Early Christian Textual Transmission, Part 2

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Brent Nongbri
POxy 57 3890

P.Oxy. 57.3890, title from a papyrus roll containing Book 2 of Thucydides’ History; image source: POxy Oxyrhynchus Online

I posted yesterday some initial thoughts about questions of textual fluidity and stability in early Christian manuscripts generated in conversation with a post by Larry Hurtado. Larry has responded in a lengthy post here. I’ll take up some his points in a later post. For now, I want to follow through on my original line of thought: Is there non-Christian (in this case, classical) material that we can look at for the sake of comparing how other literature was published and transmitted in Greek and Roman antiquity? Continue reading →

Posted in Textual criticism | 4 Comments

Early Christian Textual Transmission, Part 1

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

Recently on his blog Larry Hurtado has been reflecting on issues of textual stability and fluidity of early Christian manuscripts. It’s an interesting question to ponder, but as Larry notes, assertions in either direction are tricky because just about everyone agrees that when it comes to the documents of the New Testament, we simply don’t have manuscripts from the very earliest period of transmission. Continue reading →

Posted in Textual criticism | 13 Comments

The Modern Lives of an Ancient Coptic Book: P.Bodmer XXII + VK 783

Posted on April 4, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

A couple years ago, Roberta Mazza traced the “modern biography” of a fragmentary papyrus leaf containing the Gospel According to John, P.Oxy. 15.1780 (better known to New Testament scholars as P39). It’s a fascinating article that can be downloaded here. In this post, I take a look at another Christian manuscript with a similarly colorful biography.

It’s a parchment codex usually assigned to the fourth or fifth century containing Jeremiah 40-52, Lamentations, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and Baruch in Coptic (LDAB 108176).   Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Bodmer Papyri, Codices, Van Kampen Collection | 3 Comments

A Repair to the Bodmer Composite Codex

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

I’ll just make one last post (for now) on the Bodmer composite codex and its curious features. This post has to do with one of the leaves of the paschal sermon of Melito, P.Bodmer XIII. As was customary for the early volumes in the Papyrus Bodmer series, only a couple of pages were illustrated with photographic plates. One of these pages was a bit of a puzzle. I reproduce the photographic plate below: Continue reading →

Posted in Bodmer composite codex, Bodmer Papyri, Book binding, Codices | Leave a comment

P.Bodmer XX+IX and the Bodmer Composite Codex

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

In my last post, I provided a provisional diagram of the Bodmer composite codex (LDAB 2565). I also mentioned that I did not think the booklet consisting of P.Bodmer XX (the Apology of Phileas) + P.Bodmer IX (Psalms 33-34) was ever a part of the composite codex. I did not fully spell out my reasoning for this, so I will do so here. Continue reading →

Posted in Bodmer composite codex, Bodmer Papyri, Book binding, Codices | 1 Comment

The Bodmer “Composite” Codex: A Diagram

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

The so-called Bodmer “Composite” or “Miscellaneous” codex (LDAB 2565), is a fascinating, but somewhat confusing artifact. Continue reading →

Posted in Bodmer composite codex, Bodmer Papyri, Book binding, Codices | 5 Comments

Menander at a Monastery

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

Even though I have a long chapter on the Bodmer Papyri in my book, there is still much that I didn’t get a chance to discuss in detail. Because of its time on the antiquities market, the ancient find we call the Bodmer Papyri has unclear borders. While there is disagreement about the exact contents of the find, one of the pieces that everyone agrees was a part of the ancient collection is a papyrus codex containing three works of comic playwright Menander (LDAB 2743). What is it doing there among all these Christian books? Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Bodmer Papyri, Monastery of Epiphanius, Ostraca | 1 Comment

A Review of Georgios Boudalis, The Codex and Crafts in Late Antiquity

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

In 2016, I gave paper that revisited the old question of the rise of the codex. There has been a lot of work done over the years on why the codex may have come to replace the roll, but there has been much less concern about the question of how: What technological developments were involved in bringing about the multi-quire codex with its characteristic stitching that became the medium for the transmission of literature for a millennium? Continue reading →

Posted in Bodmer Papyri, Book binding, Codices, Nag Hammadi, Tablets | 5 Comments

Symposium Report—Early Codices: Production, Destruction, and Modern Conservation

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

I intended to write some thoughts on this symposium earlier, but I’ve been busy finishing up the proofs and index for my book (more on that later). This was a wonderful event. The day began with a guided tour of the exhibition, The Codex and Crafts in Late Antiquity, which includes an interesting mix of artifacts from New York area museums, excellent models produced by the curator Georgios Boudalis and others, and some really nice digital animations illustrating binding techniques. Continue reading →

Posted in Codices, Hamuli Codices, Morgan Library | 1 Comment

Online Manuscripts at the Morgan Library

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Brent Nongbri

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would be in New York for a symposium on early codices. Well, that took place on Friday, and it was fantastic. My head is still spinning from all that I learned, and I’ll have a longer post about the meeting later. But one of the things I discovered that I should have known about before was the availability of online images of a lot of material held at the Morgan Library in New York. Continue reading →

Posted in Codices, Hamuli Codices, Morgan Iliad, Morgan Library | 7 Comments