Category Archives: Individual Manuscripts

Important Developments with the New Sappho Papyrus

Mike Holmes of the Museum of the Bible has just released some new discoveries from the Museum’s ongoing provenance research to me and several other people via e-mail. There are several important revelations. Especially important are 1) a stunningly sharp … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, Find Stories, Green Collection, Green Collection Sappho, Mummy cartonnage, Scott Carroll | 35 Comments

A New Edition of Sappho by Dirk Obbink

Following up on the fascinating article on Professor Dirk Obbink by Charlotte Higgins in The Guardian, Roberta Mazza recently revisited her conversations with a representative from Christie’s in 2014 and 2015, which now raise “further questions and doubts on the … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Dirk Obbink, Green Collection, Green Collection Sappho, P.Sapph. Obbink | 8 Comments

More News on Dirk Obbink and Sappho

Charlotte Higgins has just published a long story in The Guardian on Dirk Obbink. It is a very nice compilation of what we know and how the stories of the Sappho papyrus and the stolen Oxyrhynchus papyrus intersect. It also … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Dirk Obbink, Green Collection Sappho, P.Sapph. Obbink | 17 Comments

A New Edition of the Freer Codex of the Letters of Paul in Greek

Thanks to Gorgias Press for sending along a copy of the new edition of the Freer Codex of Paul’s letters (Gregory-Aland 016, LDAB 3044) produced by Justin Soderquist and Thomas Wayment. The American railroad magnate Charles Lang Freer bought this … Continue reading

Posted in Freer Codex of Paul's Letters, Freer Codices | Leave a comment

Publication of the Tchacos-Ferrini Mathematical Codex

I see that later this month we can expect the publication of the Tchacos-Ferrini mathematical codex (LDAB 10719, now dubbed by the editors P.Math.). This codex travelled the antiquities market along with a papyrus codex of Exodus in Greek, a … Continue reading

Posted in Bruce Ferrini, Codices, Codicology, Find Stories, Frieda Tchacos, Tchacos-Ferrini Codices, Tchacos-Ferrini Exodus Codex, Tchacos-Ferrini Math Codex, Tchacos-Ferrini Pauline Epistles Codex | 1 Comment

A New Origin Story for the New Sappho

[[Update 9 December 2019: Transcribed more of the video clip below for greater context.]] The Sappho papyrus published by Professor Dirk Obbink has obscure origins, as many have noted and as I’ve discussed here before. Professor Obbink has provided two … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Dirk Obbink, Mummy cartonnage, P.Sapph. Obbink | 7 Comments

An Image of the Green Collection “Aristotle” Papyrus?

I’m preparing a post on recently emerged Coptic manuscripts of dubious origins to go along with the working list of similarly dodgy Greek and Latin manuscripts. In doing so, I’ve revisited some material put out by the Christian apologist Josh … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, Green Collection, Green Collection Aristotle, Mummy cartonnage, Scott Carroll | 8 Comments

Recap of the SBL “First Century Mark” Session

A few days ago, I was fortunate to be a part of the a session dedicated to a “postmortem” on so-called “First Century Mark” at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Diego. Below is a … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, First Century Mark, Mummy cartonnage, Oxyrhynchus Papyri | 35 Comments

A New(-ish) Published Papyrus from the Green Collection!

Sometimes my own oversights absolutely astound me. On my last update to the list of recently emerged papyri of dubious origins, I noted that a papyrus of a work of Aristotle in the Green Collection was said to have been … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, Green Collection, Green Collection Mysteries Papyrus, Scott Carroll | 7 Comments

Recently Emerged Papyri of Dubious Origins: A Working List

In recent days, the Egypt Exploration Society has disclosed that 11 manuscripts from their Oxyrhynchus collection were allegedly illegally sold by Professor Dirk Obbink to the Hobby Lobby organization. Two further fragments of pieces from the Oxyrhynchus collection have surfaced … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, Green Collection, Green Collection Greek Genesis, Green Collection Sappho, Lee Biondi, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, P.Sapph. Obbink, Passages Speakers Series, Scott Carroll, Van Kampen Collection | 39 Comments