Papyrus 69
Papyrus 69 is a small fragment dating to the 3rd century. Scholars have debated whether its text is a witness to the Gospel of Marcion or the canonical Gospel of Luke.
Description
This fragment recounts the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane, the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, and the betrayal of Jesus by Peter. Famously, and similar to the Gospel of Marcion, it omits all of, a portion famous for Jesus asking, 'remove this cup from me', for an 'angel from heaven' appearing', and for Jesus sweating drops of blood.Claire Clivaz has developed the hypothesis that ?69 is most plausibly understood 'as a witness to a Marcionite edition of Luke's Gospel', an idea she credits to François Bovon. Jason BeDuhn has supported this hypothesis, drawing upon ?69 in his reconstruction of the Gospel of Marcion. Peter M. Head, conversely, has dismissed Clivaz' arguments in two posts on an Evangelical Christian blog.
The Greek text of this codex is a representative of the Western text-type. According to Aland text is very free, "characteristic of precursors of the D-text", therefore Aland placed it in Category IV.