Page "Rylands Library Papyrus P52" Paragraph 11

In total, 114 legible letters are visible on the two sides of the fragment, representing 18 out of the 24 letters of the Greek Alphabet ; beta, zeta, xi, phi, chi, and psi being missing.

Roberts noted that the writing is painstaking and rather laboured, with individual letters apparently inked twice ( e. g. sigma at line 3 of the recto ).

Several letters are inclined to stray away from the notional upper and lower writing lines.

Another peculiarity is that there are two distinct forms of the letter alpha ; most are formed from a separate loop and diagonal stroke, where the stroke has a distinctive decorative hook ; but on the fourth line of the verso there is a smaller alpha formed by a single spiralling loop with no decorative hook.

These observations support the supposition that the scribe was an educated person writing carefully, rather than a professional scribe writing to order ; such that, on occasion, the writer inadvertently reverted to the letter forms of his smaller everyday hand.