Ancient Manuscripts Archives - Page 2 of 20

What Do Miniature Codices Tell Us About Early Christianity? #1

As I mentioned in a prior post, I am starting a new 5-part series exploring what the phenomenon of miniature codices teaches us about the early Christian movement. This series is designed to draw out some practical implications (for a lay audience) from my new book with Oxford University Press, Miniature Codices in Early Christianity.

By way of review (especially if you are just joining the series), miniature codices are basically tiny little books, “pocket Bibles” so to speak. As early as the second century, and especially in the fourth and fifth centuries, Christians began to create these little manuscripts that contained portions of Scripture (and also non-canonical …

New Series: What Do Miniature Codices Tell Us About Early Christianity?

As I mentioned in a prior post, my new book with Oxford University Press is now out in both the UK and US: Miniature Codices in Early Christianity. It’s part of Oxford’s long-standing Early Christian Studies series.

I have been working on the subject of miniature codices for more than twenty years now, ever since doing my thesis a while ago under Larry Hurtado on the apocryphal gospel fragment, P.Oxy. 840. I have also written on the miniature codex P.Ant. 12 (0232) which contains 2 John (see here), and a recent overview article on miniature codices in Paratextual Features in Early New Testament Papyri and Manuscripts, eds. …

How Many New Testament Manuscripts Do We Have from the Second Century?

“There is no second-century manuscript evidence.” —Helmut Koester

When it comes to the transmission of the New Testament text, the second century has been long recognized as a critical time period. And it is not hard to see why. If the New Testament books were written (more or less) in the first-century, then the extant manuscripts that get us closest to that time period will inevitably take on a level of significance.

The second century is also significant because of modern scholarly claims that it was precisely this period when the most serious textual corruptions were likely to have occurred, suggesting the earliest phases of transmission were marked by “textual …

Class on the Origin and Authority of the New Testament Canon

This week, Aug 4-8, I am teaching my long-running elective at RTS Charlotte entitled, “The Origin and Authority of the New Testament Canon.”

In this class, we will be covering not just the history and development of the canon, but also its theological meaning, and its epistemological foundation. In other words, we will not only discuss when these books were recognized, but we will explore how we know which books belong and which do not.

So, the class will cover the various canonical models present in theological circles today, as well as responding to modern historical-critical scholars who attack its integrity.

One other interesting part of the course is that

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