The major portions of Codex Sinaiticus that now reside in the British Library were bound into a volume by Douglas Cockerell after the leaves were closely studied by H.J.M. Milne and T.C. Skeat in their classic book, Scribes and Correctors of the Codex Sinaiticus (1938). So, if you visit the codex on display now, you will be looking at this handsome modern binding:
An opening of Codex Sinaiticus in its present binding; image source: codexsinaiticus.org
Scott Carroll and the Hobby Lobby / Museum of the Bible organization cut ties in May of 2012. Yet, his public presentations after that time continued to include images of manuscripts, such as the Bodmer Psalms codex, that are known to have been part of the Green Collection and/or the Museum of the Bible collection. So, it can sometimes be hard to tell which of the manuscripts that Carroll displays are actually owned by him. One way to begin to sort this out is to examine the actual manuscripts that remained in his possession after May of 2012. I think it’s safe to assume such pieces probably belonged to someone other than the Hobby Lobby / Museum of the Bible organization (either to Carroll himself or to other parties). This would seem to be the case with a set of classical papyri that Carroll passed around at a talk in California perhaps in early 2015. With this it mind, it may be helpful to revisit some older, reasonably well known videos of Carroll’s talks and reassess the manuscripts he displays. Continue reading
For some time now, I’ve been trying to make progress in ascertaining the previous ownership of both the manuscripts and the cartonnage (from mummies and other sources) that ended up in the Green Collection. This post will focus on the mummy masks. For the record, there are several mummy masks that have been associated with the Green Collection over the years. Continue reading
Thanks to Alin Suciu and Tommy Wasserman for pointing out that some of the manuscripts and facsimiles that Scott Carroll has been displaying over the last couple of years were part of an exhibition organized by Carroll’s Manuscript Research Group at the National Library of Belarus in 2018, complete with placards containing details that apparently relate to the current owners of some of these manuscripts: Continue reading
Thanks again to the resourcefulness of David Bradnick, here is still another video of Scott Carroll displaying still more papyrus and parchment manuscripts, including some Greek and Coptic manuscripts that have not appeared in the other videos I have surveyed. This video was filmed in Kansas City on 7 September 2016 during a meeting of the group Youth With a Mission.
Scott Carroll’s portion of what seems to have been a quite long evening begins at about the 32:50 mark and is notable for the number of Coptic manuscripts included in the presentation. Around the 38 minute Mark, Carroll gives an overall description of the material he will discuss: “recently discovered. . .all new material. . .some of these things are as recent as this past week.” One of Carroll’s slides describes this material as “Buried Treasures”: Continue reading
Thanks to David Bradnick for uncovering this relatively recent video of Scott Carroll that was recorded February 23, 2018 (Update: Thanks to Peter Gurry and Susanna Kinzig for pointing out the website for the original event). In this talk, “Stones and Scriptures,” Carroll presents slides with images of several of the same manuscripts that he discussed in a 2016 talk, as well as images of several other manuscripts. At about the 11:05 mark, Carroll begins going through some slides of the manuscripts that he describes in the following way:
“These texts are just a couple of examples of things recently that we have, ah, discovered or identified.” Continue reading
The John Rylands Library contains a great collection of papyri in different languages. I’m most interested in the Greek pieces, the bulk of which were published in the first half of the twentieth century in four volumes. Digital copies of the first two volumes, edited by Arthur S. Hunt, have for some time been available at the wonderful archive.org. Volumes 3 and 4, published in 1938 and 1952 have not been available online, but I just realized that at some point late last year, the University of Manchester uploaded scans of volumes 3 and 4 (interestingly, the copies are from Princeton Theological Seminary). These volumes contain some very important Jewish and Christian manuscripts. This is a fantastic development for those of us without access to a good papyrological library. Thanks to our friends at the University of Manchester and archive.org (and PTS)! Links are here:
Rylands Greek Papyri: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4
[Update 29 January 2019: A.K. adds some further helpful info in the comments below:
“https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/special-collections/access-the-special-collections/using-manuscripts/published-catalogues/greek-papyri/ has the complete set plus the 1968 and 1978-9 updates. https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/special-collections/access-the-special-collections/using-manuscripts/published-catalogues/coptic-manuscripts/ is also relevant.”]
So, I think I may be starting to alleviate some of my confusion about Scott Carroll and the Green Collection papyri. One part of all this that was unclear to me was the status of several manuscripts acquired or “discovered” by Scott Carroll that were not immediately related to the Museum of the Bible project. What happened to these pieces? What had escaped me what the possibility that Scott Carroll was not just a broker of manuscript purchases for others but also a purchaser and owner of manuscripts himself.
This point is clarified in a video (apparently recorded in a home in California) with an upload date of 21 April 2015. It was filmed some time after Carroll had parted ways with the Greens and the Museum of the Bible enterprise and had started his own business ventures. [[Update 28 July 2019: David Bradnick points out that the event was held on 2 March 2014.]] It would thus be odd if Carroll still had Green Collection papyri in his possession at the time of the video. But Carroll does display several actual manuscripts in this video and seems to confirm that he is the owner of these pieces (the presentation was put online in three separate files; my references will be to part number and time marker). So, in part 2 at about the 35 second mark, just before passing out the first of several artifacts to the audience, he encourages them to be careful, and in reference to himself and his wife says:
“These things are under our ownership.”
Here are the papyrus pieces that Carroll displayed with his identifications below (all from part 2 of the film, time points given at the bottom of the images): Continue reading
In earlier posts I’ve discussed a number of early Christian manuscripts associated with the Green Collection (papyri of Genesis, Exodus and Hebrews, Matthew, Romans, and 1 Corinthians). Most of these pieces were featured at different points in the “Passages” speakers series and other media outlets in 2011 and 2012, when Scott Carroll was still working with the Green family to build their personal collection.
After he parted ways with the Green family, Carroll continued to publicly discuss and display images of manuscripts he had acquired while working with the Greens. One such occasion was a talk that seems to have been given in January June of 2016. Carroll was speaking to a church audience and mentioned several “newly discovered” manuscripts. Continue reading
In my last post, I highlighted a papyrus of Genesis mentioned by Scott Carroll in his 2011 lecture in the “Passages” speakers series. Later in that same talk, Carroll singled out two other pieces in the collection, a papyrus leaf from a codex of Exodus in Greek and a fragment of a papyrus copy of Hebrews.
Here is some of what Carroll had to say about these pieces: Continue reading
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The Early History of the Codex
Thoughts on History, Religion, Archaeology, Papyrology, etc. by Brent Nongbri
Everyday Stories from the Ancient Past
Patristics, Apocrypha, Coptic Literature and Manuscripts
Pedagogical Approaches to Palaeography and Codicology
Thoughts on History, Religion, Archaeology, Papyrology, etc. by Brent Nongbri
Thoughts on History, Religion, Archaeology, Papyrology, etc. by Brent Nongbri
Thoughts on History, Religion, Archaeology, Papyrology, etc. by Brent Nongbri
Variant Readings 