Ancient Texts, Papyri, and Manuscripts


Book Description

This volume honors Prof. James R. Royse for his scholarly achievement in the fields of New Testament textual criticism and Philonic studies. It contains seventeen articles, prefaced by an introductory biographical article and a list of his publications.




God's Library


Book Description

A provocative book from a highly original scholar, challenging much of what we know about early Christian manuscripts In this bold and groundbreaking book, Brent Nongbri provides an up-to-date introduction to the major collections of early Christian manuscripts and demonstrates that much of what we thought we knew about these books and fragments is mistaken. While biblical scholars have expended much effort in their study of the texts contained within our earliest Christian manuscripts, there has been a surprising lack of interest in thinking about these books as material objects with individual, unique histories. We have too often ignored the ways that the antiquities market obscures our knowledge of the origins of these manuscripts. Through painstaking archival research and detailed studies of our most important collections of early Christian manuscripts, Nongbri vividly shows how the earliest Christian books are more than just carriers of texts or samples of handwriting. They are three-dimensional archaeological artifacts with fascinating stories to tell, if we’re willing to listen.




The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts


Book Description

Superb documentation. Painstaking accuracy. That's what makes this work an invaluable reference for serious Bible students. Contains the text of all the earliest New Testament Greek manuscripts that have been found to date. Readers will also appreciate the sample photographs accompanying most of these 68 transcriptions. Intended for scholars and students who are interested in the original text of the Greek New Testament. This is an accessible and accurate collection, invaluable in determining the original text of the New Testament.




Early Christian Books in Egypt


Book Description

For the past hundred years, much has been written about the early editions of Christian texts discovered in the region that was once Roman Egypt. Scholars have cited these papyrus manuscripts--containing the Bible and other Christian works--as evidence of Christianity's presence in that historic area during the first three centuries AD. In Early Christian Books in Egypt, distinguished papyrologist Roger Bagnall shows that a great deal of this discussion and scholarship has been misdirected, biased, and at odds with the realities of the ancient world. Providing a detailed picture of the social, economic, and intellectual climate in which these manuscripts were written and circulated, he reveals that the number of Christian books from this period is likely fewer than previously believed. Bagnall explains why papyrus manuscripts have routinely been dated too early, how the role of Christians in the history of the codex has been misrepresented, and how the place of books in ancient society has been misunderstood. The author offers a realistic reappraisal of the number of Christians in Egypt during early Christianity, and provides a thorough picture of the economics of book production during the period in order to determine the number of Christian papyri likely to have existed. Supporting a more conservative approach to dating surviving papyri, Bagnall examines the dramatic consequences of these findings for the historical understanding of the Christian church in Egypt.




Ancient Manuscripts in Digital Culture


Book Description

Ancient Manuscripts in Digital Culture presents an overview of the digital turn in Ancient Jewish and Christian manuscripts visualisation, data mining and communication. Edited by David Hamidović, Claire Clivaz and Sarah Bowen Savant, it gathers together the contributions of seventeen scholars involved in Biblical, Early Jewish and Christian studies. The volume attests to the spreading of digital humanities in these fields and presents fundamental analysis of the rise of visual culture as well as specific test-cases concerning ancient manuscripts. Sophisticated visualisation tools, stylometric analysis, teaching and visual data, epigraphy and visualisation belong notably to the varied overview presented in the volume.




Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri


Book Description

This book investigates the scribal habits of P45, P46, P47, P66, P72, and P75, the six most extensive early New Testament manuscripts. All the singular readings in these six papyri are studied along with all the corrections.




Annotations in Greek and Latin Texts from Egypt


Book Description

A series of nine introductory essays sets the process of annotating texts back into the various contexts from which the notes originally derive -- the scholar's study, the teacher's schoolroom, etc. -- and examines the ways in which annotations were inscribed into the rolls and codices. The last three essays (Part Three. "Select Annotated Texts") pay special attention to the copious tradition of annotations in Archaic Lyric and Iambic (Pindar, Bacchylides, Alcaeus, and Hipponax), Hellenistic Poetry (Callimachus and Theocritus), and Prose authors, distilling from the jejune entries the complex relationships between commentaries and the annotations. The Corpus proper, containing the Marginal and Interlinear Notes from the Greek and Latin literary papyri from Egypt, is arranged alphabetically by author (from Aeschylus to Xenophon) and the papyri themselves identified by their "Mertens-Pack 3" number (MP3); the Adespota, both poetry and prose, follow. The section with Latin is considerably shorter, as might be expected in the Greek-speaking East, but the notations to Cicero, Juvenal, and the texts of Roman law are, nonetheless, more often in Greek than Latin. The volume closes with a comprehensive list of annotated papyri (from MP3 23 to 2866, plus a few un-catalogued items) that summarizes the information contained in the Catalogue; a bibliography and a concordance between edition and MP3 number, and indices (Greek words, Latin words, hybrid Greek/Latin forms, and a general index of authors and topics covered) finish off the volume.




Multitextuality in the Homeric Iliad


Book Description

These papyri have been described as "eccentric" or even "wild" by some scholars. They differ significantly from the usual text of the Illiad, sometimes presenting lines with significantly different wording, at other times including so-called "interpolated" lines that are completely absent from our more familiar version. --




The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids


Book Description

The inside story, told by excavators of the extraordinary discovery of the world’s oldest papyri, revealing how Egyptian King Khufu’s men built the Great Pyramid at Giza. Pierre Tallet’s discovery of the Red Sea Scrolls—the world’s oldest surviving written documents—in 2013 was one of the most remarkable moments in the history of Egyptology. These papyri, written some 4,600 years ago, and combined with Mark Lehner’s research, changed what we thought we knew about the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Here, for the first time, the world-renowned Egyptologists Tallet and Lehner give us the definitive account of this astounding discovery. The story begins with Tallet’s hunt for hieroglyphic rock inscriptions in the Sinai Peninsula and leads up to the discovery of the papyri, the diary of Inspector Merer, who oversaw workers in the reign of Pharaoh Khufu in Wadi el-Jarf, the site of an ancient harbor on the Red Sea. The translation of the papyri reveals how the stones of the Great Pyramid ended up in Giza. Combined with Lehner’s excavations of the harbor at the pyramid construction site the Red Sea Papyri have greatly advanced our understanding of how the ancient Egyptians were able to build monuments that survive to this day. Tallet and Lehner narrate this thrilling discovery and explore how the building of the pyramids helped create a unified state, propelling Egyptian civilization forward. This lavishly illustrated book captures the excitement and significance of these seminal findings, conveying above all how astonishing it is to discover a contemporary eyewitness testimony to the creation of the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World.




Discarded, Discovered, Collected


Book Description

Discarded, Discovered, Collected: The University of Michigan Papyrus Collection provides an accessible introduction to the University's collection of papyri and related ancient materials, the widest and deepest resource of its kind in the Western hemisphere. The collection was founded in the early part of the 20th century by University of Michigan Professor of Classics Francis W. Kelsey. His original intention was to create a set of artifacts that would be useful in teaching students more directly about the ancient world, at a time when trips to ancient sites were much harder to arrange. Jointly administered by the University of Michigan's Department of Classical Studies and its Library, the collection has garnered significant interest beyond scholarly circles and now sees several hundred visitors each year. Of particular note among the collection's holdings are sixty pages of the earliest known copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, which are often featured on tours of the collection by groups from religious institutions. Arthur Verhoogt, one of the current stewards of the University of Michigan Papyrology Collection, provides clear, insightful information in an appealing style that will attract general readers and scholars alike. Extensively illustrated with some of the collection's more spectacular pieces, this volume describes what the collection is, what kinds of ancient texts it contains, and how it has developed from Francis Kelsey's day to the present. Additionally, Verhoogt describes in detail how people who study papyri carry out their work, and how papyri contribute to our understanding of various aspects of the ancient Greco-Roman world. Translations of the ancient texts are presented so that the reader can experience some of the excitement that comes with reading original documents from many centuries ago.