Here’s another helpful post by Larry Hurtado….. In earlier postings I’ve noted that major variants continue to appear, and in some cases “succeed” in gaining widespread acceptance in the subsequent manuscript tradition as late as the fifth century and thereafter. There are also examples of interesting variants that first appear in the extant Greek manuscripts that late, but didn’t “succeed”. Having done my PhD thesis on the text of the Gospel of Mark in Coldex W (the Freer Gospel codex),... Read more
Here’s an important qualifing post on carbon 14 dating…. from Larry Hurtado… BW3 In an earlier posting in which I offered a review of Brent Nongbri’s new book, God’s Library (here), I noted that he gives a helpful introduction to what Carbon-14 dating comprises, and its limits. I also benefited earlier from a presentation by Josephine Dru given at a conference on manuscripts back in 2014 (which I reported on in a posting here).[1] More recently, she presented a poster... Read more
Here’s another helpful post from colleague Larry Hurtado…. BW3 In the latest issue of Journal of Biblical Literature Geoffrey Smith offers an in-depth discussion of an interesting papyrus that has a few verses of John on one side and what appears to be remnants of an otherwise unknown Christian text on the other side of the writing material: Geoffrey Smith, “The Willoughby Papyrus: A New Fragment of John 1:492:1 (P134) and an Unidentified Christian Text,” JBL 137.4 (2018): 935-58. The... Read more
(Painting by Goltz, in the public domain) Here’s another helpful post from my friend Larry Hurtado. See what you think, BW3 —- From about the 6th century or so in the Western churches, 1 January was designated as the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus (eight days after 25 Dec). Luke 2:21 mentions Jesus’ circumcision and formal naming. In the medieval period, however, the date was treated as another feast dedicated to Jesus’ mother, Mary. This is indicative of the... Read more
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