Roger Bagnall's Early Christian Books in Egypt

Roger Bagnall recently wrote a book on early Christian papyri in Egypt. The first complete chapter has been posted on the publisher's website (Princeton University Press) and can be found here.

BCJ

The Dura-Europos Collection at Yale

(Healing of the Paralytic at Dura-Europos)

This semester, I am taking a graduate seminar titled “Archaeology of the Early Christian World” at Yale. One of the advantages of taking such a course at Yale University is that Yale has a lot of different ancient collections housed right here on campus. One of these collections happens to contain half of the finds from the ancient city of Dura-Europos, the topic of this week’s class. The artifacts are housed in an off-campus university facility, which contains a whole lot of other ancient “goodies.”

Dura-Europos is an ancient city that was discovered in 1920 while a British soldier was digging a trench. This site yielded some of the most important archaeological discoveries of the ancient world. Among these discoveries are many wall paintings, a Jewish synagogue, a Christian house church, a Mithraeum (a pagan temple dedicated to Mathras), and more than 200 documents written on parchment and papyrus. Of these, however, we particularly focused on the Christian house church and the Christian paintings within the baptistery. It was an overwhelming experience to be within just inches of one of the earliest representations of the central figure of Christianity, as well as other figures from the New Testament story. It was a surreal blend of fact and fantasy. Dr. Lisa Brody, the assistant curator, mentioned several things that informed my understanding of the finds. Apparently, when underground paintings are unearthed, they risk the danger of losing pigment when the object is pulled away from the dirt to which they have so long been attached. It is possible, then, that some of the pigments of the Dura artifacts were lost as a result of their extraction from the ground. But, the good news is that conservators have applied solutions to the Christian chapel paintings (and I am assuming the synagogue also, although she did not mention this explicitly) to preserve these pigments. During our tour with Dr. Brody, I asked if Yale had acquired the inscription found on the Dura chapel, which mentions Jesus Christ and a certain Proclus, the latter of whom was apparently one of the artists of the chapel paintings and possibly others at the site. She was not sure, but later said that one of the small, rectangular pieces at the top right of the same sliding wall that holds the paintings of the paralytic and the three Marys may actually be the inscription. I was able to get fairly close to this piece, and, although it was hard to tell for sure, I am fairly certain I could make out a few phonetic characters.

There are several important things I have learned about early Christianity as a result the Dura-Europos discoveries. One of the most interesting things is that this site seems to suggest that Christianity was in fact able and welcome to operate within a diverse religious and social environment. (One article calls Dura “cosmopolitan.”) The presence of other cultic domains alongside Christianity seems to imply that not everyone had a negative outlook on Christianity. But, it also seems to suggest that not all Christians had a negative view toward other religious and cultural centers. This would be at odds with some other forms of early Christianity, for example, the theme of non-assimilation to the empire in the book of Revelation. Another interesting feature of the Dura finds was the attestation to a very early form of Christian liturgy. The paintings in the baptistery are a window on historical forms of worship, and the objects represented in the paintings help us to interpret which persons early Christians valued within such contexts. The idea that the Jews and Christians of this city neglected the second commandment ("You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below") is a fascinating one. Later Christians would deem such paintings as heretical. But, Dura is proof that not all Christians thought of paintings this way, and their acceptance of religious icons provides good evidence for such a position very early on. It was a wonderful experience, and I hope to go back for one more peek before I leave Yale. I also have plans to go see some of the ancient Greek papyri in Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

BCJ

A Case for Clarification: Reassessing a Critical Sign Description in Nestle-Aland

In the introduction to the 27^th edition of Nestle-Aland (NA27), there is a section devoted to describing the functions of all the critical signs found in the textual apparatus (which also appear in the printed text). One particular description is unclear, and I hope that the next edition (28^th) will do a better job describing it. The description to which I am referring can be found under the sign that is characterized by centered dots and superscript numerals. These dots and superscript numerals can be placed with any of the other aforementioned signs (e.g., ^o , ^:), but the inclusion of the dots and superscript numerals carries a subtle new meaning. The description for this critical sign in NA27 is as follows:

“Centered dots and superscript numerals distinguish between multiple occurrences of the same kind of variant within a single unit of the apparatus,” (introduction, p. 52).

This is an odd way to describe the function of this particular critical sign and can consequently be misinterpreted. One example will prove my point. In Luke 1:15, this critical sign shows up in both the text and the apparatus with a variant for ἐκ κοιλίας. The variant ἐν κοιλίας is actually an interesting one, but the variant is not the real issue here. According to the description of this sign, which in this case is a standard critical sign for word replacement with the addition of a centered dot, the dot is said to “distinguish between multiple occurrences of the same kind of variant within a single unit of the apparatus.” The tricky part here is the phrase “multiple occurrences of the same kind of variant.” One could very easily interpret this to mean that the variant (ἐν κοιλίας) that accompanies our critical sign in focus (standard replacement sign plus a centered dot) occurs more than once in the apparatus for this verse (unit). But there you have it; this is exactly what this does not mean. I think this problem can be rectified by replacing the word “variant” in the description above with “critical sign.” The new description, I think, will help clarify things:

“Centered dots and superscript numerals distinguish between multiple occurrences of the same kind of critical sign within a single unit of the apparatus.”

Now, we can look at our verse again and apply the new description of our critical sign. In the apparatus of Luke 1:15, we see that there is another, previous occurrence “of the same kind of critical sign,” namely, a standard replacement sign without the presence of a centered dot. It should become clear, then, that the centered dot (or superscript numeral) simply indicates another use of the same critical sign, a sign that has also been used elsewhere in the same unit. The other use of the critical sign in Luke 1:15, for example, accompanies the variant τοῦ κυρίου. Therefore, it is the critical sign that has more than one occurrence; not the variants. In fact, the variants themselves have nothing to do with each other. I think this small change in wording would help clarify things a bit for the reader, and it is my hope to see that the editors of NA27 incorporate this or some similar revision of this description.

BCJ

Introducing the New Blog Picture

I thought it would look good to have a picture at the front of this blog, so I have added one. This picture is cropped a bit from the original, which I personally took during a two-week stay in Israel in the summer of 2007. This is a shot of the Mediterranean Sea and its shore just outside of the ancient city of Caesarea, a port city built by Herod the Great circa 20 B.C.E. If you have ever been to Caesarea and had time to walk down to the Sea, you probably remember seeing the paved sidewalk and rail that leads you away from the city proper and into the theatre area. This picture was taken alongside that rail en route to the theatre. The beach area is filled with small pebbles and shells, and the shallow parts of the sea are littered with large rocks, some of which are visible as in this photo.

BCJ

SBL Survey for New Website

The Society of Biblical Literature is in the process of creating a new website for the purpose of promoting biblical scholarship. They have recently received a grant for this endeavor. The administrators sent out an e-mail today to the members of the society with a link to a survey, encouraging member to pass it along to non-members and non-specialists, since the website is geared toward “general audiences.” Here is the e-mail:

“The SBL has received an NEH planning grant to develop a website, “The World of the Bible: exploring people, places, and passages.” The site is intended for general audiences and will share scholarly views and encourage critical engagement with the Bible, including its ancient contexts and interpretive legacy.”

“We encourage you to share this survey with people who are not bible scholars—your students, perhaps, or friends and family. The goal is to gain a diverse representation of our intended audience and to assess their current level of familiarity with and interest in the Bible.”

Please take a minute to complete this survey if you can. It takes less than five minutes.

BCJ

[Update: Survey is closed]

"Payne Strikes Back": Pt. 1 of 5

Over on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog, there has just today been posted part one of five posts by Philip B. Payne in response to Peter Head's most recent presentation on the "distigmai," which was presented at SBL New Orleans (2009). The blog entry is titled, "Putting the Distigmai in Their Place: Payne Strikes Back pt. 1." At the TC session following Head's striking rebuttal, it was very clear in his remarks that Payne was quite unsettled by Head's thesis. Tommy Wasserman has allowed Payne to continue the discussion on the ETC blog, and it looks like the debate is only getting more tense and pressing.

If you are unfamiliar with the current debate over the "distgmai," I will offer a very brief summary. Several years ago, Philip Payne discovered some strange dots in the margins of Codex Vaticanus, which he initially named "umlauts" (they have recently been renamed "distigmai"). He wrote a few articles on the dots and they received immediate attention, not least because of Payne's conclusion concerning the function of the dots. Payne thinks that these dots represent variants of which the scribe of Codex Vaticanus was consciously aware. I have been going to the TC sessions at SBL since San Diego (2007), and these dots have really sparked a lot of conversation. It seems that, from what I can tell, scholars are divided on the matter, but that the majority agree with Payne. But, recently, Peter Head of Cambridge/Tyndale House, presented a paper at SBL New Orleans (2009) debunking Payne's claim that these dots were original. Instead, Head argued that they were added later, much later, and presented a logical argument as to why. Some agreed with Head, but the jury is still out. It will be interesting to see what will become of the topic in the ensuing months and years.

BCJ

A Panel Discussion on Atheism

I watched this just this morning, and found it worth the while. One of my school's professors here at Yale Divinity- Dr. Denys Turner- is a panelist in this talk. He happens to be the only panelist who adheres to theism. The panelists are as follows: Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason and Free Thinkers; Colin McGinn, professor of philosophy at the University of Miami; Denys Turner, professor of historical theology at Yale University Divinity School. Enjoy!

http://fora.tv/2009/12/07/The_Great_Issues_Forum_Varieties_of_Nonbelief

BCJ