ETC Blog and GJW in the Boston Globe

The ETC Blog found its way onto the front page of the Boston Globe today as part of a surprisingly well-written article on the current state of doubt about the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife. Speaking of Christian Askeland’s blog post on the John fragment (this one, I assume), the Globe writer says that “for many scholars who had been withholding judgment, Askeland’s insight tipped the balance in favor of forgery.”

As far as info about the fragment, I don’t see anything new. What was new—at least to me—was an admission from Karen King that it could be a forgery and an update from Malcolm Choat who seems to favor forgery now.

“I’m open that, in the end, it might be a modern production,” King said in an August interview. “But right now, the important thing is process.”

And this about Choat:

Finally, this month, Choat, the Australian papyrologist, returned to Cambridge to study the Harvard papyri on his way to a conference in Atlanta.
He spent more than eight hours inspecting the papryi at the Houghton Library, supervised by a member of the library’s staff.
In one spot on the John fragment, Choat detected ink where it shouldn’t be. In another area, ink was absent where it should have been present.
Wrong dialect, line breaks that exactly replicated another manuscript, and now, misplaced ink: To Choat, the most logical explanation was forgery.

The line that really stood out to me though was this one: “For now, though, it is hard to find anyone who will defend the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife as authentic.”

You can read the whole article at the Boston Globe’s website.

King with GJW.

The Apocalypse Project (Wuppertal)

I am pleased to announce the latest major inquiry into the text of the Greek New Testament. At the beginning of this month, a team based at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal-Bethel has started work on an Editio Critica Major of the book of Revelation in partnership with the INTF-directed Editio Critica Maior series. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Fund) has funded the initiative. Martin Karrer is the primary investigator. Ulrich Schmid is playing a leading role in deploying the latest relevant technological innovations. The project will progress in three phases with a completed edition hopefully after approximately ten years.
At least two from our blogroll will be active in the project. For the next two and a half years, I will be editing the Sahidic text of the Apocalypse. In a year, Martin Heide will begin creating an edition of the Syriac. I am fortunate to be able to conduct my research in Münster, which is a world center for Coptology as well as New Testament textual criticism. My colleagues at the INTF have repeatedly surpassed my expectations with their kindness and Gastfreundschaft! ...not to mention patience for my rudimentary German.
In coming months, I will say a bit more about the project. I am excited that Alin Suciu has discover a new fragment of the Sahidic Apocalypse which he has also identified as deriving from the same codex as other already-known leaves.

Check Out Askeland's Webpage

Check out our co-blogger Christian Askeland's webpage!

Christian is writing his dissertation in Cambridge under Peter Williams' supervision. He has just finished a review of Coptic biblical scholarship and is now writing another chapter on Graeco-Coptic language contact. He has also started a chapter on the Sahidic versions of John's gospel, which I assume is the nucleus of his study. There will apparently be three other chapters with various lists and summaries. I had quite a number of such lists in my own dissertation so I know what Christian is talking about. Christian hopes to have his work finished before June. We very much look forward to that!

If you have the chance to attend the SBL Annual Meeting in New Orleans, do take the opportunity to listen to Christian's paper on a Coptic MS of John believed to omit the final chapter. This paper is presented in the program unit Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception, on 11/21/2009, 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM, Room: Esterwood - SH.

Abstract:

Was there a Coptic Translation of John’s Gospel Without Chapter 21?
The narrative discourse of John’s gospel has compelled many, if not most, modern Johannine scholars to assert that chapter 21 was a later addition. Until recently, there was no published evidence for a text of John’s gospel lacking this final chapter. At least two scholars have argued that a Sahidic manuscript in the holdings of the Bodleian library offers such evidence (Bodleian MS. Copt.e.150(P)). This paper will examine the testimony of this fragment, and will attempt to estimate its value in the discussion of the history of the biblical text. The presentation will also explore the paleographic and codicological aspects of the manuscript and its relevance to the study of the fourth gospel.

Current PhD students in New Testament in Cambrige are found here, where you will also find Peter William's second PhD student, Jim Leonard, our most recent ETC blogmember.