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p.abinn.19 Mitte IVPhiladelphia? (Arsinoites)

Letter to Abinnaeus asking for the discharge of a widow's son. A Christian letter to the cavalry commander Flavius Abinnaeus asking him to release from military service the brother of the writer's wife, the only son of a widow, or failing that to keep him from being sent away on escort duty. It quotes the Gospel saying about a cup of water and was written around the mid-4th century AD, probably at Philadelphia in the Fayum. machine translation

Source of record: Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

The same text in other collections

Linked by Trismegistos ID TM 32666. Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 · Greek · Greek

Transcription

[r,ctr] […]ἀγαπητῷ […]χαίρειν. […]ν εὔχομαι […]σωτηρίας σου […] […]…ς […][…]…ραν […]ποτήριον ὑδατος ἑνὶ τῶν μικρῶν τούτων οὐκ ἀπολεῖ τὸν μισθὸν ἑαυτοῦ. μὴ λυπείσθω δὲ ἡ ψυχή σου ὅτι πονεῖς, πίστευε δὲ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ παύῃ. γράφω σοι δὲ περὶ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τῆς γυναικός μου Ναωμί. υἱός ἐστιν στρατιώτου καὶ ἔδωκεν τὸ ὄνομα αὑτοῦ ἵνα στρατευθῇ. ἐὰν οὖν δύνῃ παραφεῖναι αὐτὸν ὀπίσω ἔργον καλὸν ποιεῖς, πρῶτον μὲν διὰ τὸν Θεὸν, δεύτερον διʼ ἐμὲ διότι χήρα ἐστὶν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἔχει ἄλλον εἰ μὴ αὐτόν. ἐὰν δὲ πάλιν στρατευθῇ, ἵνα συντηρῇς αὐτὸν ἵνα μὴ ἔλθῃ ἔξω μετὰ τῶν ἐκλεγομένων εἰς κωμιδᾶτον, καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἀποδιδοῖ σοι πρὸς τὴν ἐλεημοσύνην σου καὶ ἀνυψοῖ σε εἰς τὰ μείζονα· καθὼς ἐξέβην ἀπὸ σοῦ ἤνεγκα Σπ[…]αμιον ἅμα ἐμοί. ἠξίωσεν δὲ ἵνα ἔλθῃ ἐπὶ τὰ σκεύη ἑαυτοῦ. ἐβράδυνεν μὴ [… 1 line lost …] [r,ms] ἐλθὼν ἕως […] ἂν εἰδῇς αὐτὸν μὴ θέλοντα ἐλθεῖν μετὰ ἐλευθερίας ὡς ὁμολογήσαμεν οἱ α[…]α σοι ὅτι οὐ μόνον αὐτὸν ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴ τις ἐὰν ᾖ μόνον ἀποπληρω[…] …ολ…ω μα[…]λ[…]…ν ἐξουσίαν καὶ ὡς εἶπόν σοι πέμψον τὸν κυνηγόν. ἀσπάζομαί σε καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου. ὁ θεὸς δὲ διαφυλάξῃ σε. [v] τῷ ἀγαπητῷ ἀδελφῷ Ἀμινναίῳ …[…]

Translations (1)

EN AI · machine translation from the DDbDP edition (Claude Opus 5.5)
[…] to his beloved […] greeting. […] I pray […] your well-being […] […] […] […] […] a cup of water to one of these little ones shall not lose his reward. Do not let your soul be grieved because you are toiling, but believe in God and you will have rest. I am writing to you about the brother of my wife, Naomi. He is the son of a soldier and he has given his name in order to be enlisted. So if you are able to release him back, you do a good deed, first for the sake of God, second for my sake, because his mother is a widow and has no one else except him. But if he is enlisted again, please look after him so that he does not go out with those who are being selected for the komidaton (escort service?), and God will repay you for your charity and raise you up to greater things. When I left you I brought Sp[…]amios with me. He asked to go to his belongings. He was slow not […] [… 1 line lost …] [margin] having come until […] if you know that he is not willing to come with freedom, as we agreed […] to you that not only him but also if there is anyone, only […] fulfil […] authority, and as I told you, send the hunter. I greet you and all those in your house. May God keep you safe. [back] To my beloved brother Abinnaeus […]

Connections

Found at Philadelphia (Arsinoites)

Cross-references (3)

Similar inscriptions · by content embedding

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  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text.
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
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