Arthur Hunt, Harold Idris Bell, and Edward Maunde Thompson on the Date of Codex Sinaiticus

Posted on October 8, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

When it comes to the question of assigning palaeographic dates to Greek literary manuscripts of the Roman period, British papyrologists in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries seem to show some different tendencies. One of the most respected of the early palaeographers, Arthur S. Hunt (1871-1934) tended to favor relatively wide date ranges and often allowed for somewhat later dates for particular manuscripts than did his contemporaries. The equally esteemed Harold Idris Bell (1879-1967) and Frederic Kenyon (1863-1952) tended to approve of narrower ranges and earlier dates (a related point is discussed with regard to a particular cluster of early Christian manuscripts in Roger Bagnall’s Early Christian Books in Egypt, pp. 10-16).

This usual difference between Hunt and Bell makes their evaluations of the writing of Codex Sinaiticus all the more interesting.

Arthur S. Hunt, Harold Idris Bell, and Edward Maunde Thompson; source of images: National Portrait Gallery, London, U.K.

It is worth noting that these opinions were probably expressed when neither man had seen the actual manuscript itself, but only facsimile images.

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Posted in Codex Sinaiticus, Codices, Palaeography | 12 Comments

Palaeographic Dating: Graphic Difference Does Not Always Mean Chronological Difference

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

In a few days, I hope to complete a post on the date of Codex Sinaiticus. It has been educational for me to revisit the arguments for the dating of this codex. One quotation that I found especially eye-opening was this admirably forthright comment from H.J.M. Milne and T.C. Skeat’s classic, Scribes and Correctors of the Codex Sinaiticus (1938):

“…the dangers of judging age on grounds of style are nowhere better illustrated than in the Sinaiticus itself, where the hands of scribes A and B present a markedly more archaic appearance than that of scribe D; did we not know that all three were contemporary, D might well have been judged half a century later than A and B.”

Let that sink in for a minute. The quite subtle differences between the writing of copyists A and B and the writing of copyist D would, in other circumstances, have led Milne and Skeat to assign copyist D to a period a full 50 years later than A/B, even though they are in fact contemporary.

This example is a good reminder that minute differences in the appearances of samples of Greek writing of the Roman era are not necessarily indicative of differences in the ages of the writing samples. Other factors, such as the personal tastes or skills of the copyist, could very well account for such differences.

Samples of writing from Codex Sinaiticus: Copyist D, Matt. 16:22 (left) and Copyist A, Mark 8:32 (right); image source: codexsinaiticus.org
Posted in Biblical Majuscule, Codex Sinaiticus, Codices, Palaeography, Scripts | 10 Comments

A New Article on Palaeographic Dating of Codices

Posted on August 18, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

The latest issue of Journal for the Study of the New Testament contains a group of articles that emerged from an SBL session in 2016 arranged by Roberta Mazza on problems of dating ancient manuscripts. In addition to Roberta’s introductory essay, which discusses some of her work on the Rylands collection, there are articles by Malcolm Choat (“Dating Papyri: Familiarity, Instinct and Guesswork”) and by the Ancient Ink Laboratory at Columbia University and New York University (“Dating Ancient Egyptian Papyri through Raman Spectroscopy: Concept and Application to the Fragments of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and the Gospel of John”).

My own contribution is “Palaeographic Analysis of Codices from the Early Christian Period: A Point of Method.” Here is the abstract:

It is often said that palaeographic analysis of Greek literary manuscripts from the Roman era has progressed from an aesthetic judgment to more of a science, thanks largely to increased data (in the form of newly discovered papyri and parchments from Egypt) and to more sophisticated ways of describing similarity and difference in handwriting. This progress is frequently taken to mean that we may now use the analysis of handwriting to assign dates to undated manuscripts with much greater precision and accuracy than was possible a century ago. This article questions this conclusion by focusing on neglected methodological points that specifically relate to the problem of palaeographic dating of codices, namely the size and character of the corpus of securely datable samples to which the handwriting of undated codices is compared. This problem is especially relevant for early Christian books, the surviving examples of which tend to be copied in the codex format.

For those with institutional subscriptions, the articles can be found online here. Otherwise, for a copy of my article, contact me via e-mail.

Posted in Codices, Codicology, Palaeography | 5 Comments

Dirk Obbink, Scott Carroll, and a Papyrus of Plato

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

Past posts on this blog have examined different aspects of Dirk Obbink’s involvement in the trade in ancient manuscripts–as buyer, seller, and consultant to Hobby Lobby. Another key part of the high-end antiquities market is the process of appraisal, assigning dollar values to cultural heritage items. The process is important both for transacting purchases and for making donations of such items, as Candida Moss and Joel Baden have reported. Professor Obbink’s name surfaces in this aspect of the market as well. The story begins back in 2015, when Roberta Mazza drew attention to the website of a firm connected to Scott Carroll called Ancient Asset Investments (AAI). The site contained several documents related to the appraisal of ancient manuscripts. These documents quickly disappeared, and their disappearance was accompanied by a curious note (Thanks to Dorothy King for having the foresight to take a screenshot and for sharing it with me [[Update 17 Aug. 2019: I see now that this notice was also recorded by Paul Barford here]]):

The documents that “incorrectly ascribed information to Dr. D. Obbink, which was incorrect” turn out to be of considerable interest in puzzling out the possible source of at least one of the manuscripts that Scott Carroll has been displaying in his lectures in the last couple years. In a recent remark on an earlier post on that topic, a commenter pointed out that these documents can in fact still be consulted online. This link points to an appraisal, dated June of 2013, for a fragment of papyrus containing Plato’s Phaedo:

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Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, Lee Biondi, Mummy cartonnage, Scott Carroll | 15 Comments

The Radiocarbon Dating of the “New Sappho” Papyrus

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

In my last post on the various discrepancies in the origin story of the Sappho papyrus published in 2014, I mentioned an article by Dirk Obbink published in The Times Literary Supplement on 5 February 2014. In this article, Professor Obbink stated that–as a part of the process of authenticating the Sappho papyrus–a small piece of it was subjected to radiocarbon analysis. The results of this test were reported in the following form: “The owner of the papyrus wishes to remain anonymous, but has submitted the papyrus to autopsy and multi-spectral photography, as well as Carbon 14 testing of an uninscribed portion of the papyrus sheet itself by an American laboratory, that returned a date of around 201 AD, with a plus-minus range of a hundred years.” No further information was provided.

I want to scrutinize this a bit.

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Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Dirk Obbink, P.Sapph. Obbink, Radiocarbon analysis | 12 Comments

Dirk Obbink, Scott Carroll, and Sappho

Posted on August 3, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

When I was pulling together material illustrating the long and close association of Dirk Obbink with the Green Collection / Museum of the Bible organizations, and especially the connection between Professor Obbink and Scott Carroll from 2010-2012, it occurred to me that we should probably revisit some aspects of the story of the infamous Sappho papyri in the possession of “an anonymous owner” and the Green Collection. There has been some excellent reporting on the Sappho papyrus fragments by Roberta Mazza, from the time of their public debut in 2014 with several follow-up posts. David Meadows of rougeclassicism provided a thorough round-up of recent developments in July of 2017.

But working through all the details can be highly confusing because, as Mazza and others have noted, key elements of the story change with each retelling. A particular locus for the changing of the story is an interview Professor Obbink gave to Live Science in January of 2015. I want to revisit some elements of that interview with the close relationship between Scott Carroll and Dirk Obbink in mind.

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Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Dirk Obbink, Green Collection, Green Collection Sappho, P.Sapph. Obbink, Scott Carroll | 16 Comments

One of the “Other” Oxyrhynchus Gospels for Sale and a Pattern in the Green Collection

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

Like many people, I have a number of lingering questions about the alleged sale of four fragmentary gospel papyri from the Oxyrhynchus collection. I’ve mentioned a few of them already in other posts. I’m going to go a little deeper with one of these questions: How did anybody think they could get away with this? I’ve already raised the issue of the photograph-and-card record system, which would presumably allow for the manuscripts to be connected back to the Oxyrhynchus collection. But there is more. These were the contents of the papyri allegedly sold by Dirk Obbink to Hobby Lobby:

As Michael Holmes noted in his e-mail accompanying this documentation, all of these manuscripts can be identified with pieces in the Oxyrhynchus collection, two of which were published in 2018. The Mark papyrus can be identified with P.Oxy. 83.5345, and the Luke papyrus can be identified with P.Oxy. 83.5346. Although this fragmentary papyrus containing a few words from the Gospel According to Luke has received less attention, it deserves a closer look. What is interesting is that P.Oxy. 83.5346 has a further obvious connection to the Oxyrhynchus collection. Here is the photographic plate published with the edition of P.Oxy. 83.5346:

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Posted in Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, First Century Mark, Green Collection 1 Corinthians, Green Collection Romans, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Scott Carroll | 9 Comments

Dirk Obbink and the Museum of the Bible: A Brief History

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

Although it is widely known that Dirk Obbink had an association with the Green Collection (and later the Museum of the Bible) going back at least as far as 2010, the recent news that Professor Obbink was also (legally) selling manuscripts to the Greens as early as 2010 casts a somewhat different light on the development of both the Green Collection and the Museum of the Bible enterprise.

Pattengale and Obbink GSI

As is well known, Professor Obbink was one of the first “senior scholars” in the Green Scholars Initiative. It is unclear exactly when and how this relationship began. When Jerry Pattengale introduced a “Passages Speakers Series” talk by Professor Obbink on 13 September 2011, he fondly recalled a history of visits to Oxford:

“There are regular trips that take place, and, um, Steve and Jackie Green, and I think some of the other Greens have actually met with Dr. Obbink there, and some, some very serious discussions have taken place about the scholarship that is transpiring there at Oxford.”

While Pattengale and the Greens did make visits to see Obbink over the years, that history of “regular trips” to Oxford in the early days seems to have mostly involved Scott Carroll. These excursions could for a time be documented by Scott Carroll’s facebook posts. But it appears that these are no longer publicly available. Nevertheless, in his many online lectures, Carroll frequently brought up his stays at Oxford, often mentioning Professor Obbink by name.

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Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, Green Collection, Mummy cartonnage, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Scott Carroll | 29 Comments

Jerry Pattengale on Dirk Obbink and the Mark Fragment

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

Elijah Hixson draws attention to an article that appeared online today in Christianity Today by Jerry Pattengale, one of the core team who developed the Green Collection and the Museum of the Bible: “The ‘First-Century Mark’ Saga from Inside the Room.” The article recounts his involvement with Professor Obbink and the Mark fragment. There is a lot to digest here, both in terms of new information and new questions raised. These are my initial reactions.

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Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Dirk Obbink, First Century Mark, Green Collection, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Scott Carroll | 19 Comments

The Egypt Exploration Society Statement on Alleged Sales of Papyri to Hobby Lobby

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Brent Nongbri

The Egypt Exploration Society has issued a statement on the alleged sale of Oxyrhynchus papyri: Professor Obbink and sales of papyri to Hobby Lobby.

I recommend everyone read the full statement at the link above. I note that the statement does not positively affirm one of the central claims in the letter sent by Mike Holmes, namely that the documents supplied with the letter– 1) the redacted copy of the purchase agreement between Prof. Dirk Obbink and Hobby Lobby for four gospel fragments and 2) the photo of a list specifying the contents of four gospel fragments that match the contents of items in the Oxyrhynchus collection–“together document the fact of the sale and the identity of the items sold.”

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Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Dirk Obbink, First Century Mark, Green Collection, Oxyrhynchus Papyri | 12 Comments