The text and function of P. Berol. 11710 revisited

This article revisits questions about the text and function of P. Berol. 11710, a sixth-century CE (or later) papyrus artefact. Specifically, it responds to the lines of scholarship initiated by Hans Lietzmann, whose original edition of P. Berol. 11710 in 1923 claimed that this papyrus artefact was an amulet that preserved an apocryphal gospel. While most scholars have agreed with Lietzmann's assessment of P. Berol. 11710, more recent scholarship has called both of his claims into question. In this essay we contend that while the extant evidence does not allow us to confirm an amuletic designation in particular, P. Berol. 11710 was most likely designed to play a role in an apotropaic or curative ritual - whether as an applied amulet or as a formulary (i.e. a non-applied exemplar for making an amulet). With this general apotropaic/curative identification in mind, we challenge the claim that it preserves an apocryphal gospel and modify prior reconstructions of P. Berol. 11710.