Manuscripts Archives - Canon Fodder

Thankful for Larry W. Hurtado

November 25, 2021

Well, it’s Thanksgiving Day, 2021. And there’s much to be thankful for this year, like any other year. But, I want to take a moment to remember my friend, mentor and Doktorvater, Larry W. Hurtado. After all, today marks the two-year anniversary of his passing (Nov 25th, 2019).

While most of the readers of this blog will be familiar with Larry and his scholarship, just a quick word for those who are not. Larry retired in 2011 from his post as Professor of New Testament, Language, Literature, and Theology at the University of Edinburgh (where he had served since 1996). Prior to that time, he was a professor in the department of religion at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg). He was known primarily for his work in Christology (early Christ-devotion), and Textual Criticism (particularly manuscripts as our earliest Christian artifacts).

One of his final publications, however, was not focused on either of these matters (at least not directly). Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World (Baylor, 2016), was among my favorite books by Larry. Therein, he took the reader on a fascinating journey into the early Christian movement and how it found itself to be so peculiar in the eyes of the surrounding culture.

I read this particular volume with keen interest, because it was released just prior to my own volume on Christianity in the second century: Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church (SPCK/IVP Academic, 2017).

If you want to understand Larry’s long-term interests, then there are two books that are must reads. [Read more…]

Were Early Christian Scribes Untrained Amateurs?

December 2, 2020

In the ongoing debates about the reliability of early Christian manuscripts, and whether they have been transmitted with fidelity, it is often claimed that early Christian scribes were amateurs, unprofessional, and some probably couldn’t even read.

In Michael Satlow’s book, How the Bible Became Holy (Yale, 2014), this same sort of argument appears (for my full review, see here). Satlow’s book argues that both the OT and NT canons were late bloomers, and that they bore no real authority until the third or fourth century CE. And part of the evidence for this claim comes from Satlow’s assessment of the NT manuscripts. He states:

The copies of early Christian manuscripts from around the second century CE were utilitarian. They were generally on papyrus rather than the more expensive and durable parchment. They lack the signs both of being written by a professional scribe and of being intended for public recitation (255).

There are a lot of claims in this brief couple of sentences. Unfortunately, virtually every one of them is mistaken. Let’s take them one at a time: [Read more…]

Were Early Christian Scribes Untrained Amateurs?

June 4, 2019

In Michael Satlow’s book, How the Bible Became Holy (Yale, 2014), this same sort of argument appears. Satlow’s book argues that both the OT and NT canons were late bloomers, and that they bore no real authority until the third or fourth century CE. And part of the evidence for this claim comes from Satlow’s assessment of the NT manuscripts. He states:

The copies of early Christian manuscripts from around the second century CE were utilitarian. They were generally on papyrus rather than the more expensive and durable parchment. They lack the signs both of being written by a professional scribe and of being intended for public recitation (255).

There are a lot of claims in this brief couple of sentences. Unfortunately, virtually every one of them is mistaken. Let’s take them one at a time: [Read more…]

What Do Manuscripts Tell Us About the Origins of the NT Canon? A Response to John Meade

October 10, 2017

Over at Evangelical Textual Criticism, John Meade has posted an article reviewing chapter seven of my book, Canon Revisited. In particular, he challenges a number of the arguments I use to show how NT manuscripts may illumine our understanding of the development of the NT canon.

Meade focuses his comments on two issues, namely the number of manuscripts and the use of the codex. Before offering a response to those issues below, let me begin by making a simple observation about the purpose of this chapter. If one understands the flow of the argument in the book, and sets chapter seven in the larger context of the prior chapters, it will become clear that the exploration of these manuscripts is not intended to provide a definitive answer to which books are in the canon. Nowhere do I argue that we know which books are in the canon simply be looking at the features of early Christian manuscripts.

Indeed, the prior six chapters are making a very different argument about how we know which books are in and which books are out (an argument I will not rehearse here). The discussion of manuscripts, then, is provided simply as something that further illumines the history of the canon. It provides a general (but not absolute) confirmation of what we see from other kinds of evidence (patristic and otherwise). [Read more…]

Mark, Manuscripts, and Monotheism: A Festschrift for Larry Hurtado

August 11, 2014

It is now public knowledge that there is a new Festschrift coming out for my friend and doktorvater at the University of Edinburgh, Larry W. Hurtado. It is entitled: Mark, Manuscripts, and Monotheism (T&T Clark, 2014). Originally the big announcement was going to be made at SBL this November (with all the contributors present), but the cat was accidentally let out of the bag early.

The collection of essays in this new volume, edited by my fellow Edinburghers, Chris Keith and Dieter Roth, are centered around the themes of the Gospel of Mark, ancient Manuscripts, and early Christology–three subject areas that have dominated Larry’s research. While most of the contributors are his former students, I was pleased to see contributions from other scholars in the field such as Richard Bauckham and Tommy Wasserman.

It is no surprise that Larry has had a big influence on my own research and writing. My Ph.D. thesis was on the apocryphal gospel fragment P.Oxy. 840 (see published version here), due in large part to his direction and expertise in ancient manuscripts.

My chapter in this Festschrift is entitled, “Origen’s List of New Testament Books in Hom. Josh. 7.1: A Fresh Look.” The subject of the development of the New Testament canon has been the focus of my research the last number of years, and has led to a closer look at Origen’s list in his Homilies on Joshua. I argue that this is the oldest complete list of the NT available to us (pre-dating Athanasius’ well-known list by more than a century).

Congratulations to Larry on this honorary volume! Here is the complete table of contents:

PART ONE: MARK’S GOSPEL
Chapter One
“Is It as Bad as All That?”: The Misconception of Mark as a Gospel Film Noir
Holly J. Carey, Point University
Chapter Two
Early Christian Book Culture and the Emergence of the First Written Gospel
Chris Keith, St Mary’s University, Twickenham
Chapter Three
Jesus as God’s Chief Agent in Mark’s Christology
Paul Owen, Montreat College
PART TWO: MANUSCRIPTS AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM
Chapter Four
Mark, Manuscripts, and Paragraphs: Sense-Unit Divisions in Mark 14–16
Sean A. Adams, University of Edinburgh
Chapter Five
From “Text-Critical Methodology” to “Manuscripts as Artefacts”: A Tribute to Larry W. Hurtado
Thomas J. Kraus, Independent Scholar
Chapter Six
Origen’s List of New Testament Books in Hom. Jos. 7.1: A Fresh Look
Michael J. Kruger, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte
Chapter Seven
P⁴⁵ as Early Christian Artifact: Considering the Staurogram and Punctuation in the Manuscript
Dieter T. Roth, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Chapter Eight
P⁴⁵ and Codex W in Mark Revisited
Tommy Wasserman, Ansgar Teologiske Høgskole
PART THREE: MONOTHEISM AND EARLY JESUS-DEVOTION
Chapter Nine
Who, What, and Why?: The Worship of the Firstborn in Hebrews 1:6
David M. Allen, The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education
Chapter Ten
Devotion to Jesus Christ in Earliest Christianity—An Appraisal and Discussion of the Work of Larry Hurtado
Richard J. Bauckham, University of St Andrews and University of Cambridge
Chapter Eleven
Hebrews and Wisdom
Mary Ann Beavis, University of Saskatchewan
Chapter Twelve
Christology, Martyrdom, and Vindication in the Gospel of Mark and the Apocalypse: Two New Testament Views
Paul Middleton, University of Chester