Bíblia e arqueologia: uma introdução

RICHELLE, M. A Bíblia e a Arqueologia. São Paulo: Vida Nova, 2017, 176 p. – ISBN 9788527506892.

RICHELLE, M. A Bíblia e a Arqueologia. São Paulo: Vida Nova, 2017, 176 p.

 
As descobertas arqueológicas apresentadas na mídia tanto confirmam a Bíblia quanto a contradizem. O que essas descobertas significam de fato? O que essas escavações arqueológicas e as inscrições antigas nos ensinam? O que pensar das controvérsias recentes sobre a época de Davi e Salomão? O autor mostra como a arqueologia pode contribuir para uma melhor compreensão da bíblia no contexto do mundo antigo. A proposta deste livro é avaliar o tema com cuidado, mas de maneira simples e bem informada.

Dans les médias, les découvertes archéologiques sont tantôt présentées comme confirmant la Bible, tantôt comme la contredisant. Qu’en est-il exactement ? Que nous apprennent les fouilles archéologiques et les inscriptions anciennes ? Que penser des controverses récentes sur l’époque de David et Salomon ? Ce livre propose de faire le point sur le sujet, de manière simple mais informée.

O original, em francês, é de 2012. Uma avaliação da versão, expandida, em língua inglesa, de 2018, feita por Jim West, pode ser lida em The Bible & Archaeology.

Matthieu Richelle é Doutor em Ciências Históricas e Filológicas pela EPHE-Sorbonne e ex-aluno da Escola Bíblica e Arqueológica Francesa de Jerusalém. Professor de Antigo Testamento na Faculdade Livre de Teologia Evangélica de Vaux-sur-Seine, França.

Estudos de Rainer Albertz sobre o Pentateuco

Vinte e um estudos dedicados à composição e redação do Pentateuco e do Hexateuco, escritos ao longo de dez anos por Rainer Albertz, professor de Antigo Testamento na Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität de Münster, Alemanha. Em alemão.

ALBERTZ, R. Pentateuchstudien. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018, IX + 533 p. – ISBN 9783161537059.

ALBERTZ, R. Pentateuchstudien. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018, IX + 533 p.

Twenty-one studies dedicated to the composition and redaction of the Pentateuch and the Hexateuch, written over ten years as part of the Münster Old Testament scholar Rainer Albertz’s work on his Exodus Commentary, are gathered in this volume. Five of them were previously unpublished, while a further eight were revised and translated for their first appearance in German. The problem-orientated approach taken reveals a model for the emergence of the Pentateuch that could replace the classical three-source theory. A concluding overview makes it easier to gauge the model’s effectiveness by assigning the texts dealt with to the identifiable tradition- and redaction-historical development stages of the Pentateuch.

Der vorliegende Band umfasst einundzwanzig Studien zur Komposition und Redaktion des Pentateuch/Hexateuch, die der Münsteraner Alttestamentler Rainer Albertz im Umkreis seiner Arbeit am Exoduskommentar in den letzten zehn Jahren verfasst hat. Acht fremdsprachlich veröffentlichte Beiträge erscheinen hier erstmals in einer überarbeiteten deutschen Fassung; fünf weitere werden hier erstmals veröffentlicht. Aus der forschungsgeschichtlich- und problemorientierten Zusammenschau zeichnet sich ein kompositions- und redaktionsgeschichtliches Modell für die Entstehung des Pentateuch ab, das an die Stelle der klassischen Drei-Quellen-Theorie treten könnte. Am Ende wird eine Übersicht über die vorgenommenen Textzuweisungen zu den erkennbaren überlieferungsgeschichtlichen und redaktionellen Entwicklungsstufen des Pentateuch geboten, welche die Leistungsfähigkeit des vorgelegten Modells leichter abschätzbar macht.

Quem escreveu a Torá?

Who Wrote the Torah? Textual, Historical, Sociological, and Ideological Cornerstones of the Formation of the Pentateuch – By Konrad Schmid · IAS: Published 2018

Who wrote the Torah? In light of more than two hundred years of scholarship and of the ongoing disputes on that question,[1] the most precise answer to this question still is: We don’t know. The tradition claims it was Moses, but the Torah itself says otherwise. Only small portions within the Torah are traced back to him, but not nearly the whole Torah: Exodus 17:14 (Battle against Amalek); 24:4 (Covenant Code); 34:28 (Ten Commandments); Numbers 33:2 (Wandering Stations); Deuteronomy 31:9 (Deuteronomic Law); and 31:22 (Song of Moses). Despite all disagreement in current scholarship, however, the situation in Pentateuchal research is far from desperate, and there are indeed some basic statements that can be made regarding the formation of the Torah. This is what this contribution is about. It is structured in the following three parts: the textual evidence of the Pentateuch; the socio-historical conditions for the development of the Pentateuch, and “Ideologies” or “Theologies” of the Pentateuch in their historical contexts.

Konrad Schmid is Professor of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism at the University of Zurich. The literary history of the Pentateuch and the reconstruction of the redactional processes that led to its final shape constitute the main focus of his research.

Quem escreveu a Torá?

À luz de mais de duzentos anos de estudo e de debates em andamento sobre essa questão, a resposta mais precisa para essa pergunta ainda é: não sabemos.

Apesar das muitas divergências nos estudos atuais, a situação da pesquisa do Pentateuco é promissora, e há, de fato, algumas afirmações básicas que podem ser feitas a respeito da formação da Torá.

Esta contribuição é sobre isso.

Está estruturada em três partes: a evidência textual do Pentateuco; as condições sócio-históricas para o desenvolvimento do Pentateuco, e as “ideologias” ou “teologias” do Pentateuco em seus contextos históricos.

Konrad Schmid é Professor de Bíblia Hebraica e Judaísmo Antigo na Universidade de Zurique, Suíça.  A história literária do Pentateuco e a reconstrução dos processos redacionais que levaram à sua forma final constituem o foco principal de sua pesquisa.

Confira as obras de Konrad Schmid na Amazon.

Duas obras sobre o Pentateuco que contam com sua participação estão disponíveis para download gratuito no Projeto ICI da SBL. Clique aqui.

Lendo a poesia de Isaías

Uma compreensão adequada do anúncio profético de Isaías é impossível se não prestarmos atenção suficiente à sua arte linguística e às características formais e temáticas que tornam suas palavras poesia.

An adequate understanding of Isaiah’s prophetic proclamation is impossible without sufficient attention to his linguistic artistry, to the formal and thematic features that make his words poetry  (J. Blake Couey, Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah, p. 2).

Sempre afirmei isto em sala de aula.

Fui aluno de Luis Alonso Schökel e de Rémi Lack e minhas leituras na área passam por SCHÖKEL, L. A. Estudios de poética hebrea. Barcelona: Juan Flores, 1963; LACK, R. La symbolique du livre d’Isaie: Essai sur l’image littéraire comme élément de structuration. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1973 e SCHÖKEL, L. A. ; SICRE DIAZ, J. L. Profetas I-II. 2. ed. São Paulo: Paulus, 2002-2004.

Isto pode ser visto em meu livro A Voz Necessária: Encontro com os profetas do século VIII a.C.

Agora descobri este livro que parece interessante:

COUEY, J. B. Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah: The Most Perfect Model of the Prophetic Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, XIV + 247 p. – ISBN 9780198743552.

COUEY, J. B. Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah: The Most Perfect Model of the Prophetic Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, XIV + 247 p.

Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah provides a literary and historical study of the prophetic poetry of First Isaiah, an underappreciated but highly sophisticated collection of poems in the Hebrew Bible. Informed by recent developments in biblical studies and broader trends in the study of poetry, Dr J. Blake Couey articulates a fresh account of Biblical Hebrew poetry and argues that careful attention to poetic style is crucial for the interpretation of these texts. Discussing lineation, he explains that lines serve important rhetorical functions in First Isaiah, but the absence of lineated manuscripts from antiquity makes it necessary to defend proposed line divisions using criteria such as parallelism, rhythm, and syntax. He examines poetic structure, and highlights that parallelism and enjambment create a sense of progression between individual lines, which are tightly joined to form couplets, triplets, quatrains, and occasionally even longer groups. Later, Dr Couey treats imagery and metaphor in First Isaiah. A striking variety of images-most notably agricultural and animal imagery-appear in diverse contexts in these poems, often with rich figurative significance.

Couey’s work would be particularly helpful as an introduction to Hebrew poetics, as a contribution to literary work on Isaiah, and as an addition to current debates concerning the intersection of Hebrew poetry and prophetic literature (Chelsea Lamb, Ambrose University – Journal of Hebrew Scriptures – Volume 17, 2017).

J. Blake Couey teaches in the area of Hebrew Bible in the Religion Department at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, MN.

Li duas resenhas sobre o livro:

Chelsea Lamb, Ambrose University – Journal of Hebrew Scriptures – Volume 17 (2017)

Elizabeth Hayes, Fuller Theological Seminary, Seattle – The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 69, Issue 1, 1 April 2018, pages 222-225.

 

Este outro está previsto para agosto de 2018:

COUEY, J. B. ; JAMES, E. T. (eds.) Biblical Poetry and the Art of Close Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018  – ISBN 9781316659670.

This volume explores the aesthetic dimensions of biblical poetry, offering close readings of poems across the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Composed of essays by fifteen leading scholars of biblical poetry, it offers creative and insightful close readings of poems from across the canon of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Psalms, wisdom poetry, Song of Songs, prophecy, and poetry in biblical narrative). The essays build on recent advances in our understanding of biblical poetry and engage a variety of theoretical perspectives and current trends in the study of literature. They demonstrate the rewards of careful attention to textual detail, and they provide models of the practice of close reading for students, scholars, and general readers. They also highlight the rich aesthetic value of the biblical poetic corpus and offer reflection on the nature of poetry itself as a meaningful and enduring form of art.

Table of Contents

Part I. The Psalms:
1. Words that devour: discursive praxes and structural strategies in Psalm 50 Carolyn J. Sharp
2. ‘Silence is praise’: art and knowledge in Psalm 65 Elaine T. James
3. The glory of creation in Psalm 104 Robert Alter

Part II. Poetry in Wisdom Literature:
4. Bildad lectures Job: a close reading of Job 8 Edward L. Greenstein
5. Poetry as pedagogy in Proverbs 5 Anne W. Stewart
6. The unity and futility of poetry in Qohelet Simeon Chavel

Part III. The Song of Songs:
7. Structure, sound, and sense: a close reading of chapter one of the Song of Songs Tod Linafelt
8. How is a love poem (Song 4:1–7) like the beloved? The importance of emotion in reading biblical poetry Sarah Zhang

Part IV. Poetry in the Prophetic Books:
9. Isaiah’s love song: a reading of Isaiah 5:1–7 F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp
10. Poetry, language, and statecraft in Isaiah 18 J. Blake Couey
11. The servant in poetic juxtaposition in Isaiah 49:1–13 Katie M. Heffelfinger
12. ‘It is a lamentation – it has become a lamentation!’: subverting genre in Ezekiel 19 Sean Burt
13. The enduring day of wrath: Zephaniah 1, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Dies Irae Julia M. O’Brien

Part V. Poetry in Biblical Narrative:
14. YHWH’s poesie: the Gnadenformel (Exodus 34:6b–7), the book of Exodus, and beyond Brent A. Strawn
15. The decipherment of sorrow: David’s lament in 2 Samuel 1:17–27 Steven Weitzman.

Estudos Bíblicos: Qumran e Manuscritos do Deserto da Judeia

Qumran e Manuscritos do Deserto da Judeia – Estudos Bíblicos 136, Out/Dez 2017

Qumran e Manuscritos do Deserto da Judeia - Estudos Bíblicos 136, Out/Dez 2017

Edson de Faria Francisco. Manuscritos do Deserto da Judeia: Introdução geral

Clarisse Ferreira da Silva. O tesouro oculto no deserto: uma introdução a alguns dos principais temas associados aos Manuscritos do Mar Morto

Valmor da Silva. Do Mar Morto ao Brasil: História das publicações sobre os manuscritos de Qumran, dos inícios a 2003

Fernando Mattiolli Vieira. A halakhah de Qumran: entre a tradição e a inovação

Gilvan Leite de Araujo e Leonardo Henrique da Silva. O messianismo de Qumran e o Quarto Evangelho

Leia Mais:
Os essênios: a racionalização da solidariedade

Sobre Philip R. Davies

Philip R. Davies (1945-2018)

:. Alguns endereços com informações sobre Philip R. Davies, como formação, atividade acadêmica e publicações:

Página na Academia.edu

Página na Wikipedia

:. Alguns posts publicados por biblistas desde a notícia de sua morte:

Biblical Studies Blog –  Ekaterini G. Tsalampouni: Philip Davies (1945- + 31.5.2018) – Σάββατο, 2 Ιουνίου 2018

Observatório Bíblico – Airton José da Silva: Morreu o biblista Philip R. Davies (1945-2018) – sexta-feira, 1 de junho de 2018

PaleoJudaica – Jim Davila: Philip R. Davies 1945-2018 – Saturday, June 02, 2018

Remnant of Giants – Deane Galbraith: Five Quotes from Philip Davies (1945-2018) – June 2, 2018

Society of Biblical Literature – Lester L. Grabbe: A Tribute to Philip R. Davies (1945-2018) – 2 June 2018

The Bible and Interpretation – Thomas L. Thompson: Philip Davies (1945-2018) – May 2018

Vridar – Neil Godfrey: Tribute to an Influential Scholar – Philip R. Davies – 2018-06-01

Zwinglius Redivivus – Jim West:
Very Very Sad News: My Dear Friend Philip Davies Has Died – 1 Jun 2018

Philip – 1 Jun 2018

Philip Davies’ Funeral – 1 Jun 2018

Just A Few… – 1 Jun 2018

Philip Discussing ‘The Life of Brian’ – 1 Jun 2018

Bible and Interpretation: Remembering Philip Davies – 2 Jun 2018

Philip Davies on Dead Sea Scrolls and Historicity of Hebrew Bible – 2 Jun 2018

Remembering Philip Davies – 5 Jun 2018

A Philip R. Davies Gallery – 8 Jun 2018

Morreu o biblista Philip R. Davies (1945-2018)

Importante pesquisador na área bíblica, ele foi um dos autores mais criativos e questionadores da “Escola de Copenhague”.

Philip R. Davies era professor emérito de Estudos Bíblicos na Universidade de Sheffield, Inglaterra.

Philip R. Davies (1945-2018)

Li alguns de seus livros e escrevi algumas coisas sobre ele. Recomendo:

:: DAVIES, P. R. In Search of ‘Ancient Israel’. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press [1992], 1995, 166 p. [2. ed. 2015] – Resenha

:: Pode uma ‘História de Israel’ ser escrita? – Artigo

:: Leitura socioantropológica da Bíblia Hebraica – Artigo

:: Philip R. Davies na Ayrton’s Biblical Page e no Observatório Bíblico

Leia Mais:
Very Very Sad News: My Dear Friend Philip Davies Has Died
Bibliografia de Philip R. Davies
Livros de Philip R. Davies na Amazon

BibleWorks comunica que está descontinuando o programa

BibleWorks está comunicando o encerramento de suas atividades a partir de 15 de junho de 2018. Após 26 de sua criação.

Accordingly as of June 15, 2018 BibleWorks will cease operation as a provider of Bible software tools.

BibleWorks 10

O comunicado explica que:

:. A partir de 15 de junho de 2018, o suporte por e-mail ou telefone cessará para todas as versões do BibleWorks

:. Serão providenciadas, se necessárias, correções para a versão 10, a mais recente, lançada em 20 de abril de 2015

:. As versões anteriores não terão suporte, embora continuem funcionando normalmente a não ser que encontrem alguma incompatibilidade com atualizações do Windows

:. BibleWorks User Forums e BibleWorks Knowledge Base continuarão ativos

:. Até 15 de junho de 2018 é possível adquirir o BibleWorks 10 por US$199

:. É o fim do BibleWorks? Algumas possibilidades estão sendo examinadas, mas, por enquanto, nada está definido

:. After June 15, 2018 program support will no longer be available via e-mail or telephone

:. We will continue to provide compatibility fixes for BibleWorks 10 well into the future. This will ensure that you can continue to use the program for the long term. Compatibility updates will be provided through the normal updater mechanism within the program

:. After June 15, versions of BibleWorks prior to version 10 will no longer be supported. Current installations for all versions will continue to function normally. However, in the unlikely event that a driver or Windows update breaks the program, there will be no updates to fix the problem

:. We will keep the BibleWorks forums active so that users can continue to interact and get help from each other. We will also keep the BibleWorks Knowledge Base active to provide answers to the most common questions about BibleWorks functionality. We will endeavor to keep these support alternatives available for as long as they are useful to users.

:. If you want to license BibleWorks 10 or any add-on modules for any version of BibleWorks, you must do so before June 15. Until June 15, BibleWorks 10 is being made available to new and upgrading customers for the unprecedented price of US$199.

:. Is this the end of BibleWorks? We continue to pray that the Lord would provide a way for the program to continue, and we are exploring some possibilities. But there are no definite plans at present for future development

O comunicado está assinado por Michael Bushell, Owner and Lead Programmer.

Leia Mais:
BibleWorks 10: resenha de David Instone-Brewer

Biblical Studies Carnival 148

Seleção de postagens dos biblioblogs em maio de 2018.

May 2018: Biblical Studies Carnival 147

Trabalho feito por Tim Bulkeley em seu áudio blog 5 Minute Bible.

E há também The May Biblioblog Carnival from Avignon. By Jim West.

Fragmento de Marcos foi escrito entre 150 e 250 d.C.

Especialistas avaliam que o P137 foi escrito entre 150 e 250 d.C. O manuscrito mede apenas 4,4 x 4 cm, e contém algumas letras dos versículos 7–9 e 16–18 do capítulo 1 do evangelho de Marcos. Mesmo que não seja tão antigo quanto muitos esperavam – fora divulgado que seria do século I -, o P137 ainda é uma descoberta significativa, pois é provável que este seja o mais antigo fragmento do evangelho de Marcos até agora descoberto.

Para entender o caso, leia dois posts de fevereiro de 2012:

Descoberto fragmento de Marcos do século I?

Esclarecimentos sobre o fragmento de Marcos do século I

Depois, leia*:

Despite Disappointing Some, New Mark Manuscript Is Earliest Yet

By Elijah Hixson – Christianity Today: May 30, 2018

Bible scholars have been waiting for the Gospel fragment’s publication for years.

The Egypt Exploration Society has recently published a Greek papyrus that is likely the earliest fragment of the Gospel of Mark, dating it from between A.D. 150–250. One might expect happiness at such a publication, but this important fragment actually disappointed many observers. The reason stems from the unusual way that this manuscript became famous before it became available.

Second (or Third) Things First

In late 2011, manuscript scholar Scott Carroll—then working for what would become the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.—tweeted the tantalizing announcement that the earliest-known manuscript of the New Testament was no longer the second-century John Rylands papyrus (P52). In early 2012, Daniel B. Wallace, senior research professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, seemed to confirm Carroll’s statement. In a debate with Bart D. Ehrman, Wallace reported that a fragment of Mark’s gospel, dated to the first century, had been discovered.

As unlikely as a first-century Gospel manuscript is, the fragment was allegedly dated by a world-class specialist. This preeminent authority was not an evangelical Christian, either. He had no apologetic motive for assigning the early date. The manuscript, Wallace claimed, was to be published later that year in a book from Brill, an academic publisher that has since begun publishing items in the Museum of the Bible collection. When pressed for more information, Wallace refrained from saying anything new. He later signed a non-disclosure agreement and was bound to silence until the Mark fragment was published.

As a general rule, earlier manuscripts get us closer to the original text than later manuscripts because there are assumed to be fewer copies between them and the autographs (the original copies of the NT writings, most likely lost to history). Naturally, this news of a first-century copy of Mark generated a great deal of interest.

A first-century fragment of Mark’s gospel would be significant for several reasons. First, the earliest substantial manuscripts of the New Testament come from the third century. Any Christian text written earlier than A.D. 200 is a rare and remarkable find, much less one written before the early 100s. Second, early fragments of Mark’s gospel are scarce. Not all books of the New Testament are equally well-represented in our manuscripts, especially early on. There are several early papyri of Matthew and John, but before this new fragment was published, there was only one existing copy of Mark’s gospel produced before the 300s. Finally, a first-century manuscript of Mark would be the earliest manuscript of the New Testament to survive from antiquity, written within 40 years of when the Holy Spirit inspired the original through the pen of the evangelist himself. Needless to say, a first-century fragment of Mark was a bombshell.

Out of the Garbage Dump

Six years came and went, and there was no “first-century Mark” fragment. But information kept leaking. On stage at a conference in 2015, Scott Carroll told Josh McDowell that the manuscript had been for sale at least twice, after the first attempt was unsuccessful.

It was difficult to know who had even seen the manuscript. Only Carroll would publicly state that he had seen it. Carroll claimed to have seen the fragment in person twice, both times in the possession of Dirk Obbink. Obbink is a renowned papyrologist at the University of Oxford, and he is almost certainly the non-evangelical specialist to whom Wallace attributed the first-century date. New Testament scholars Craig Evans and Gary Habermas were among others who spoke about the fragment, generating even more excitement.

The manuscript has finally been published, but some are disappointed because it is not what they were hoping for: It’s not from the first-century.

The fragment, designated P137, was not published in a Brill volume as Wallace had predicted, nor is it part of the holdings of the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. as many had assumed it would be. Instead, it was published in the latest installment of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri series by the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) with the identifier P.Oxy. 83.5345.

The Oxyrhynchus papyri constitute a collection of hundreds of thousands of manuscript fragments excavated from an ancient Egyptian garbage dump near Oxyrhynchus between 1896 and 1906. Since the first volume was produced in 1898, only about one percent of the collection has been published. Among the papyri are biblical texts, apocryphal texts, classical texts, tax receipts, letters, and even a contract that stipulates the pre-determined outcome of a wrestling match.

The publication of P137 was prepared by Oxford papyrologists Daniela Colomo and Dirk Obbink. Although news releases from the EES about individual papyri are highly unusual, the organization issued a statement last week reporting that P137 was excavated probably in 1903, that Obbink had previously shown the papyrus to visitors to Oxford, and that it had been preliminarily dated to the first century. Obbink and Colomo admit in the edition that the handwriting is difficult to date. Scott Carroll stated that P137 is indeed the manuscript he had spoken about as “first-century Mark,” and Dan Wallace finally broke his six-year silence on the matter.

On the basis of the handwriting, Obbink and Colomo estimate that the manuscript was written in the range of A.D. 150–250. The manuscript itself is tiny, only 4.4 x 4 cm. It contains a few letters on each side from verses 7–9 and 16–18 of Mark 1. Lines of writing preserved on each side indicate that this fragment comes from the bottom of the first written page of a codex—a book rather than a scroll. The text does not present any surprising readings for a manuscript of its age, and the codex format is also what we would expect.

Even though it is not quite so early as many hoped, P137 is still a significant find. Its date range makes it likely the earliest copy of Mark’s gospel. The fact that the text presents us with no new variants is partially a reflection of the overall stability of the New Testament text over time. Moreover, P137 is not the only new papyrus of the New Testament to be published in the latest Oxyrhynchus volume. Also published are P138, a third-century papyrus of Luke 13:13–17 and 13:25–30, and P139, a fourth-century papyrus of Philemon 6–8 and 18–20. P138 overlaps with two roughly contemporary manuscripts of Luke, which allows us better opportunity to assess the early transmission of Luke’s gospel. Additionally, early manuscripts of Philemon are rare, and P139 is among the earliest.

It should be stated, however, that we have no shortage of New Testament manuscripts. There are about 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament of various sizes and dates. Such an “embarrassment of riches,” as they have been called, allows us to reconstruct the original text of the New Testament with a high degree of confidence. As exciting as they are, textually speaking, new manuscript discoveries tend to confirm or at most fine-tune our Greek New Testament editions. As an example, our Greek New Testaments would be exactly the same with or without our current earliest New Testament manuscript, P52.

Questions Remain

One lingering question is whether or not the new Mark fragment was ever up for sale. The EES, which owns the papyrus, emphatically denies that they ever attempted to sell it. Yet, Scott Carroll and others have reported that it was indeed offered for sale. In a comment on the post that broke the news about the EES publication at the blog Evangelical Textual Criticism, someone commenting as Carroll named Dirk Obbink as the one who offered the papyrus to him. Obbink was formerly editor of the Oxyrhynchus collection, and Carroll was involved in acquisitions for the Green family at the time. Some of that collection later became part of the Museum of the Bible collection.

Many people—including Carroll himself—believed that the Greens had at some point purchased the manuscript until it appeared in an Oxyrhynchus volume. Obbink recently denied attempting to sell the manuscript to the Greens, according to Candida Moss and Joel Baden, writing for The Daily Beast. When I contacted Carroll and Obbink for statements, Carroll replied that he had nothing to add to or subtract from his story, and Obbink did not respond.

This new publication is only the first word on the manuscript. There is surely much more to come. Manuscript dates are often disputed, though I expect the question will be whether P137 could be later, not whether it could be earlier. Multi-spectral imaging and digital image processing open new doors to deciphering and understanding manuscripts, and P137 might benefit from such types of analysis.

Rather than disappointment that P137 is not quite as early as once thought, the publication of P137 is a cause to celebrate. We have another significant find, and it is the earliest manuscript of Mark 1! The excavations of Oxyrhynchus continue to yield valuable artifacts of antiquity including new biblical manuscripts after over a century of publishing. We can happily look forward to more unknown treasures yet to come.

The EES has made the publication, including images of P137, available here.

Elijah Hixson is an adjunct lecturer at Edinburgh Bible College. He has written articles for academic journals and is a regular contributor to the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog.

* Artigo reproduzido na íntegra


Veja também:

‘First-Century’ Mark Fragment: Second Update – On 11 June 2018 – By Daniel B. Wallace

Update on P137 (P.Oxy. 83.5345)  –  By Elijah Hixson: Evangelical Textual Criticism – June 11, 2018

“First Century” Mark and “Second Century” Romans and “Second Century” Hebrews and “Second Century” 1 Corinthians – By Brent Nongbri: Variant Readings – June 12, 2018

Leia Mais:
Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts
“First-Century Mark,” Published at Last? [Updated]