Larry Hurtado blogged about a new article by independent scholar Enrico Tuccinardi, which argues that stylometric analysis can be used to identify interpolations into the letter in which Pliny mentions Christians. This is, as Hurtado points out, a problematic use of a method the reliability of which has not gained universal acceptance even when applied in the more accepted manner of trying to determine whether whole works are authentically by a particular author.
The fact that Tuccinardi has also tried to argue that the Caesarea Inscription which mentions Nazareth is a forgery, in a piece translated from French by Rene Salm, makes one wonder what underlying aims he has in his writing on these subjects.
Of more genuine scholarly interest, there is some back and forth between Hurtado and Kelly Iverson on orality in early Christianity, in the latest issue of New Testament Studies.
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