Georgia.

They are kept in the Vatican Library and will be made available for scholarly review, and in the future, excerpts may be put on display for the general public.

[1] Linjamaa (2024) also recognizes that the Dishna Papers likely came from the same monastic scribal group that had copied the Nag Hammadi texts.