Brent Nongbri
Norwegian School of Theology, History of Religions, Faculty Member
- Yale University, Religious Studies, Alumnusadd
- Codicology, Ancient History, New Testament Textual Criticism, Archaeology, Paleography, Papyrology, and 17 moreTheory and Methodology, Religion, Greek Language, Ancient Religion, History, Historiography, Later Wittgenstein, Early Christianity, Ostia (Archaeology), Oxyrhynchus, History of the Book, Bookbinding, Radiocarbon Dating (Earth Sciences), Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology), Manuscript digitization, Graeco-Roman Egypt, and Anthropology of Religionedit
- Specialist in the study of early Christian manuscripts, ancient Mediterranean cultures, and methodological problems in the study of religion.edit
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... more
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.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Papyrology, New Testament, Book History, History of the Book, and 18 moreLate Antique Archaeology, Early Christianity, Manuscript Studies, Paleography, Codicology, Late Antiquity, New Testament and Christian Origins, Book History (History), Greek Palaeography, Greek Papyrology, Palaeography, New Testament Textual Criticism, Books, Paleografia, Manuscripts, Coptology, New Testament Studies, and Coptologia
For much of the past two centuries, religion has been understood as a universal phenomenon, a part of the “natural” human experience that is essentially the same across cultures and throughout history. Individual religions may vary... more
For much of the past two centuries, religion has been understood as a universal phenomenon, a part of the “natural” human experience that is essentially the same across cultures and throughout history. Individual religions may vary through time and geographically, but there is an element, religion, that is to be found in all cultures during all time periods. Taking apart this assumption, Brent Nongbri shows that the idea of religion as a sphere of life distinct from politics, economics, or science is a recent development in European history—a development that has been projected outward in space and backward in time with the result that religion now appears to be a natural and necessary part of our world.
Examining a wide array of ancient writings, Nongbri demonstrates that in antiquity, there was no conceptual arena that could be designated as “religious” as opposed to “secular.” Surveying representative episodes from a two-thousand-year period, while constantly attending to the concrete social, political, and colonial contexts that shaped relevant works of philosophers, legal theorists, missionaries, and others, Nongbri offers a concise and readable account of the emergence of the concept of religion.
Examining a wide array of ancient writings, Nongbri demonstrates that in antiquity, there was no conceptual arena that could be designated as “religious” as opposed to “secular.” Surveying representative episodes from a two-thousand-year period, while constantly attending to the concrete social, political, and colonial contexts that shaped relevant works of philosophers, legal theorists, missionaries, and others, Nongbri offers a concise and readable account of the emergence of the concept of religion.
Research Interests: Religion, Abrahamic Religions, Comparative Religion, History, Ancient History, and 65 moreEuropean History, Intellectual History, Cultural History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, Philosophy Of Religion, History of Ideas, Historical Linguistics, Theology, Political Theory, History of Religion, Historical Theology, Transnational and World History, Linguistic Anthropology, Religion and Politics, Historiography, Cultural Theory, Political Science, Law and Religion, Psychology of Religion, Theory of Religion, Roman Religion, Politics, Religious Pluralism, World History, Colonialism, Culture, Science and Religion, Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Freedom of Religion, Religion & the Public Sphere, Study of Religions, Political History, Cross-Cultural Studies, Religion, Media, and Culture, Comparative Linguistics, Post-Colonialism, History of Religions, Ancient Religion, Secularization, Mesopotamian Religions, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Church History, Politics of Secularism, Ancient Near East, Ancient Greek Religion, Secularisms and Secularities, Ancient myth and religion, Religion and Modernity, Cultural Anthropology, Religious History, Ancient Mesopotamian Religions, Empire, History of Religious Studies, Religious Studies, Historia, Orientalism, Imperialism, Religion and State, Secularism, Inter Religious Studies, Theology and Religious Studies, and Anthropology of Religion
Codex Sinaiticus is generally described as one of ‘the great fourth century majuscule Bibles’, and its construction is often assigned to a more precise date in the middle of the fourth century. This essay surveys the evidence for the date... more
Codex Sinaiticus is generally described as one of ‘the great fourth century majuscule Bibles’, and its construction is often assigned to a more precise date in the middle of the fourth century. This essay surveys the evidence for the date of production of the codex and concludes that it could have been produced at any point from the early fourth century to the early fifth century. This time span may seem uncomfortably wide, but this particular range of dates makes Codex Sinaiticus an ideal candidate for AMS radiocarbon analysis. The shape of the radiocarbon calibration curve during this period means that a well-executed radiocarbon analysis of the codex should have the potential to shed further light on the date the codex was produced.
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The surviving portion of the papyrus codex of the letters of Paul split between the Chester Beatty Library and the University of Michigan (𝔓46) consists of a well preserved but damaged single quire containing parts of nine of Paul’s... more
The surviving portion of the papyrus codex of the letters of Paul split between the Chester Beatty Library and the University of Michigan (𝔓46) consists of a well preserved but damaged single quire containing parts of nine of Paul’s letters. Because the pages of the codex are numbered, scholars have believed that it is possible to reconstruct the original size of the quire, which turns out to be too small for the traditional Pauline corpus of fourteen letters. Many scholars have taken this to mean that the codex did not contain the Pastoral letters (1–2 Timothy and Titus). Jeremy Duff has argued that the copyist increased the number of letters per page in the second half of the codex and intended to add extra leaves in order to produce a codex with all of the fourteen letters found in the majority of undamaged Greek manuscripts of Paul’s letters. While Duff ’s hypothesis has been critically engaged on other grounds, this article assesses Duff ’s proposed ancient comparanda for the addition of extra folia to the end of a single-quire codex and revisits the problem of the contents of this codex in light of the construction techniques of better preserved single-quire codices.
Research Interests: History, Archaeology, New Testament, Book History, History of the Book, and 9 moreCodicology, New Testament and Christian Origins, Apostle Paul and the Pauline Letters, Book History (History), New Testament Textual Criticism, New testament exegesis, Ancient Christianity, New Testament Studies, and Pauline Letters
The surviving manuscripts of Paul’s letters usually play only a secondary role in biographies of the apostle. The manuscripts contribute an immaterial text of the individual letters that can be used to construct the printed eclectic text... more
The surviving manuscripts of Paul’s letters usually play only a secondary role in biographies of the apostle. The manuscripts contribute an immaterial text of the individual letters that can be used to construct the printed eclectic text that the biographer can then interpret. Yet, access to Paul’s individual letters comes only through the surviving collections in our manuscripts, and thus the “historical Paul” produced by the process of critically reading the letters attributed to him is always mediated by the interests of the collectors of his letters and the copyists who transmitted the letter collections. This chapter explores the ways in which the surviving manuscripts of collections of Paul’s letters complicate the use of the individual letters as biographical sources, paying special attention to the role of the collectors and copyists of the letters as curators of what we should remember about Paul and also what we should forget.
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Seven animal hide scrolls with Hebrew and Aramaic writing were sold in Jerusalem in 1947. Additional smaller fragments of similar scrolls were sold from 1948 to 1950. Within a few years of their appearance, these “Jerusalem Scrolls” as... more
Seven animal hide scrolls with Hebrew and Aramaic writing were sold in Jerusalem in 1947. Additional smaller fragments of similar scrolls were sold from 1948 to 1950. Within a few years of their appearance, these “Jerusalem Scrolls” as they were then known, became “the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran Cave 1.” While this change of names may seem trivial, it glosses over some difficult questions about the provenance of these materials. What we now call “Cave 1Q” or “Qumran Cave 1” was excavated in 1949, but scholarship reveals considerable confusion concerning which purchased scrolls can be materially connected to fragments that were excavated by archaeologists under controlled conditions in Cave 1. Furthermore, Cave 1 is often treated as if it was a sealed context rather than the highly contaminated site that it actually was at the time of its excavation by archaeologists. For these reasons, it is not completely clear whether all the scrolls usually assigned to Cave 1 actually originated at this site. This article is an attempt to sort through the evidence to determine exactly which scrolls and fragments attributed to Cave 1 were purchased, when and from whom such pieces were purchased, and what can actually be known with confidence about the connection of these “Jerusalem Scrolls” with the site we now call Qumran Cave 1.
Research Interests: Religion, History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Jewish Studies, and 10 moreDead Sea Scrolls (Religion), Archaeological Method & Theory, Qumranic Studies, Manuscript Studies, Illicit Antiquities Trade, Provenance studies of archaeological material, Religious Studies, Qumran, Dead Sea Scrolls, and The Dead Sea Scrolls
P.Ryl. III.457, a papyrus fragment of the gospel of John known to New Testament scholars as P52, is regularly publicized as the earliest extant Christian manuscript and forms a central part of the Rylands collection. Yet the date... more
P.Ryl. III.457, a papyrus fragment of the gospel of John known to New Testament scholars as P52, is regularly publicized as the earliest extant Christian manuscript and forms a central part of the Rylands collection. Yet the date generally assigned to the fragment (‘about 125 AD’) is based entirely on palaeography, or analysis of handwriting, which cannot provide such a precise date. The present article introduces new details about the acquisition of P52, engages the most recent scholarship on the date of the fragment and argues that the range of possible palaeographic dates for P52 extends into the third century.
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It is often said that palaeographic analysis of Greek literary manuscripts from the Roman era has progressed from an aesthetic judgment to more of a science, thanks largely to increased data (in the form of newly discovered papyri and... more
It is often said that palaeographic analysis of Greek literary manuscripts from the Roman era has progressed from an aesthetic judgment to more of a science, thanks largely to increased data (in the form of newly discovered papyri and parchments from Egypt) and to more sophisticated ways of describing similarity and difference in handwriting. This progress is frequently taken to mean that we may now use the analysis of handwriting to assign dates to undated manuscripts with much greater precision and accuracy than was possible a century ago. This article questions this conclusion by focusing on neglected methodological points that specifically relate to the problem of palaeographic dating of codices, namely the size and character of the corpus of securely datable samples to which the handwriting of undated codices is compared. This problem is especially relevant for early Christian books, the surviving examples of which tend to be copied in the codex format.
Research Interests: History, Ancient History, Papyrology, New Testament, Book History, and 14 moreHistory of Christianity, Early Christianity, Manuscript Studies, Paleography, Codicology, Ancient Religion, Greek Paleography, Church History, New Testament and Christian Origins, Greek Palaeography, Greek Papyrology, Palaeography, Religious Studies, and New Testament Studies
As part of the efforts of the Bodmer Lab to digitize and catalog the ancient papyrus and parchment items at the Fondation Martin Bodmer, I have recently had occasion to thoroughly re-examine the published data about the construction... more
As part of the efforts of the Bodmer Lab to digitize and catalog the ancient papyrus and parchment items at the Fondation Martin Bodmer, I have recently had occasion to thoroughly re-examine the published data about the construction of P.Bodm. 2 (LDAB 2777), the well known papyrus codex containing the Gospel according to John in Greek.2 In the course of this reassessment, some previously overlooked features of the codex came to light. To summarize as concisely as possible: I found that one fragmentary page of P.Bodm. 2 (page 149, a codicological recto) appears to have an unusually small amount of text and an unusually large lower margin. This page also happens to contain the conclusion to chapter 20 of John’s Gospel. Chapter 21 begins at the top of the next page (page 150, a codicological verso), which contains a more normal amount of text and has a more normal lower margin. It has for some time been recognized that the copyist of P.Bodm. 2 made an initial copy of an exemplar and then adjusted and corrected the copied text against a different exemplar with different textual affinities. This paper raises the possibility that the first exemplar of P.Bodm. 2 lacked chapter 21. If this hypothesis is correct, P.Bodm. 2 would provide the first piece of material evidence for the circulation of a copy of the Gospel according to John that ended after chapter 20.
Research Interests: Religion, History, Ancient History, New Testament, History of Christianity, and 9 moreEarly Christianity, Gospels, Johannine Literature, Codicology, New Testament and Christian Origins, New Testament Textual Criticism, Gospel of John, Ancient Christianity, and Early Christian Papyri and Inscriptions
Based on autopsy inspection of the fragmentary leaves of P.Bodmer II (P66), this article assesses previous efforts to properly position the fragments of P.Bodmer II that were left unplaced in the initial publication of the codex and... more
Based on autopsy inspection of the fragmentary leaves of P.Bodmer II (P66), this article assesses previous efforts to properly position the fragments of P.Bodmer II that were left unplaced in the initial publication of the codex and offers new suggestions for placements.
Research Interests: Papyrology, New Testament, Textual Criticism, Early Christianity, Manuscript Studies, and 15 moreNew Testament and Christian Origins, Greek Papyrology, New Testament Textual Criticism, Gospel of John, Greek Papyri, Ancient Christianity, New Testament Studies, Greek Literary Papyrology, Fourth Gospel, Ancient Christian Literature, Bodmer Papyrus II (P66), John's Gospel, Early Christian Papyri and Inscriptions, Greek Literary Papyri, and The Fourth Gospel
Two manuscripts of the Iliad acquired in the middle of the nineteenth century by Anthony Charles Harris, the famous “Harris Homers,” are usually said to have been discovered in Egypt in “the Crocodile Pit at Maabdeh.” The British Museum... more
Two manuscripts of the Iliad acquired in the middle of the nineteenth century by Anthony Charles Harris, the famous “Harris Homers,” are usually said to have been discovered in Egypt in “the Crocodile Pit at Maabdeh.” The British Museum eventually bought both manuscripts. Yet, the details of both Harris’s acquisition of the manuscripts and their sale to the British Museum are murky. The earliest relevant sources, which seem to have been lost to scholarship, contradict each other as well as later accounts. This article reviews what can be known about the provenance and collection history of the manuscripts and introduces new evidence in the form of unpublished letters of Florence Nightingale that mention the sale of Harris’s collection of Egyptian antiquities.
Research Interests: Egyptology, Classics, Homer, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Papyrology, and 27 moreEgyptian Archaeology, Manuscript Studies, Egyptian History, Nineteenth Century British History and Culture, Provenance, History of Collections, Graeco-Roman Egypt, Greek Papyrology, History of Egyptology, Illicit Antiquities Trade, Museum Collection history, Museum archaeology, Antiquity, Provenance studies of archaeological material, Greek and Roman Antiquities, Manuscripts, Greek manuscripts, British Museum, Iliad, Hisory, Mummies, Greek Literary Papyrology, The Iliad, Antiquities, Florence Nightingale, Egyptian antiquities, and Nightingale Florence
This article presents some new material on the Greek text of Melito. Nongbri describes the rediscovery of the first leaf of the Greek copy of Melito’s Peri Pascha in the Bodmer collection and discusses its place in the codex of which it... more
This article presents some new material on the Greek text of Melito. Nongbri describes the rediscovery of the first leaf of the Greek copy of Melito’s Peri Pascha in the Bodmer collection and discusses its place in the codex of which it is a part. Nongbri and Hall then jointly present a transcript of the text, supplemented where it is damaged with material from other sources and the published critical text. A new critical text follows, with notes in explanation. Finally we offer a new translation of the sections concerned.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Greek Literature, Jewish Studies, Theology, Papyrology, and 24 morePatristics, History of Religion, History of Christianity, Early Church, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Early Christianity, Manuscript Studies, Codicology, Late Antiquity, Church History, Patristic Exegesis, Ancient Judaism, Early Church History, Early Church Fathers, Greek manuscripts, Greek Literary Papyrology, Passover, Bodmer Miscellaneous Codex, Crosby-Schøyen Codex, Coptic manuscripts, Ancient Christian Literature, Greek Patristics, Melito of Sardis, Early Christian Papyri and Inscriptions, Papyrology & Epigraphy, and Greek and Latin Patristics
This brief response contextualizes Robert A. Segal's review of Before Religion in the journal Religion & Theology.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Religion, Comparative Religion, History, and 36 moreSociology, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, History of Religion, Religion and Politics, Law and Religion, Psychology of Religion, Theory of Religion, Roman Religion, Religious Pluralism, Science and Religion, Popular Culture and Religious Studies, Religion & the Public Sphere, History of Religions, Ancient Religion, Politics and Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Social Constructionism/ Constructivism, Ancient Greek Religion, Religious Studies (Theory And Methodology), Religious Epistemology, Ancient myth and religion, Religious Experience, Religious History, Sociology of religion (Religion), World Religions, Religion and Science, Religious Studies, Philosophy and Religious Studies, METHOD AND THEORY FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION, Theology and Religious Studies, Theory and methods in the study of religions, Anthropology of Religion, and Philosophy of Religion
The construction of the so-called Bodmer Composite or Miscellaneous codex has been an ongoing problem since the publication of its constituent parts began in the 1950s. A recent inspection of high resolution digital images of P.Bodmer... more
The construction of the so-called Bodmer Composite or Miscellaneous codex has been an ongoing problem since the publication of its constituent parts began in the 1950s. A recent inspection of high resolution digital images of P.Bodmer VIII shows compellingly that this portion of the codex had more than one phase of use, was originally part of a separate codex, and was only later removed and joined to the other sections of the Bodmer “composite” codex. The New Testament manuscript known as P72 (P.Bodmer VII + P.Bodmer VIII) is thus a codicological unity only in a secondary sense.
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This piece is a response to two recent articles on the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices (Goodacre 2013 and Denzey Lewis & Blount 2014). I try to pinpoint more precisely what exactly has been said about the alleged find-spot of the... more
This piece is a response to two recent articles on the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices (Goodacre 2013 and Denzey Lewis & Blount 2014). I try to pinpoint more precisely what exactly has been said about the alleged find-spot of the codices and to suggest we should be suspicious of reports that Christian books were found buried with bodies in Egypt.
Research Interests: Christianity, Gnosticism, History, Ancient History, Archaeology, and 15 moreNew Testament, History of Christianity, Egyptian Archaeology, Early Christianity, Coptic Studies, Late Antiquity, Church History, New Testament and Christian Origins, Western Esotericism (History), Provenance studies of archaeological material, Esotericism, Western Esotericism, Early Christian Archaeology, Gnosis, and Nag Hammadi
Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV (P75), a well-preserved Greek papyrus codex containing the Gospels of Luke and John, has been called the most significant New Testament papyrus so far discovered. The reason for this high estimation is the... more
Papyrus Bodmer XIV–XV (P75), a well-preserved Greek papyrus codex containing the Gospels of Luke and John, has been called the most significant New Testament papyrus so far discovered. The reason for this high estimation is the combination of the early date assigned to the manuscript on the basis of paleography (ca. 175–225 CE) and its close agreement with the text of Codex Vaticanus, which is thought to provide evidence that the “B text” of Vaticanus was produced as early as the second century and was very carefully transmitted. The evidence gathered in the present essay calls these conclusions into question by showing that both paleographically and codicologically, P.Bodm. XIV–XV fits comfortably in a fourth century context, along with the bulk of the other “Bodmer papyri” with which it was apparently discovered. These observations, combined with the fact that the text of P.Bodm. XIV–XV so closely matches that of Vaticanus—a codex widely acknowledged to be a product of the fourth century—suggest that P.Bodm. XIV–XV was also itself produced in the fourth century. Thus, a number of previous arguments that relied on a second- or early-third-century date for P.Bodm. XIV–XV will need to be reconsidered.
Research Interests: Christianity, Ancient History, Papyrology, New Testament, Book History, and 30 moreHistory of Christianity, History of the Book, Textual Criticism, Early Christianity, Biblical Studies, Manuscript Studies, Paleography, Codicology, Origins of Christianity, Late Antiquity, Greek Paleography, Church History, New Testament and Christian Origins, Greek Palaeography, Greek Papyrology, Bible, Palaeography, Textual Criticism (Religion), New Testament Textual Criticism, Gospel of John, Paleografia, Gospel of Luke, Manuscripts, New testament exegesis, Greek manuscripts, Textual Criticism, Old and New Testament, New Testament Studies, Paleography and Codicology, Greek Literary Papyrology, and Christian Studies
This brief report describes recent work clarifying the construction of the so-called Bodmer "Miscellaneous" or "Composite" codex (LDAB 2565 + 220465), namely the rediscovery of a lost leaf of P.Bodmer XIII (Melito's περι πασχα) and the... more
This brief report describes recent work clarifying the construction of the so-called Bodmer "Miscellaneous"
or "Composite" codex (LDAB 2565 + 220465), namely the rediscovery of a lost leaf of P.Bodmer XIII (Melito's περι πασχα) and the proper formation of the quires containing P.Bodmer XX, P.Bodmer IX, and P.Bodmer VIII.
or "Composite" codex (LDAB 2565 + 220465), namely the rediscovery of a lost leaf of P.Bodmer XIII (Melito's περι πασχα) and the proper formation of the quires containing P.Bodmer XX, P.Bodmer IX, and P.Bodmer VIII.
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Research Interests: Religion, Christianity, New Testament, History of Christianity, Early Christianity, and 10 morePauline Literature, Second Temple Judaism, Ancient Religion, Jewish - Christian Relations, New Testament and Christian Origins, Apostle Paul and the Pauline Letters, Judaism, Religious Studies, Ancient Judaism, and New Testament Studies
This report outlines preliminary findings from an examination of unpublished materials relating to excavations of the ancient synagogue at Ostia carried out from 1961 to 1964 and in 1977 by Maria Floriani Squarciapino. Taken in tandem... more
This report outlines preliminary findings from an examination of unpublished materials relating to excavations of the ancient synagogue at Ostia carried out from 1961 to 1964 and in 1977 by Maria Floriani Squarciapino. Taken in tandem with Floriani Squarciapino’s publications on the synagogue, this material (entries in the excavation journal coupled with labels for excavated artifacts, archival photographs, and drawings) allows a partial reconstruction of the excavation process and contextualization of the finds. Previously unreported numismatic finds from 1962 and 1963 help to establish more precise dates for certain phases of the building and demonstrate that occupation of the synagogue persisted at least through the fifth century, indicating the continued presence of a thriving Jewish community at Ostia.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Jewish Studies, Early Judaism (2nd Temple, Greco-Roman), Late Antique Archaeology, and 17 moreRoman Religion, Jewish History, Second Temple Judaism, Late Antiquity, Ostia (Archaeology), Late Antique Art and Archaeology, Judaism, Ancient Judaism, Synagogues, Formative Judaism, Early Judaism, Roman Architecture, Ostia, ancient Synagogues, Ostia Antica, Roman Archaeology, and History of Judaism In Antiquity
The tradition of Christian letter collections begins with the letters of the apostle Paul. And, according to many scholars, the collection of Paul's letters involved the combination of fragments of discreet letters to form "composite... more
The tradition of Christian letter collections begins with the letters of the apostle Paul. And, according to many scholars, the collection of Paul's letters involved the combination of fragments of discreet letters to form "composite letters." While nearly all of the letters attributed to Paul have been subject to such partition hypotheses, it is the composite nature of 2 Corinthians that enjoys the widest agreement among scholars of the New Testament. This chapter sets out some ancient material evidence relevant to the question of how letters were collected and archived in the decades immediately after their sending and receipt in order to examine the plausibility of proposed partition theories of 2 Corinthians. I begin by considering recent attention dedicated to the letters of Cicero in regard to the question of composite letters before moving to what I see as a potentially even more fruitful area of investigation—namely, two bodies of ancient material evidence, the letters of Pachomius (which are extant in different ancient versions and include a number of demonstrably composite letters) and collections of documentary papyrus letters (which illuminate the processes that scholars have imagined were at work in the formation of composite letters in the Pauline corpus).
Research Interests: New Testament, Early Christianity, Biblical Studies, Pauline Literature, Cicero, and 9 moreNew Testament and Christian Origins, Apostle Paul and the Pauline Letters, Pauline Theology, New Testament Theology, Textual Criticism and Editing, New testament exegesis, New Testament Studies, 2 Corinthians, and Pachomius
Published accounts of the University of Michigan's acquisitions of items from the papyrus find known as the 'Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri' are sketchy. This article describes the results of research at the University of Michigan and... more
Published accounts of the University of Michigan's acquisitions of items from the papyrus find known as the 'Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri' are sketchy. This article describes the results of research at the University of Michigan and the Chester Beatty Library, which has provided details about the chronology of the purchases and the dealers involved, as well as a new suggestion regarding the provenance of the find.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Papyrology, New Testament, Egyptian Archaeology, Early Christianity, and 7 moreManuscript Studies, History Of Rare Book Libraries, History of Collections, Graeco-Roman Egypt, History of Egyptology, Provenance studies of archaeological material, and Early Christian Papyri and Inscriptions
Palaeographic estimates of the date of P.Bodmer II, the well preserved Greek papyrus codex of the Gospel of John, have ranged from the early second century to the first half of the third century. There are, however, equally convincing... more
Palaeographic estimates of the date of P.Bodmer II, the well preserved Greek papyrus codex of the Gospel of John, have ranged from the early second century to the first half of the third century. There are, however, equally convincing palaeographic parallels among papyri securely dated to as late as the fourth century. This article surveys the palaeographic evidence and argues that the range of possible dates assigned to P.Bodmer II on the basis of palaeography needs to be broadened to include the fourth century. Furthermore, a serious consideration of a date at the later end of that broadened spectrum of palaeographic possibilities helps to explain both the place of P.Bodmer II in relation to other Bodmer papyri and several aspects of the codicology of P.Bodmer II.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Papyrology, New Testament, Book History, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, and 29 moreHistory of the Book, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Early Christianity, Biblical Studies, Johannine Literature, Paleography, Codicology, Late Antiquity, Greek Paleography, Church History, Biblical Archaeology, Graeco-Roman Egypt, New Testament and Christian Origins, Book History (History), Greek Palaeography, Greek Papyrology, Palaeography, New Testament Textual Criticism, Gospel of John, Paleografia, Paleogeography, Early Christian Archaeology, Bookbinding History, Bookbinding, New Testament Studies, Paleography and Codicology, Bodmer Papyrus II (P66), Early Christian Papyri and Inscriptions, and Greek Manuscripts (Palaeography, Codicology, Text Transmission)
British Library Pap. 2053 is a Greek papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus. Its two sides, written in distinctly different hands, were published separately in 1911 as P.Oxy. 8.1075 (Rahlfs 909, the last verses of Exodus) and P.Oxy. 8.1079... more
British Library Pap. 2053 is a Greek papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus. Its two sides, written in distinctly different hands, were published separately in 1911 as P.Oxy. 8.1075 (Rahlfs 909, the last verses of Exodus) and P.Oxy. 8.1079 (P18, early verses of Revelation). The original editor of the piece, Arthur S. Hunt, described Pap. 2053 as part of a roll rather than a codex. He speculated that at some point after Exodus was copied along the fibers, the reverse was then reused for a copy of Revelation written against the fibers. I argue that, for at least three reasons, it is worth entertaining the possibility that Pap. 2053 is not part of a roll but rather a leaf from a codex. First, the amount of text and the format of the text on the papyrus are appropriate for a codex leaf. Second, we now have good evidence (unavailable to Hunt) for the existence of Christian codices with an eclectic mix of contents copied by different scribes. Third, when the back sides of rolls were reused, they were often rotated 180 degrees such that the texts on the two sides of the papyrus were upside down relative to one another, rather than same-side-up, as the columns of Pap. 2053 are.
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Since the middle of the twentieth century, there has been a tendency among scholars to marginalize the palaeographical opinions of Grenfell and Hunt. Their alleged belief that the codex format was a post-third century development is said... more
Since the middle of the twentieth century, there has been a tendency among scholars to marginalize the palaeographical opinions of Grenfell and Hunt. Their alleged belief that the codex format was a post-third century development is said to have induced them to date fragments of Christian codices much later than they would have on strictly palaeographical grounds. I argue that this is a serious misrepresentation of their views and practices.
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Scholars of ancient cultures are increasingly speaking of the "embeddedness" of ancient religion — arguing that the practices modern investigators group under the heading of "religion" did not compose a well-defined category in antiquity;... more
Scholars of ancient cultures are increasingly speaking of the "embeddedness" of ancient religion — arguing that the practices modern investigators group under the heading of "religion" did not compose a well-defined category in antiquity; instead, they claim that "religion was embedded" in other aspects of ancient culture. These writers use this notion of "embeddedness" to help us see that categories post-Enlightenment thinkers often regard as distinct (such as politics, economics, and religion) largely overlapped in antiquity. The trope of "embedded religion" can, however, also produce the false impression that religion is a descriptive concept rather than a redescriptive concept for ancient cultures (i.e., that there really is something "out there" in antiquity called "Roman religion" or "Mesopotamian religion," which scholars are simply describing rather than creating). By allowing this slippage between descriptive and redescriptive uses of "religion," the rhetoric of "embedded religion" exacerbates the very problem it is meant to solve.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, History, Ancient History, Sociology of Religion, and 22 moreAnthropology, Philosophy Of Religion, History of Religion, Religion and Politics, Historiography, Theory of Religion, Roman Religion, Religious Pluralism, Science and Religion, Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Theory and Methodology, History of Religions, Ancient Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Ancient Philosophy, Ancient Greek Religion, Ancient myth and religion, Religious History, Religious Studies, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Theology and Religious Studies, and Anthropology of Religion
This paper questions the widely accepted wisdom that the Maccabean revolt represented "Jewish resistance" to "Greek influences." Through a close reading of the primary sources for the Maccabean era (1 and 2 Maccabees and Josephus), I... more
This paper questions the widely accepted wisdom that the Maccabean revolt represented "Jewish resistance" to "Greek influences." Through a close reading of the primary sources for the Maccabean era (1 and 2 Maccabees and Josephus), I place the Maccabees in the context of ongoing struggles for power in Jerusalem among several competing families in the second century B.C.E. I argue that the Maccabees differed from these other families (primarily the Oniads and the Tobiads) only in that their partisans, the authors of 1 and 2 Maccabees, described the Maccabees’ rise to power as a defense of "ancestral traditions." Upon closer examination, however, what the Maccabean literature portrays as ancestral traditions turns out to be cultic and political innovations. Thus, the "Judaism" promulgated by the Maccabees is not the defense of old, stable traditions but the invention of a new, contested ethnic and political identity. This point is driven home by a comparison with the idea of patrios politeia ("ancestral constitution") in Athens following the failure of the Sicilian expedition in 413 B.C.E., when competing political forces masked innovative policies as defenses of patrios politeia, demonstrating that appeals to ancestral traditions often indicate not the stability of those traditions but rather their fluid and constructed nature.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Hellenistic History, Early Judaism (2nd Temple, Greco-Roman), Identity (Culture), Nationalism, and 13 moreJewish History, Second Temple Judaism, Ancient Religion, National Identity, Ethnicity, Judaism, Josephus, Hellenistic Judaism, Ancient Judaism, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Early Judaism, 1 Maccabees; 2 Maccabees; Daniel, and History of Judaism In Antiquity
This is the publication of two Greek papyri from Yale’s Beinecke Library. One is a copy of the Lord’s Prayer (P.CtYBR inv. 4600), which shows evidence of being folded into a small square. The second piece (P.CtYBR inv. 4710), which also... more
This is the publication of two Greek papyri from Yale’s Beinecke Library. One is a copy of the Lord’s Prayer (P.CtYBR inv. 4600), which shows evidence of being folded into a small square. The second piece (P.CtYBR inv. 4710), which also shows evidence of having been folded into a small square, is a narrow rectangular strip of papyrus inscribed with the letters ΧΜΓ (chi mu gamma) four times. Both pieces were likely used as magical amulets.
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Scholars of the New Testament generally regard a small papyrus scrap of a page of the Gospel of John, P52, as the oldest surviving manuscript of any part of the New Testament. C.H. Roberts, who first published this papyrus in 1935, dated... more
Scholars of the New Testament generally regard a small papyrus scrap of a page of the Gospel of John, P52, as the oldest surviving manuscript of any part of the New Testament. C.H. Roberts, who first published this papyrus in 1935, dated it on palaeographical grounds to "the first half of the second century." Since then, scholars of the New Testament have tended to assign to P52 a date closer and closer to the early end of Roberts' tentative range, and they have provided little or no evidence for doing so. In this paper, I have collected images of the papyri Roberts used to date P52, and I have provided images of several other more securely dated documentary papyri to demonstrate that, on palaeographical grounds, any serious consideration of the window of possible dates for P52 must include dates in the later second and early third centuries. This conclusion has serious implications for those scholars who have attempted to use an early dating of P52 to argue for a correspondingly early date of composition for the Gospel of John.
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This article argues that recent attempts to read Paul’s letter to the Philippians through the lenses of ancient ideologies of patronage and friendship invite a reconsideration of two neglected textual variants in the first chapter of... more
This article argues that recent attempts to read Paul’s letter to the Philippians through the lenses of ancient ideologies of patronage and friendship invite a reconsideration of two neglected textual variants in the first chapter of Philippians. The first variant (in 1:7) is not reported in Nestle-Aland, and the second variant (in 1:11) is well known but mostly ignored by commentators. Both variants portray Paul as having a robust sense of his own importance as a broker of divine benefaction, and they make good sense within the framework of ancient friendship and hierarchical patronal relations.
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Review of James M. Robinson, The Manichaean Codices of Medinet Madi