Recent Comments
Category Archives: Antiquities Market
The Upcoming Sale of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex (Just How Old is this Book?)
It has been an unusually busy news week for Coptic codices. I posted a few days ago about the Mudil Psalms codex, and then yesterday several news outlets reported that Christie’s will be auctioning off the Crosby-Schøyen codex, a papyrus … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Codices, Codicology, Crosby-Schøyen Codex, Maguid Sameda, Radiocarbon analysis, Schøyen Collection
Tagged antiquities, antiquities-trade, auctions, Codicology, coptic, history, manuscripts, papyrology, papyrus, rare-book-trade, rare-books
5 Comments
The Hobby Lobby v. Dirk Obbink Ruling
In 2023, the civil case of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Dirk D. Obbink switched venues from New York to Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma court has now found a default judgement in favor of Hobby Lobby, with the result that … Continue reading
The Robinson Papyri, and the Mississippi Papyri, and William H. Willis
Several years ago, I tried to sort out some of the confusion that surrounds the so-called Robinson Papyri, a collection of papyrus manuscripts accumulated by the archaeologist David M. Robinson (1880-1958) and eventually inherited by the classicist William H. Willis … Continue reading
The Date of the New Oxyrhynchus Sayings of Jesus P.Oxy. 87.5575
The publication of the latest volume of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri has been in the news. Among the newly published pieces is a small fragment of a leaf of a papyrus codex that contains a previously unknown collection of sayings of … Continue reading
Notes on a Forger’s Methods
John de Monins Johnson (1882-1956) was in some ways a kind of successor to Grenfell and Hunt for a short period in the early twentieth century. Before taking up a position at Oxford University Press, he had training as a … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquities Market, Fakes and Forgeries
3 Comments
A Book of Psalms and a Missing Page Number
As part of the EthiCodex project, our team has been revisiting the often fragmentary remains of early codices. Thankfully, many collections have made digital images of their materials widely available. But sometimes it is also necessary to see things in … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquities Market, Bernard Grenfell, Codices, Codicology, Michigan Papyri
2 Comments
A Cursed Figurine
I had the opportunity recently to revisit an interesting artifact at the Louvre. It is a small nude female figurine with hands and feet bound, pierced through with thirteen pins. According to the Louvre website, the figurine was bought in … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquities Market, Magic
3 Comments
Better Images of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Vatican
I mentioned in a post in 2021 that the Vatican Museum had on display two small fragments of animal hide with Hebrew letters that are identified as “inscribed fragments of Qumran scrolls.” They were donated in 2001 from the personal … Continue reading
Posted in Antiquities Market, Dead Sea Scrolls
1 Comment
New Article on the Dead Sea Scrolls said to come from Cave 1Q
I’m happy to report that the first 2022 issue of Harvard Theological Review contains my article on the Dead Sea Scrolls said to come from Cave 1 at Qumran: “How the ‘Jerusalem Scrolls’ Became the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran … Continue reading
Christianity Today on the Hobby Lobby vs. Obbink Case
Christianity Today has just published an article summarizing recent events in the case of Hobby Lobby vs. Obbink. The article, which contains some details from the most recent court documents, can be found here.
Posted in Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, Oxyrhynchus Papyri
1 Comment
Variant Readings 