From 1898 to 1927, Grenfell and/or Hunt edited the first seventeen volumes of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri series (Grenfell’s periodic illnesses limited his participation in a couple volumes, and Hunt was away from Oxford during World War I). But over a decade elapsed between the publication of Volume 17 (1927) and Volume 18 (1941). What was happening with the papyri during this time? In an earlier post, I mentioned the movement of the Oxyrhynchus collection after the death of Arthur Hunt in 1934. Eric Turner has provided a bit more detail about that process by working through the minutes of committee meetings of the Egypt Exploration Society. I quote at length from Turner’s obituary for Edgar Lobel (identified as “EL” in the following excerpt): Continue reading
A Bit More on the Storage and Inventory of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri
As Grenfell and Hunt’s team extracted papyri from the garbage heaps in Oxyrhynchus, they placed them in baskets, which Grenfell and Hunt eventually packed away in tin boxes. As Grenfell famously wrote in his report of the first season’s excavation at Oxyrhynchus: Continue reading
Some Observations on the “Provisional Dating” of P.Oxy. 83.5345
I want to dwell a little bit on one of the lines from the Egypt Exploration Society’s statement on P.Oxy. 83.5345:
“This is the same text that Professor Obbink showed to some visitors to Oxford in 2011/12, which some of them reported in talks and on social media as possibly dating to the late first century AD on the basis of a provisional dating when the text was catalogued many years ago.”
There are a number of things worthy of further consideration here, but I want to focus on the “provisional dating” that was made “when the text was catalogued many years ago.”
My working assumption is that this statement refers to the cataloguing process undertaken in the 1960s. Continue reading
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri of Dubious Provenance and Editorial Choice
P.Oxy. 83.5345, the newly published papyrus fragment of the Gospel According to Mark, has the inventory number 104/14b, which is part of a clear sequence of such numbers among the Oxyrhynchus papyri; so there is no good reason to doubt that the new Mark fragment was excavated from Oxyrhynchus. But The Oxyrhynchus Papyrus series has published some items that either were not excavated by Grenfell and Hunt or are of uncertain provenance. Continue reading
The Oxyrhynchus “Distributions”
In the recent discussions about the newly published fragment of the Gospel According to Mark (P.Oxy. 83.5345), there has been a little confusion about the so-called “distribution papyri.” These are pieces of papyrus excavated from Oxyrhynchus and elsewhere that the Egypt Exploration Fund sent to various institutions (and occasionally individuals), mostly in the UK and USA, that made financial donations to support the work of the EEF. Continue reading
EES Makes Edition of the New Oxyrhynchus Mark Fragment Available Online
The EES has made the edition of the new Mark fragment in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri series available freely online at https://www.ees.ac.uk/news/poxy-lxxxiii-5345
Also, Candida Moss and Joel Baden, who have been following the Green Collection and Museum of the Bible story for the past few years, weigh in with further news from Scott Carroll and Dirk Obbink in the Daily Beast here.
Sorting the Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Papyri from the excavations of Grenfell and Hunt; image source: Egypt Exploration Society
Again, it would be great to get a systematic account from somebody “in the know” about the unpublished inventory of material from Oxyrhynchus. Hunt, of course, identified some things in the field and then back at Oxford. But it seems like he and Grenfell didn’t themselves have a sense of just how much material they uncovered. In a lecture in 1920, Grenfell wrote that Volume 15 of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri series “probably carries us more than half-way through the publication of the total finds of literary texts from that site. Continue reading
P.Oxy. 83.5345: A Picture and Still More on Inventory Numbers
The papyrus formerly known as “First Century” Mark, which is now second or third (or fourth) century Mark, has finally appeared. Elijah Hixson’s original post has now been updated several times and now includes a picture of the papyrus in question. (UPDATE: The picture has been removed from their site per the request of the Egypt Exploration Society. The EES has now made their edition of the papyrus and a picture available here.) Continue reading
Egypt Exploration Society on the Papyrus Formerly Known As “First Century” Mark
The Egypt Exploration Society has just posted an announcement on their website about P.Oxy. 83.5345: Continue reading
So-called “First Century Mark.” Wow. (with a coda on Oxyrhynchus inventory numbers)
Quite a bit has gone down since Elijah Hixson broke the news yesterday that a newly published Oxyrhynchus papyrus (P.Oxy. 83.5345) is the much awaited “first century Mark” fragment that has been rumored to exist since 2012. Continue reading
Variant Readings 