The manuscript was written on papyrus in scroll form. The measurements of the original leaf were 142 mm by 155 mm. The text is written in
cursive letters, in a competent hand. It uses
diaeresis over initial
upsilon; two corrections were made. The
nomina sacra are written in an abbreviated way ( for
Jesus). According to Grenfell and Hunt, who identified this fragment as
Logia Iesu ("Sayings of Jesus"), the original manuscript contained a collection of Jesus's sayings. They suggested that original manuscript could be a part of the
Gospel of Thomas, or
Gospel of Philip. The only complete copy of the Gospel of Thomas was found in 1945 when a Coptic version was discovered at
Nag Hammadi with a collection of early Christian
Gnostic texts. The fragment contains logia (sayings) 1–7 of the Gospel of Thomas on the verso side of the leaf (
opisthograph). In 1904, P. Oxy. 654 was given to the
British Museum by the
Egypt Exploration Fund. The fragment is housed at the Department of manuscripts of the British Library (Inv. 1531) in
London. == See also ==