Author Archives: Brent Nongbri

Palaeography, Codicology, and Assigning Dates to Early Christian Codices: A Review of God’s Library

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

Over at The Textual Mechanic blog, Timothy Mitchell has posted a review of God’s Library. I’m happy to say that the review is mostly positive, although Mitchell does mention some “glaring problems,” “contradictions,” and “circular argumentation” that he detects in … Continue reading →

Posted in Codices, Palaeography | 2 Comments

The “Qarara” Exodus Codex

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

I’ve recently posted about papyrus fragments of the Psalms in Greek and the book of Job in Coptic from Karanis that I wasn’t able to treat in God’s Library. Another set of ancient Christian manuscripts that I didn’t have the … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Codices, Schøyen Collection, Tchacos-Ferrini Codices, Tchacos-Ferrini Exodus Codex | 4 Comments

God’s Library: Publication Day

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

So, it’s August 21. This is the official publication date for God’s Library (I’m not entirely sure what that means, because the book has been shipping from the publisher for a couple weeks now already). Thanks again to everyone involved … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Archaeological context, Book binding, Book covers, Codices, Find Stories, Manuscript Collections, Palaeography, Radiocarbon analysis | 7 Comments

The Nag Hammadi Discovery Story

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

Over on his blog, Bart Ehrman is answering questions about the Gospel of Thomas. He has started out by re-telling a version of the traditional find story of the Nag Hammadi codices. This is a topic that I treat in … Continue reading →

Posted in Codices, Find Stories, Nag Hammadi, Videos | 6 Comments

A Manuscript of Job in Coptic from Karanis

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

In my previous post, I discussed a fragment of the Psalms in Greek excavated during the University of Michigan’s campaigns in Karanis. The Michigan excavators also found some Coptic literary material at the site. In 1979, Gerald M. Browne published … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeological context, Codices, Michigan Papyri | 5 Comments

A Manuscript of the Psalms in Greek from Karanis

Posted on August 8, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

One of the things I try to do in my book on early Christian manuscripts is survey some of the contexts in which ancient Christian books have been discovered. A set of examples that I wasn’t able to treat in … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeological context, Codices, Michigan Papyri | 2 Comments

God’s Library

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

So, it has been about a year since I started this blog. At that time, I was in the midst of finishing my last revisions to the manuscript of my book, and in my first posting, I described the blog … Continue reading →

Posted in Codices, Nag Hammadi | 10 Comments

E. C. Colwell on P52

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

Back in 2005, I wrote an article on P.Ryl. 3.457, or “P52,” the small papyrus fragment of chapter 18 of the Gospel According to John kept at the Rylands Library in Manchester. I argued that the date generally assigned to … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Codices, Colin H. Roberts, P.Ryl. 3.457, Palaeography, Rylands Papyri | 11 Comments

“Ink & Blood” Back? (but with less ink?)

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Bruce Ferrini, Fakes and Forgeries, Oxyrhynchus Papyri | 14 Comments

The Moschos Ioudaios Inscription

Posted on July 15, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

One of the most interesting early Greek inscriptions involving a Jew/Judaean is the so-called “Moschos inscription” (or “Moschus inscription”), a record of a manumission found in 1952 during excavations at Oropos north of Athens. The inscription was recovered from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Inscriptions | 3 Comments