I’ve recently been doing some research on a few early Christian books that were on the antiquities market about a decade ago. There are a lot of interesting stories here. We’re all pretty familiar with the collection now known as the Museum of the Bible, which really got going in 2009. Part of its public debut was the traveling “Passages” exhibition, which I have discussed earlier on this blog. The “Passages” exhibition itself seems in some ways to have been built in the mold of an earlier road show of biblical antiquities, “Ink & Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to the English Bible.” The “Ink & Blood” undertaking has been discussed at length by Roberta Mazza in her article on P.Oxy. 15.1780 (a.k.a. P39), a fragmentary leaf from a large-format papyrus codex containing the Gospel According to John. (P.Oxy. 15.1780 was one of the “distribution papyri” given away by the Egypt Exploration Fund in exchange for financial support at some point around 1922 to 1924. The papyrus ended up on the antiquities market and found its way to the “Ink & Blood” display.)
“Ink & Blood” involved a number of early Jewish and Christian manuscripts, and was organized by William H. Noah, a medical doctor with an interest in meeting “a huge need within churches as well as the general public to know the true story of Bible transmission.” “Ink & Blood” seems to have gotten underway in 2004, but activity associated with the exhibition trailed off in 2009, just as the Green Collection and the “Passages” exhibition got rolling. So, when I visited what had been the basically dormant “Ink & Blood” website a couple days ago, I was surprised to see this:
That the tour will resume in 2020 is interesting in light of its similarity to the “Passages” and Museum of the Bible displays (“Dead Sea Scroll” fragments of dubious provenance, historical printed Bibles, a working model of a Gutenberg press, etc.). Indeed, at least one of the pieces that the new website lists under the “About the Exhibition” tab actually now belongs to the Museum of the Bible. The aforementioned P.Oxy. 15.1780 was purchased by the Green Collection and is now on display in the Museum of the Bible. Nevertheless, the “Ink & Blood” display is still said to include “the P39.”
Screen capture of “Ink & Blood” “About the Exhibition” site
Under the tab for “The Collection,” however, there is a sampling of the artifacts included in the display that appears to be more up to date. P39 is not present on this page, and there are a couple other notable absences when this list is compared with an earlier description of the exhibit from late 2004. One of the other pieces that will apparently no longer be part of the tour is the so-called “Marzeah papyrus,” a piece of papyrus with Hebrew writing said to date to the 7th century BCE, but now widely regarded as a forgery. Other items, such as the papyrus fragment of Exodus for which I was searching were also missing. I believe both of those particular pieces were associated with the dealer Bruce Ferrini (of “Gospel of Judas” infamy), who was also involved in the original “Ink & Blood” exhibition. In any event, I’ll be curious to see what the new incarnation of the exhibit involves.
Variant Readings 
Can you say more about the specific papyrus fragment of Exodus for which you were searching?
Yes, it’s the Qarara codex of Exodus (LDAB 8121), which is split between a number of owners. The bulk of the codex is in the Schøyen collection, there is a leaf at Yale, a leaf at Ashland Theological Seminary, and a couple other pieces scattered from Ferrini’s inventory.
I am aware that Karen Jobes and Judy C. Kim were preparing a chapter for Vol. 2 of The Green Scholars Initiative: Papyrus Series. Their chapter examines a Greek manuscript of Exodus (GC.PAP.000447), which measures ~6x~8 inches and preserves ~20 lines of clearly written text. It is from a codex and dates to 3rd-4th cent. Not sure if this is one of the Qarara codex fragments. If so, it’s now in the Green Collection.
Thanks, David. I wonder if this is the fragment in question (Exodus 3 and 4, misidentified at this website as belonging to the Gospel of Judas): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/483503709966950479/
Update 25 July: I see now that this fragment is one of those published by DeSilva in 2007.
Pingback: Two More Greek Papyri in the Green Collection: Exodus and Hebrews | Variant Readings
Some of the medieval manuscripts on the site were acquired at Sotheby’s, 9 December 2015: lots 51 (“Gradual Leaf”), 57 (“St Luke the Evangelist”), and 67 (“Saint Jerome’s Letters”)
Thanks–do you have a links to the relevant lots? I didn’t see them on the site.
Gradual, lot 51: https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/medieval-renaissance-manuscripts-l15241/lot.51.html
Luke, lot 57: https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/medieval-renaissance-manuscripts-l15241/lot.57.html
Jerome, lot 67: https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/medieval-renaissance-manuscripts-l15241/lot.67.html
Great–thanks!
The Jerome was £100,000 (plus buyers’ premium etc.), so this suggests a significant amount of money being spent to re-boot the collection/exhibition at the end of 2015.
Interesting. The Passages exhibition was still going on at that point. I wonder if the decision to restart Ink & Blood had to do with the success of Passages.
Joan Dahl says: I’m interested in revisiting the Blood and Ink Exhibit I saw in Florida a few years back. Do you know where it may be showing or any phone number that I can call about any forthcoming exhibitions? Thank you. Email: joanandkendahl@gmail.com
Hi Joan. I would check out the “contact” section of the Ink & Blood site.
Pingback: Report: All the "Dead Sea Scrolls" at the Museum of the Bible Are Fakes | Variant Readings