Evangelical Textual Criticism

Dan Wallace Video on New Manuscript Discoveries

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bird) — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:14:00 +0000

From Parchment & Pen, Michael Licona interviews Dan Wallace about the new manuscript discoveries.

Nehemiah in DSS

noreply@blogger.com (P.J. Williams) — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:15:00 +0000

Report of a fragment of Nehemiah discovered in DSS here. [via Jim Leonard]

New (Old) Volume on OT Text Criticism

noreply@blogger.com (John Meade) — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:17:00 +0000

Eisenbrauns has just released Studies in the Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Old Testament Text Project.

From the Description on the webpage:

As Emanuel Tov has stated, these introductions form “an almost complete introduction” to the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. They hold an important place in Old Testament textual criticism and can stand alone, apart from the detailed discussions of the textual problems found in the volumes. Part one surveys the history of OT textual criticism “from its origins to J. D. Michaelis” and presents the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project and its goals. Part two describes in detail the background of the modern versions that the HOTTP took into account in its work. Part three, the most extensive section, discusses the textual witnesses—the different forms of the Hebrew text and the contribution of the ancient versions. As his concluding program for a critical edition makes clear, the groundbreaking work of Barthélemy and the HOTTP served as the basis for the new Biblia Hebraica Quinta, which began publication in 2004.

Birmingham Conference: "Biblical Texts and Reception History"

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy Wasserman) — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:06:00 +0000

The 2nd University of Birmingham

Biblical Studies Postgraduate Day Conference
BIBLICAL TEXTS AND RECEPTION HISTORY
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECTS

6 June 2012 (Wednesday), 10.00am—3.30pm, European Research Institute (ERI), Ground Floor Pritchatts Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham

The University of Birmingham, in conjunction with the Department of Theology and Religion, is pleased to announce the Second University of Birmingham Biblical Studies Day Conference, open to all Postgraduate Researchers of the University of Birmingham and other Universities.

A number of new perspectives about biblical manuscripts have come to light in the last 100 years, and this development has presented new challenges and opportunities that need to be reflected upon, especially by those in the academe. This conference aims to highlight previous researches and recent developments in the area of the studies of these biblical texts and to explore how these texts have been construed throughout the centuries, and how these affect, if they do, future studies and reception of the same. To set the parameters for discussion, we have invited two guest speakers to share their own professional journeys insofar as the biblical texts are concerned: Prof Larry Hurtado, Emeritus Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology, University of Edinburgh, and, Dr Simon Crisp, Coordinator for Translation Standards and Scholarly Editions, United Bible Societies (UBS). Select Papers on the topic from postgraduate researchers across the UK also highlights the broader implications of this event.

This conference is FREE, but pre-registration is required, for logistical purposes (please contact Georgia Michaels or Edgar Ebojo ). For conference location, do visit http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/university/edgbaston-map.pdf

HT: Edgar Ebojo

More information here.

Diamond Jubilee New Testament

noreply@blogger.com (Peter M. Head) — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:05:00 +0000

Not too sure what to make of this New Testament. The aims are positive (see here, with reference to Rachel Jordan), but the subliminal messages are problematic.

The Amulet of Mark 1:1-2

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy Wasserman) — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:36:00 +0000

Below is an excerpt from my article, "The 'Son of God' Was in the Beginning (Mark 1:1)," JTS 62.1 (April 2011): 23-25 with some differences in formatting (footnotes are endnotes, with fresh numbers, etc).

Non-continuous manuscript witnesses

At the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in New Orleans, 2009, Geoffrey Smith announced a new early papyrus from Oxyrhynchus that witness to the short reading.[1] It contains Mark 1:1–2, and the first verse reads: αρχη του ευαγγελιου ιησου του χριστου. The second definite article in front of Χριστοῦ is unique in the Greek manuscript tradition. On the whole, however, the text in the two verses is akin to that in Codex Koridethi (Θ 038).[2] Smith cautiously assigned the yet unedited papyrus to the 3rd/4th centuries. The hand is not professional, but the copying has been executed with some care.[3] Judging from the text, the scribe seems to have copied the exemplar carefully, with the unique definite article as a possible exception.

Nevertheless, there are several features that suggests that this item is not a continuous-text MS, but rather an amulet; gospel incipits in general were very common on amulets.[4] This item is typically written on one side only; it has not been folded but was probably rolled and placed in a capsule; there are several holes, four of which are aligned vertically at the top and may have been used for a string; the text is introduced by this curious appeal on the first line: αναγνωτι την αρχην του ευαγγελλιου και ιδε (“Read the beginning of the gospel and see”), which is clearly set off from the subsequent gospel text by indention, line spacing, and very different line length; it was possibly produced by a different scribe and/or in a different stage.[5] Various titles, introductory texts, and invocational features are attested in similar amulets with incipits.[6]

Apart from P45, which is not extant in the opening chapters of Mark, there are no early papyrus witnesses to the Gospel of Mark. Therefore one might be tempted to assign great weight to this witness. As an amulet, however, this papyrus does not belong to the New Testament textual tradition proper and will therefore not likely be registered with a Gregory-Aland number.[7] On the other hand, it may still be significant for the reconstruction of the New Testament, not least by virtue of its age.[8] Otherwise, there are at least two other Greek papyrus amulets with the incipit of Mark, and they in fact attest to the long reading: P. Berlin inv. 6096 (4th cent.?);[9] PSI VI 719 (4th–5th cent.; from Oxyrhynchus).[10]

ENDNOTES
[1] The papyrus was presented and discussed by Geoffrey Smith, “A New Amulet of Mark 1:1-2 from Oxyrhynchus” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the SBL, New Orleans, 2009). According to Smith, the papyrus will be edited and published in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri LXXVI (London: Egypt Exploration Society, forthcoming).

[2] Apart from the article, the only other difference to Θ is in v. 2 where the papyrus reads ὡς for καθώς in Θ.

[3] In private correspondance, Thomas J. Kraus categorizes the hand as being close to the Roman bookhand (above all, Roman period), resembling the writing style of P45 (3rd cent.) apart from some irregularities.

[4] Chrysostom mentions how “women and little children suspend Gospels from their necks as a powerful amulet, and carry them about in all places wherever they go” (Stat. 19.14 [NPNF1 9:470]). Most probably “Gospels” in this connection refers to the incipits that represented the whole Gospels, which in turn were perceived as having a special power for protection, exorcism or healing. In P.Rain. 1, for example, the wearer of the amulet commands different types of fever to flee by appealing to the four Gospels of the Son (ὀρκίζω ὑμᾶς κατὰ τῶν τεσσάρων εὐαγγελίων τοῦ ὑιοῦ κτλ.). For a catalogue of 11 Greek and Coptic amulets with gospel incipit(s), see Paul Mirecki, “Evangelion-Incipits Amulets in Greek and Coptic: Towards a Typology,” in Proceedings of the Central States Regional Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Schools of Oriental Research 4 (2001): 143–53.

[5] The appeal in itself would perhaps better reflect an apologetic purpose. Cf. Origen, Cels. 2.36: ἀναγνώτω τὸ εὐαγγέλιον καὶ ὁράτω ὅτι καὶ “Ὁ ἑκατοντάρχης καὶ οἱ μετ’ αὐτοῦ τηροῦντες τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἰδόντες τὸν σεισμὸν καὶ τὰ γινόμενα ἐφοβήθησαν σφόδρα, λέγοντες· Θεοῦ υἱὸς ἦν οὗτος” (SC 132: 372; my italics). On the other hand, the reading of the words on the amulet was of major importance for its effectiveness.

[6] For example, P.Mich.inv. 1559 begins with “The Holy Gospel according to Matthew” followed by the four Gospel incipits in sequence. In the Coptic source text P.Anastasy 9, the gospel incipits are preceded by this description: “This is the establishment of the beginning of the four gospels.” Cf. P.Oxy. 1077 that presents Matt 4:23-24 under a heading that expressly indicates its function, ιαματικον ευαγελλιον κατα Ματθαιον (“Curative Gospel according to Matthew”).

[7] Note, however, that in some cases it is difficult to distinguish between miniature codices and amulets, for example some registered papyri in small format may have been used as amulets, e.g. P50, P78, P105. Moreover, continuous-text MSS may have been reused as amulets e.g., P. Vindob. G 29831. See G.H.R. Horsley, “Reconstructing a Biblical Codex: the Prehistory of MPER n.s. XVII. 10 (P.Vindob. G 29831),” Akten des 21. Internationalen Papyrologenkongresses, Berlin, 13.–19.8.1995 (2 vols.; eds. B. Kramer et al.; APF Beihefte 3; Stuttgart-Leipzig 1997), 473–81.

[8] On these issues, see Stuart R. Pickering, “The Significance of Non-Continuous New Testament Textual Materials in Papyri,” Studies in the Early Text of the Gospels and Acts. The Papers of the First Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament (ed. D. G. K. Taylor; Texts and Studies 3.1; Birmingham: University of Birmingham Press, 1999), 121-141; Stanley Porter, “Textual Criticism in the Light of Diverse Textual Evidence for the Greek New Testament: An Expanded Proposal,” in in New Testament Manuscripts: Their Texts and Their World (ed. Thomas J. Kraus and Tobias Nicklas; TENT 2; Leiden: Brill, 2006), 305–37.

[9] See Carl Wessely, Les plus anciens monuments du christianisme écrits sur papyrus II: textes grecs (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1924), 412-13. The papyrus reads αρχη του ευαγγελιου Υισου [sic] Χυ̅ υυ̅ του θυ̅ (line 8). Wessely dated the MS to the 4th century, whereas Fritz Krebs, “Altchristiliche Texte im Berliner Museum,” in Nachrichten von der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften und der Georg-Augusts-Universität zu Göttingen (Göttingen: Dieterichsche Verlags-Buchhandlung, 1892): 114-20 (no. IV), dated it to the 6th cent. at the earliest (114).

[10] Ibid., 413. Two other items are inconclusive: P. Vindob. G. 348 (6th–7th cent.) reads [α]ρ̣χ̣η̣ τ̣ο̣υ̣ ε̣υ̣α̣γ̣[γελιου] (l. 1–2), whereas P. Oxy. 1928 (5–6th cent.) contains only the Gospel titles. See R. W. Daniel, “A Christian Amulet on Papyrus,” Vigiliae Christianae 37 [1983]: 400, 402.

Keith Small in Cambridge tomorrow evening

noreply@blogger.com (P.J. Williams) — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:41:00 +0000

Those who are in the vicinity may be interested to attend Keith Small's lecture tomorrow night entitled 'New Testament and Qur'an: Textual history and views of inspiration' in Cambridge tomorrow at 5.45 p.m. Details here. Keith's doctoral research involved comparison of the text of the NT and the Koran.

The amulet of Mark 1:1-2

noreply@blogger.com (P.J. Williams) — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:42:00 +0000

Discussion on the previous post has turned to this Oxyrhynchus amulet of the opening of Mark, lacking 'son of God'. I post the image here to facilitate examination and discussion. To see a higher resolution image go here.

TPEN Version 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (P.J. Williams) — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:49:00 +0000

Here is an interesting demo video on how to use TPEN to assist you in transcribing a manuscript. The interface looks very pretty.

Hurtado on the LXX

noreply@blogger.com (John Meade) — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:59:00 +0000

I want to call attention to a recent post on the LXX here. Larry makes some great points about the neglect of the LXX on the part of students of the NT and then points us to some very helpful resources.

The only question I have is, what is the edition of the LXX that NT students and scholars should use for their research? A list of the available critical editions of the books of the LXX may be found here at the Septuaginta-Unternehmen's website (23 volumes; 2/3 complete). Many, if not all of these volumes, are available through Logos software as well. Volumes of this series not only (1) reconstruct the Old Greek but also (2) catalogue the available evidence of the reception history in a second apparatus. (3) The Orthographica und Grammatica section helpfully lists the types of scribal errors which occurred in the manuscripts used for the production of the edition (helpful for LXX and NT scholars alike). If you are studying the relationship of the LXX to the NT, then start with the Goettingen Septuaginta. If there is no Goettingen volume, then use Rahlfs or Brooke McLean.

The Aleppo Codex: A thriller?

noreply@blogger.com (P.J. Williams) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:22:00 +0000

I haven't seen this, but it looks racy. If it does anything to help us find the missing pages it's a very good thing:

The Aleppo Codex: The True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the International Pursuit of an Ancient Bible

Blurb:

In an age when physical books matter less and less, here is a thrilling story about a book that meant everything. This true-life detective story unveils the journey of a sacred text—the tenth-century annotated bible known as the Aleppo Codex—from its hiding place in a Syrian synagogue to the newly founded state of Israel. Based on Matti Friedman’s independent research, documents kept secret for fifty years, and personal interviews with key players, the book proposes a new theory of what happened when the codex left Aleppo, Syria, in the late 1940s and eventually surfaced in Jerusalem, mysteriously incomplete.

The codex provides vital keys to reading biblical texts. By recounting its history, Friedman explores the once vibrant Jewish communities in Islamic lands and follows the thread into the present, uncovering difficult truths about how the manuscript was taken to Israel and how its most important pages went missing. Along the way, he raises critical questions about who owns historical treasures and the role of myth and legend in the creation of a nation.

Out on 15 May. Buy here.

Cambridge Library Collection Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy Wasserman) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:32:00 +0000

Griesbach, Westcott, Hort, Buttmann, Lachmann, Scrivener, Tregelles, Swete, Brooke, McLean, Thackeray ... Do these names sound familiar? Eisenbrauns is currently offering 20% off on titles by these authors in the Cambridge Library Collection. The Cambridge Library Collection has a wealth of classic textual critical and other 19th century resources in it.

OT PhD in the Netherlands

noreply@blogger.com (Christian Askeland) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:13:00 +0000

Students often overlook the possibility of doing their PhD work at European universities with excellent funding opportunities. Although British universities tend to use their PhD programs as a revenue source (in the case of non-European students, at least), those on the continent essentially pay their students salaries. As an example, I cite the following opportunity which was recently posted on jobs.ac.uk and will last four years with a stipend of €24,000+/year:

PhD Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism and Dead Sea Scrolls
University of Groningen - The Qumran Institute
We are looking for enthusiastic candidates with a Master’s degree or equivalent, in a (sub)discipline of religious studies or theology, or not-too-far-advanced PhD candidates. Candidates with a degree in Biblical Studies, early Jewish Studies, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, or Ancient History are encouraged to apply. The degree must have been obtained within a reasonable period of time and with results that justify the expectation that the student will be able to successfully complete the programme within four years. Admission depends also on the quality of your research proposal. An excellent command of spoken and written English is essential.

Bart's Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Peter M. Head) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:51:00 +0000

Bart Ehrman has started a blog - CIA. I don't know what he says because you have to pay $24.95 for the privilege.

Stephen Carlson's Duke Dissertation on the Text of Galatians

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bird) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Over at Hypotyposeis, Stephen Carlson gives a synopsis of his Duke University Dissertation on the text of Galatians.

This dissertation investigates the text of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians and its history, how it changed over time. This dissertation performs a stemmatic analysis of 92 witnesses to the text of Galatians, using cladistic methods developed by computational biologists, to construct an unoriented stemma of the textual tradition. The stemma is then oriented based on the internal evidence of textual variants. After the stemma is oriented, the textual variants near the base of the stemma are examined and the text of Galatians is established based on stemmatic and eclectic principles. In addition, two branches of the textual tradition, the Western and the Eastern-Byzantine, are studied to assess the nature of textual variation in their history. This study reaches the conclusion that a modified stemmatic approach is an effective way to study both the text of a New Testament book and its history.

Hopefully this will soon be available at DukeSpace.

Update (TW): We all congratulate Stepen on the successful defense of his PhD, and I take the opportunity to cite his supervisor Mark Goodacre who said:

His thesis title was "The Text of Galatians and Its History". Those of you who know Stephen's work will not be surprised to hear that his thesis was outstanding, and his defense of it exemplary. If we awarded "honors" here at Duke, or "graduation with distinction", this thesis would have received that award. Very many congratulations, Stephen, on a richly deserved PhD, and all the very best for your future!

RBL Review of Multiple Original: New Approaches to Hebrew Bible Textual Criticism

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bird) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:09:00 +0000

Gary D. Martin
Multiple Originals: New Approaches to Hebrew Bible Textual Criticism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7819
Reviewed by Johann Cook

Description: Textual criticism is in a period of change, as it seeks to account for an ever-growing body of textual data as well as the development of new methodologies. Since the older methodologies cannot simply be modified to meet our present needs, Multiple Originals seeks to build bridges between methods of traditional textual criticism and those of orality and formulaic analysis. Examining practices of textual criticism across a wide range of texts and disciplines, this book challenges the assumption that there can be only one correct reading and argues for the presence of multivalences of both meaning and text. It demonstrates that in some cases multivalences were intended by the composer, while in other cases, during the periods from which our earliest extant manuscripts derive, they fell within the limits of variability acceptable to those who valued and transmitted those texts.

Handwritten New Testament (in chalk)!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter M. Head) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:28:00 +0000

This is a little bit weird and a little bit wonderful. Christians in a small town in America got up on Easter Sunday and wrote the entire New Testament in chalk on the town's sidewalks. Fantastic. Report here. (HT: JB)

Dissertation Defended

noreply@blogger.com (John Meade) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:50:00 +0000

I defended my dissertation, "A Critical Edition of the Hexaplaric Fragments of Job 22-42", this morning at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. It's a critical edition in the sense that it incorporated all of the available evidence of Origen's Hexapla for Job 22-42, and I evaluated that evidence by deciding the original text and listing all variants in an apparatus. In most cases critical notes on the text are provided.

I want to thank Peter Gentry and Jim Hamilton for serving on my dissertation committee as well as Claude Cox and Jerome Lund for serving in the capacity of external examiners.

Green Collection Slideshow

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy Wasserman) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:58:00 +0000

Check out this slideshow with selected items (including P39) from the Green Collection published on the webpage of Foxnews.

More on the current exhibit, Verbum Domini, in the Vatican on CBN news recently.

Article on "Scribal Hermeneutics in the Longer Ending of Mark"

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy Wasserman) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:00:00 +0000

In the current issue of Journal of Theological Studies there is an article of interest,

"Discipleship after the Resurrection: Scribal Hermeneutics in the Longer Ending of Mark" by Suzanne Watts Henderson, Queens University of Charlotte, NC.

Abstract
Scholars typically maintain that the Longer Ending (LE) of Mark subverts Mark’s somber message about Jesus’ sacrificial death with a triumphant, concluding vision of the risen Lord seated at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). This study takes a different tack, promoting a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between Mark and the LE by detecting important thematic elements—especially concerning discipleship—that the later passage both adopts and adapts from its host gospel. For the writer(s) of the LE, the resurrection serves less as a dividing-line between Jesus’ disciples and Mark’s community and more as the bridge that confirms emphatically the new age of God’s reign, evident both before and after the passion through those who trust the message of that good news.

New Online Journal, Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy Wasserman) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:18:00 +0000

A new online journal has been launched, Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics (BAGL).

This is the journal description:

About BAGL
Biblical and Ancient Greek Linguistics (BAGL), in conjunction with the Centre for Biblical Linguistics, Translation, and Exegesis at McMaster Divinity College and the OpenText.org project (www.opentext.org) is a fully refereed on-line and print journal specializing in widely disseminating the latest advances in linguistic study of ancient and biblical Greek. Under the senior editorship of Professor Dr. Stanley E. Porter and Dr. Matthew Brook O'Donnell, along with its assistant editors and editorial board, BAGL looks to publish significant work that advances knowledge of ancient Greek through the utilization of modern linguistic methods. Accepted pieces are in the first instance posted on-line in page-consistent pdf format, and then (except for reviews) are published in print form each volume year. This format ensures timely posting of the most recent work in Greek linguistics with consistently referencable articles then available in permanent print form.

Senior Editors
Professor Dr. Stanley E. Porter and Dr. Matthew Brook O’Donnell

Assistant Editors
Gregory Fewster and Wally Cirafesi

Editorial Board
Dr. Paul Danove (Valparaiso University)
Dr. Martin Culy (Briercrest College and Seminary)
Dr. Matthew Brook O’Donnell (University of Michigan/McMaster Divinity College)
Professor Dr. Stanley E. Porter (McMaster Divinity College)
Dr. Catherine Smith (University of Birmingham)
Dr. Jonathan Watt (Geneva College and Reformed Theological Seminary)
Dr. Cynthia Long Westfall (McMaster Divinity College)

More about the scope of the journal here.

So far, two articles have been published in volume 1.

Bezae New Images for Matt 2.21

noreply@blogger.com (Peter M. Head) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:12:00 +0000

The on-line images of Codex Bezae (mentioned already here) are very good. One of the particular difficulties in dealing with and imaging Bezae is the extreme thinness of the parchment (mentioned briefly in Parker, Codex Bezae, 22f). This means that quite often bleed-through from the other side of a page makes reading difficult, and checking readings in the manuscript itself often involves checking both sides of the leaf. The new images (unlike the old facsimile) seem to have been taken in such a manner that minimises this bleed-through from the other side (although I couldn't find any discussion of imaging issues on the web-site and we should note that imaging always involves some level of interpretation/manipulation of the data, see here for an interesting recent discussion).

Anyway, here is an example from Matt 2.21. In the old facsimile it looked like this:

The end of the second line was read by Scrivener as EIS THN ISRAEL (Swanson also thought D* had THN, corrected to GHN). I have suspected for a while that this (which would in any case have been an odd reading) was wrong, and the new images (image 14, 6v) confirm this:

The parallel to the left of the upright is from the other side. Bezae has a normal gamma, EIS GHN ISRAEL (one can also check this by comparing all the gammas and taus on this page).

B.J. Burkholder on John 1:18

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Heide) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:48:00 +0000

In a recent article in Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, ZNW 103 (2012, pp. 64-83), Benjamin J. Burkholder is "Considering the Possibility of a Theological Corruption in Joh 1,18 in Light of its Early Reception". Citing Fenton J.A. Hort as a motto - "The always questionable suggestion of dogmatic alteration is peculiarly out of place here”, which has been challenged most notably by Bart D. Ehrman - he finally draws the conclusion that "when μονογενὴς θεός does become a litmus test for orthodoxy, it occurs at such a late date that it cannot aid in determining how the reading came into existence ... the extant evidence from early Alexandria does not provide any conclusive evidence that the variant in Joh 1,18 would have arisen from theological motives... the evidence suggests that a theological corruption is an unlikely explanation for the extant readings of Joh 1,18" (p.83).

CNTTS Receives Major TC-related Collection

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. James M. Leonard) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:23:00 +0000

The H. Milton Haggard Center for New Testament Textual Criticism (CNTTS) is pleased to announce the donation by Dr. Glen L. Thompson of part of his collection, with the donation including 78 volumes in the fields of papyrology and textual criticism. Professor Thompson has served as professor of history at Wisconsin Lutheran College since 2002, and is currently teaching at Asia Lutheran College in Hong Kong.

The Thompson Collection includes an impressive number of works on papyrological topics such as Coptic and Demotic linguistics and papyrology. In the process of assessing the value of the library, CNTTS’ Scholar-in-Residence James M. Leonard discovered that about half of the collection consists of books no longer available at major book vendors or even in the extensive holdings of major specialist libraries such as Tyndale House, Cambridge. Dr. Bill Warren, the CNTTS Director and Landrum P. Leavell II Professor of New Testament and Greek, noted, “This thoughtful donation by Glen Thompson is a prime example of the type of attitude and action that will keep our field moving forward by enhancing the research options both for those here and for visiting scholars and students.” This is the second substantial library donation to CNTTS in the past year, the first being the Gordon D. Fee Collection.

The Thompson Collection will be a part of the Seminary’s John T. Christian Library which contains about 250,000 bound volumes, the largest theological library in the Gulf Coast region of North America with about 250,000 bound volumes. The collection will be housed at the CNTTS and available for use onsite by researchers and visiting scholars. CNTTS is located at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the five largest accredited seminaries in North America. Currently, 10 full-time and part-time researchers are employed at CNTTS, with 4 PhD students working on dissertations in New Testament textual studies.

Codex Bezae online

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Gathercole) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:09:00 +0000

Codex Bezae is online!

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-NN-00002-00041/