My former collegue and friend in Lund, Dieter Mitternacht, have asked me to post a note about the web-based course "Christianity" that the theological faculty of Lund University are offering:
"The course 'Christianity' (TEO D01, 30 ECTS credits) explores the origins and varieties of Christianity throughout the world today. It traces Christianity's development from a local group of Jesus followers to a worldwide movement of faith communities, the formation of Christian doctrines and identities and the emergence and reception of the Bible as Christian Scriptures.
The course is offered entirely through internet communication technology, providing maximal accessibility and independence of location so that whoever wishes can enroll from anywhere on the globe."
Read more at the website of the course: http://www.teol.lu.se/teod01/
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Two new manuscripts from Oxyrhynchus
In one of the afternoons of the Oxford Conference on the Synoptic Problem we had a trip to the Papyrology Rooms at the Sackler Library. We had a helpful introduction to the collection from the curator, Dr Daniela Colomo, and then we passed around some manuscripts (including portions of the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Peter [well, maybe], the LXX and the NT), including one of the two NT manuscripts published in vol 72 of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. This has only just been published, and the images are not yet on-line, but the basic details are as follows:
P. Oxy 4844 = P123, IVth Cent, 1 Cor 14.31-34; 15.3-6; images here.
P. Oxy 4845 = P124, VIth Cent, 2 Cor 11.1-4, 6-9; images here.
Up-date: These are now listed on the up-date site at Munster (here), so I have been able to add their identification in the NT papyri list.
Up-date II: I have added links to the images and some more details from the publication in Oxy Pap 72.
P. Oxy 4844 = P123, IVth Cent, 1 Cor 14.31-34; 15.3-6; images here.
P. Oxy 4845 = P124, VIth Cent, 2 Cor 11.1-4, 6-9; images here.
Up-date: These are now listed on the up-date site at Munster (here), so I have been able to add their identification in the NT papyri list.
Up-date II: I have added links to the images and some more details from the publication in Oxy Pap 72.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Ehrman/Wallace Debate II
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to attend the Greer-Heard lectures which we have announced on this blog several times. However, summaries, analyses and photo's are available at the blog "if i were a bell, i'd ring".
I have indexed most of them here:
I have indexed most of them here:
- "Rules of the Game"
- Ehrman's presentation
- Wallace's presentation
- Ehrman's response
- Wallace's response
- Ehrman's second response
- Wallace's second response
- "Final Friday thoughts"
- Michael Holmes' session
- More thoughts on Holmes' session
- Dale Martin's session
- More thoughts
- Parker's session
- More thoughts
- Bill Warren's session
- Concluding statements
- Greer-Heard: Final thoughts
Kurt Weitzmann in Dictionary of Art Historians
I would like to draw the attention to a nice web-resource, Dictionary of Art Historians, which is a growing biographical dictionary of Historic Scholars, Museum Professionals and Academic Historians of Art, with many entries of interest for our readers.
As an example, here is an extract from the entry for Kurt Weitzmann, the giant on manuscript illumination:
"In 1932 he married fellow Goldschmidt student Josepha Fielder (b. 1904). Although not Jewish himself, his association with Goldschmidt, a Jew, and his refusal to join the Nazi party in order to teach as a Dozent at the University mandated his leaving Germany. He left Berlin for Princeton University in 1935, where he remained the rest of his life teaching and writing. His wife followed in 1938. At Princeton, he was a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study, initially engaged in preparing a corpus of illustrated manuscripts of the Septuagint with Charles Rufus Morey (q.v.) and Albert M. Friend, Jr., (q.v.). In 1938 he began his long association with Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard’s research center for Byzantine studies, presenting the paper, “Principals of Byzantine Book Illumination,” even before the center was fully established. In 1945, he succeeded Morey as professor in the department of art history. He and Friend conducted a manuscript seminar until Weitzmann’s retirement. His most influential book, Illustrations in Roll and Codex, a distillation of his principles of manuscript interpretation, appeared in 1947 (later revised and reissued in 1970). He held visiting positions at Yale (1954-55). In 1956 he began his long research association with the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai. On his first visit he examined and photographed 2,000 manuscripts. Subsequent visits were sponsored by the Alexandria-Michigan-Princeton Expedition directed by George Forsyth (q.v.). In 1960 he was visiting professor at Alexandria University. Weitzmann presented a manuscript seminar at the Universität Bonn in 1962. Together with Ernst Kitzinger (q.v.) he organized the 1965 Dumbarton Oaks conference on Byzantine contribution to the art of the West of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Named emeritus in the department in 1972, he relinquished his Institute appointment, to be a visiting scholar at Dumbarton Oaks, 1972-1974. In 1977, Weitzmann organized an exhibition and symposium (with Margaret Frazer) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, entitled, “The Age of Spirituality.” The show recapped Weitzmann’s originality in looking at the range of early medieval objects which both showed the unity of the objects and the adoption of pagan images into new meanings. In 1990 his St. Catherine’s Monastery research began to appear in book form. The first, published in collaboration with George Galvaris, was The Illuminated Manuscripts. . ."
Read the whole entry here.
I just wonder what it would have been like to be a student at Princeton some decades ago, going from one seminar with Weitzmann to the next with Metzger . . .
As an example, here is an extract from the entry for Kurt Weitzmann, the giant on manuscript illumination:
"In 1932 he married fellow Goldschmidt student Josepha Fielder (b. 1904). Although not Jewish himself, his association with Goldschmidt, a Jew, and his refusal to join the Nazi party in order to teach as a Dozent at the University mandated his leaving Germany. He left Berlin for Princeton University in 1935, where he remained the rest of his life teaching and writing. His wife followed in 1938. At Princeton, he was a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study, initially engaged in preparing a corpus of illustrated manuscripts of the Septuagint with Charles Rufus Morey (q.v.) and Albert M. Friend, Jr., (q.v.). In 1938 he began his long association with Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard’s research center for Byzantine studies, presenting the paper, “Principals of Byzantine Book Illumination,” even before the center was fully established. In 1945, he succeeded Morey as professor in the department of art history. He and Friend conducted a manuscript seminar until Weitzmann’s retirement. His most influential book, Illustrations in Roll and Codex, a distillation of his principles of manuscript interpretation, appeared in 1947 (later revised and reissued in 1970). He held visiting positions at Yale (1954-55). In 1956 he began his long research association with the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai. On his first visit he examined and photographed 2,000 manuscripts. Subsequent visits were sponsored by the Alexandria-Michigan-Princeton Expedition directed by George Forsyth (q.v.). In 1960 he was visiting professor at Alexandria University. Weitzmann presented a manuscript seminar at the Universität Bonn in 1962. Together with Ernst Kitzinger (q.v.) he organized the 1965 Dumbarton Oaks conference on Byzantine contribution to the art of the West of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Named emeritus in the department in 1972, he relinquished his Institute appointment, to be a visiting scholar at Dumbarton Oaks, 1972-1974. In 1977, Weitzmann organized an exhibition and symposium (with Margaret Frazer) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, entitled, “The Age of Spirituality.” The show recapped Weitzmann’s originality in looking at the range of early medieval objects which both showed the unity of the objects and the adoption of pagan images into new meanings. In 1990 his St. Catherine’s Monastery research began to appear in book form. The first, published in collaboration with George Galvaris, was The Illuminated Manuscripts. . ."
Read the whole entry here.
I just wonder what it would have been like to be a student at Princeton some decades ago, going from one seminar with Weitzmann to the next with Metzger . . .
Friday, April 04, 2008
Ehrman/Wallace Debate
Daniel Wallace will be debating Bart Ehrman on The Textual Reliability of the New Testament. The debate is part of the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum, a ministry of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Here's the announcement from DTS:
Here's the announcement from DTS:
On April 4-5, 2008, Dr. Dan Wallace, professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas, will participate in a debate with Dr. Bart Ehrman, chair of the department of religious studies at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, over the textual reliability of the New Testament.For more information, please visit http://www.greer-heard.com/.
HT: Phil Gons
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Textual Criticism and Synoptics, the Case of ευθυς
On the importance of textual criticism in synoptic studies: the case of ευθυς.
I have always viewed ευθυς as a nice marker of Matthew's use of Mark. But then again, I have always been, and am currently, a textual Alexandrian, though with room for doubt. [Was there really a 4th century Byzantine redaction that purged most Alexandrian influence?]
In the Westcott-Hort text and the Moulton-Geden concordance:
Matthew uses ευθεως 10 [11] times 4.20, 22, 8.3, 13.5, [14.22], 31, 20.34, 24.29, 25.15, 26.49, 27.48.
Matthew also uses ευθυς 7 times 3.16, 13.20, 21, 14.27, 21.2, 3, 26.74.
Mark never uses ευθεως.
Mark uses ευθυς 40 [41] times 1.10, 12, 18, 20, 21, 23, 28, 29, 30, 42, 43, 2.8, 12, 3.6, 4.5, 15, 16, 17, 29, [5.2], 29, 30, 42, 42, 6.25, 27, 45, 50, 54, 7.25, 8.10, 9.15, 20, 24, 10.52, 11.2, 3, 14.43, 45, 72, 15.1.
Since ευθυς is a Marcanism, the probable conclusion is that Matthew has borrowed seven examples of ευθυς from Mark, but himself prefers ευθεως. This becomes a clear trace-element. Just what forensics want on a CSI investigation.
Let's look at the Byzantine text.
The Byzantine text has ευθεως 40 times and ευθυς 2 [Mk 1.12, and 1.28].
Neither of the examples of ευθυς in Byz Mark have an ευθυς in Matthew! Byz Mark 1.12 is parallel to a Matthean narrative-τοτε, a distinctive Mattheanism that is not picked up in Mark anywhere. Byz Mark 1.28 is 'Marcan material' that has no equivalent in Matthew [Byz or Alex].
What is remarkable, is that regarding ευθυς/ευθεως in the Byzantine text the literary flow Mark to Matthew does not exist. Yet the Alexandrian text has a clear literary flow from Mark to Matthew on this point. Alexandrians can point to ευθυς as evidence that Matthew used Mark. But that datum is only as strong as the textual theory.
This is offered to Peter Head, who will be speaking on this subject more broadly at an upcoming synoptic studies conference. For fuller discussion and data see my blog http://alefandomega.blogspot.com/2008/04/textual-criticism-and-synoptics-case-of.html
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