Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Day in Oxford

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Had a nice day-trip to Oxford yesterday with another ETC blogger (a.k.a. Simon Gathercole). The Oxford folk were very kind and accommodating (considering we were from Cambridge, and one of us was a foreigner). We managed to see some good things in Duke Humfrey’s Library (the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library - and rather atmospheric compared with the manuscript room in Cambridge University Library):
















P. Oxy 1 (most of a page of the Gospel of Thomas)
P. Oxy 1170 (=P19)
P. Oxy 1597 (= P29)

Then we spent the afternoon in the Papyrology Rooms of the Sackler Library (make sure you get this right) and saw:

P. Oxy 2383 (P69) [on this see here and here];
P. Oxy 4406 (P105);
P. Oxy 4803 (P119); P. Oxy 4804 (P120); P. Oxy 4805 (P121); P. Oxy 4806 (P122) [on these see here];
P. Oxy 4844 (P123); P. Oxy 4845 (P124) [on these see here].

So that was eleven (admittedly quite small) manuscripts in one day: no amazing new discoveries; great for checking a couple of details - it is always helpful to see the real thing no matter how carefully you’ve transcribed information from pictures, helpful for two current writing projects, not quite long enough for a really thorough look at the newest Oxy ones.

Oh, and in between we had a bite of lunch with the Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien at The Eagle and Child:




9 comments

  1. Happy day! I am jealous. Eagle and Child was a regular when I lived in Oxford; it's usefully right next to the Theology Faculty building. One of the nice things about that Synoptic Problem conference in April was getting a chance to go back there again.

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  2. I'm intrigued by your desire to preserve my anonymity, Peter!

    Gathers
    a.k.a. "Another ETC blogger"

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  3. PS Please spell Tolkien right!

    G

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  4. OK. I've adjusted the post! (for identification and spelling)

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  5. Re P69: the latest number of Novum Testamentum has an article on P69:
    Thomas A. Wynant, "A New Transcription of P. Oxy 2383 (P69)" NovT 50.4 (2008) 351-7. The article includes new multi-sprectral photographs, which show up very nicely online.
    Michael

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  6. Ah, I may have to go back for another look.

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  7. I'm not sure I'm equally convinced by all of Wayment's re-readings. Anyone else had a look?

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  8. I had a short look at the article and (oh man!), MAQHTAS is now so obvious!
    Why did nobody else found that before? No multi-sprectral imaging is necessary to see that.

    Preliminary conclusion:
    P69 omits vss 42-44, not 45a.
    Omission due to parablepsis is no option anymore now.

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  9. true, but omission due to doctrinal reasons is still an option. Or we have two different versions of Luke's gospel (my personal view).

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