Josephus and other contemporaries on Jesus

[JairCrawford]

There are such things as professional paleographers, you know.

https://vridar.org/2013/03/08/new-date-f...pyrus-p52/

In conclusion, Orsine and Clarysse chastise biblical scholars for embracing unsupportably early dates for their manuscripts:

There are no first century New Testament papyri and only very few can be attributed to the second century (P52, P90, P104, probably all the second half of the century) or somewhere between the late second and early third centuries (P30, P64+67+4, 0171, 0212).

The one you are referring to is P-52. And for the record, Justin in his First Apology written around 160 AD never heard of any of these so-called named gospels.  Then again, he didn't know anything about anyone named "Paul" either which is odd considering that he is supposed to have been very important to early xtians in Rome but he did know about Marcion.

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And speaking of professional paleographers I note the passing of renowned scholar Ada Yardeni a week or so ago.

Correct. There have been no discoveries of 1st century manuscripts. In fact P-52 is, iirc, the oldest known manuscript we have. I know its 2nd century. The earliest date people initially gave it was 100 AD but that's been re-evaluated recently to 125-175 AD, which could put it closer to the 3rd century. I'm not contesting that point.

However; this does not mean that P-52 is the original of John.