I’ve had the break-up of libraries on my mind lately for several reasons. At one level, this phenomenon is never far from my thoughts. For years now, I’ve been working on the somewhat scrappy remains of what must have been many collections of ancient Christian books and wondered about how the books came together, and in the case of the Christian books at Oxyrhynchus, how they came to be tossed out as garbage. Continue reading
The Green Collection 1 Samuel: A Place of Purchase
A papyrus “thingamajig” containing 1 Samuel obtained by Scott Carroll for the Green Collection; image source: Scott Carroll, Passages: The Experience. The 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible. Exhibition Guide (Marion, Indiana: Triangle Publishing, 2012), p. 4
The “Passages” speakers series videos continue to yield insights into the early formation of the Green Collection, and in particular this papyrus of 1 Samuel that I have mentioned before. The usual format of these “Passages” talks involves extended introductory and concluding remarks given by people associated with the Green Collection. When Scott Carroll was present (not off in Europe purchasing artifacts), he was generally involved in these aspects of the presentations. In his introductory remarks to a talk on C.S. Lewis by Charles Bressler given on 27 March 2012, Carroll described his upcoming travel plans with Jerry Pattengale. I have transcribed the relevant sections: Continue reading
The Green Collection Sappho Papyrus: Some New Details
I am in the process of working my way through videos of the lectures associated with the “Passages” travelling exhibition of Green Collection. At the prompting of David Bradnick who is also engaging in this pastime, I jumped ahead to “Season 2,” the group of lectures given in Atlanta in 2012. David mentioned that Scott Carroll had interesting things to say about some Christian manuscripts and also the Green Collection Sappho Papyrus. It is the latter that will be the topic of this post. Continue reading
A “Second Century” Papyrus of Matthew in the Green Collection
In my last post, I mentioned I was watching a set of DVDs that documented the series of lectures that accompanied the “Passages” exhibition of the Green Collection. One of the Green Collection papyri that is mentioned in the lectures in these DVDs is perhaps the same papyrus that is mentioned as number 22 in a 2013 lecture by Scott Carroll:
Item number 22 is described as “Gospel of Mt c. 140.” A papyrus with a somewhat similar description comes up during the “Passages” lectures in Oklahoma City in 2011. In his closing remarks after a talk by the British Library’s Scot McKendrick, Scott Carroll announced the discovery of a new manuscript: Continue reading
More on the Curious Green Collection 1 Samuel Papyrus
I’ve written several posts (like this one) on different aspects of the “Passages” travelling exhibition of the Green Collection that took place between 2011 and the opening of the permanent exhibition at the Museum of the Bible in 2017. Some of the early Christian manuscripts associated with the “Passages” exhibition seem to have gone out of the public eye, as they have not gone on display in the Museum of the Bible. Continue reading
Ryan Kaufman on the Ending of John 20 in P.Bodmer 2
In a paper recently posted to academia.edu, Ryan Kaufman engages with some of my hypotheses about the ending of the Gospel According to John in P.Bodmer 2. His suggestions are excellent and in fact offer a simpler explanation for some of the strange features of page 149 that I pointed out in my article (discussed on the blog here).
Kaufman’s key insight is that the text of page 149 as reconstructed by the original editors, Victor Martin and J.W.B. Barns, is unlikely to be correct. Continue reading
Posted in Bodmer Papyri, Codices, Codicology, P.Bodmer II
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Big Discount on God’s Library at Amazon
If for some reason you haven’t picked up a copy of God’s Library yet, it is currently being sold at amazon (US) at a discount of over 50%–$15.84 USD. It also makes a great Christmas gift. I have no idea how amazon pricing works, so this deal might not be around for long.
Posted in Manuscript Collections
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Once More: An Oxyrhynchus Papyrus of Exodus and Revelation, Part 2
In my previous post, I reviewed a recent article by Scott Charlesworth on British Library Pap. 2053, a papyrus from Oxyrhynchus with the ending of Exodus on one side (P.Oxy. 8.1075) and the opening verses of Revelation on its reverse (P.Oxy. 8.1079). In a 2013 article in Novum Testamentum, I had argued that this papyrus was probably a leaf from a codex rather than a portion of a roll, as was usually believed. Charlesworth’s claim that “all indications” point to this piece being a roll and not a codex was not persuasive.
P.Oxy. 8.1075 (→ of British Library Pap. 2053); image source: The British Library
In the current (2019) issue of New Testament Studies, Peter Malik makes a case similar to that of Charlesworth, although Malik’s argumentation is more nuanced. Malik’s full article can be viewed here. Let’s have a look at his case. Continue reading
Posted in Codices, Oxyrhynchus Papyri
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Once More: An Oxyrhynchus Papyrus of Exodus and Revelation, Part 1
Among the Christian papyri from Oxyrhynchus is an interesting piece now in the British Library (Pap. 2053) that contains the final verses of Exodus in Greek with an end title (P.Oxy. 8.1075) and on the reverse, in a different script, the opening verses of Revelation (P.Oxy. 8.1079):
British Library Papyrus 2053, showing P.Oxy. 8.1075 (Exodus) on the horizontal fibers (left) and P.Oxy. 8.1079 (Revelation) on the vertical fibers (right); image source: The British Library
The original editor (Arthur S. Hunt) published the texts separately and believed that the piece was a roll of Exodus that was later (but not much later) reused by copying the text of Revelation on the back of the roll. A few years ago, I suggested that this piece was equally likely (if not more likely) to be a leaf of a codex. The abstract of that article in Novum Testamentum laid out the lines of my argument: Continue reading
National Geographic’s “Bible Hunters” Article Online
I mentioned in an earlier post that cover story of the December 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine features “Bible Hunters”–the search for early Christian and Jewish manuscripts. The full story is now online (along with some images that are not in the print magazine). The link is here:
Posted in Antiquities Market, Find Stories
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Variant Readings 