Early New Testament Manuscripts and Their Dates. A Critique of Theological Palaeography (original) (raw)
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Christian Manuscripts from Egypt to the Times of Constantine
Das Neue Testament und sein Text im 2. Jahrhundert, Hrsg. von J. Heilmann und M. Klinghardt , 2018
Our study of Christian book production before Christianity was officially recognised by Constantine includes the third and early fourth centuries, because in our opinion only a handful of papyri can be attributed to the second century, the theme of this conference. Luxury books like the codices Vaticanus, Alexandrinus or Sinaiticus clearly belong to the period of the victorious church (after AD 324). Our interest is in the preceding period.
C. Ruzzier and X. Hermand (eds.). Comment le Livre s’est fait livre: La fabrication des manuscrits bibliques (ive-xve siècle): bilan, résultats, perspectives de recherche (Bibliologia 40; Turnhout: Brepols, 2015) 39-50., 2015
This paper offers an analysis of the physical aspect of the Apostolic Fathers at the end of Codex Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus. This will be focusing mainly on the scribal behaviour involved in the treatment of their texts. Building upon a previous analysis focused solely on the Shepherd of Hermas, these works and the manuscripts will be analysed here with respect to the quire structure, numbering and the general distribution of scribal tasks, the disposition of titles and colophons, the use of nomina sacra, and the various elements involved in paragraphing throughout the four works. Wherever possible, the significance of the finds will be assessed against the background formed by the other books written by the same hand in the same codex, and then against the larger context formed by the rest of the included books.
This study describes several scribal features displayed in early witnesses of Greek Scripture with a view to discovering links with early Jewish scribal traditions, such as those known from the Hebrew scrolls from Qumran. Special attention is paid to the indication of verses and sections, paragraphoi, ekthesis, and the writing of the divine names. The parameters of this investigation are as follows: 1. The coverage of the Greek texts is intentionally vague ('Greek Scripture'), since the dividing line between the so-called Old Greek translation and other early translations and revisions is often unclear, as are the exact limits of what may be considered Scripture. 2. The great majority of the early papyri that could be located have been examined for the present paper, with the exclusion of very fragmentary texts. The table lists, in presumed chronological sequence, all the texts that in their publications, have been given dates up to the fourth century CE, including '4-5 CE'. Most texts examined have been dated to the third and fourth centuries CE. The large codices A, B, S and G are excluded from the analysis. 3. The distinction between Jewish and Christian copies is relevant insofar as the former are more likely to preserve ancient Jewish scribal practices. Although this distinction is often very difficult, all texts pre-dating the middle of the first century CE are Jewish. According to * This paper is dedicated with appreciation to Al Pietersma, who has contributed much to the understanding of the early papyri of Greek Scripture. Another authority in this field, R.A. Kraft, kindly agreed to read a draft of this paper and he is to be thanked for making several critical remarks and providing helpful information. After this paper went to press, another twenty-five papyri were examined (mainly 3-4 CE), but the basic picture presented here has not changed. Note that, throughout this paper, numbers appearing with the designations BCE and CE signify centuries.
The Dating of New Testament Papyri
The narrow dating of some of the early New Testament papyri and the methodo-logical approach that is used must be brought into question in the light of the acknowledged difficulties with palaeographical dating and especially the use of assigned dated literary papyri. The thesis of this paper is that the way forward in dating New Testament papyri, or for that matter any undated literary papyri, is first to locate the manuscript in its graphic stream and using, on the whole, dated documentary papyri belonging to the same stream, come to an approximate understanding of where in the history of the stream the manuscript lies. The following New Testament Papyri will be so treated: P , P + and P .
"Christian Papyri and the Ancient Church." Bibliotheca Sacra 173 (April–June 2016): 182–202.
Modern scholarship and popular media outlets often depict the earliest Christians as holding wildly divergent beliefs about Jesus and reading and writing secret gospels that never made it into the New Testament. This view fails to take into consideration the material remains of early Christian manuscripts from the second and third centuries that have been discovered in Egypt. These manuscripts mainly consist of New Testament writings and contain certain para-linguistic and formatting features that highlight unique socio-culture aspects of the early Christians that stand in stark contrast to these modern theories of Christian origins.