Sixty Manuscripts Available in the Virtual Manuscript Room (Münster)

Great things are happening in the Virtual Manuscript Room of Münster. Note that the URL has been changed. You can always reach the VMR in Münster and Birmingham, respectively, through the sidebar of this blog.

There are now (as of 11 January, 2010) sixty MSS in the VMR, twenty-four papyri, three majuscules and thirty-three minuscules. However, half of the manuscripts are only available in the "Expert Mode" for which special registration is necessary. The expert mode was announced on 30 November and launched on 12 December 2009. Here is the announcement in my translation:

In cooperation with the holding institutions, the INTF offers access to New Testament manuscripts. In this way, the INTF pursues the goal to be able to make manuscripts freely accessible to all users. In consideration of holding institutions, however, many manuscripts, can still not be made available at this point. In these cases the images are only available to a small circle of experts that are registered in the entry system. The entry system will soon be launched [2009-12-09]. Manuscripts without restrictions are available as before, but also thumbnails and transcriptions (when available) of restricted manuscripts. (2009-11-30).

Read also about the recent visit at the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung by Bundespräsident Horst Köhler in connection with the 50th anniversary of the institute here. I suppose this was the official celebration Klaus Wachtel mentioned in a comment to my anniversary note last year. In any case, I am happy to see the work of the institute being widely acclaimed by key persons in the state and the academy.

Oldest hebrew inscription

A potential oldest Hebrew inscription is announced

Article with picture and small transcription: see article

Another article with proposed English translation of text: here

Bodmer 25 (Greg.-Aland 556) On-line

The tetraevangelion Bodmer 25=Greg.-Aland 556 has now been digitized and is available at E-codices (Virtual manuscript library of Switzerland) here (via Jac Perrin who suggested to the people in charge that the MS be digitized.)



There are many, many more digitized MSS out there – we have mentioned many on this blog. A few examples that I have looked at recently: the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich has put some Greek MSS on-line, including Gr. 472 (fols. 1-2, 372-373 = Greg.-Aland L1570) here.

Two other MSS that have been on-line for many years are Magdalen College, Oxford MS. Gr. 7 = Greg.-Aland 1907 and Gr. 9 = Greg.-Aland 57.

The Epistle of Jude on Sale at Eisenbrauns

Twenty-three titles from the Swedish series Coniectanea Biblical Old/New Testament Series are on sale (20-60% off) in a "Manager's Special" during the month of January at Eisenbrauns here.

Titles include my monograph The Epistle of Jude: Its Text and Transmission.

Read more and order here.





I would also like to especially recommend the monograph by my colleague Lennart Boström:

The God of the Sages
The Portrayal of God in the Book of Proverbs
by Lennart Bostrom
Coniectanea Biblica Old Testament Series - CBOTS 29
Almqvist and Wiksell, 1990. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9122013407
List Price: $33.00
Your Price: $26.40

Read more here.

News from Amsterdam: New Testament Conjectural Emendation: A Comprehensive Enquiry

Jan Krans has posted a notice about funding (600,000 Euros) for this project (which includes two PhD students - so get onto Jan if you are thinking about a PhD).

Two PhD students will participate in the project. The first will investigate the second half of the eighteenth century, when the problem of the New Testament text becomes fully visible for the first time. The second will investigate the second half of the nineteenth century, during which many radical proposals for textual emendations were made, especially in the Netherlands. A post-doc researcher will write a general history of New Testament conjectures and conjectural criticism. A database of thoroughly documented important conjectures will be connected to the standard edition of the Greek New Testament (Editio Critica Maior) which is currently being prepared in Münster and Birmingham.

Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams in Search for Jesus and Papyrus 45

Somewhat surprising, Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams is involved in the search for "the real Jesus of the Gospels" as part of a new seven-part television series for Channel 4 called "The Bible: A History." Adams is one of seven commentators who will explore the Bible "from their own, very personal, perspective". Adam's episode will focus on Jesus' teachings on "love, forgiveness, and repentance". Adams will both meet scholars who put Jesus in historical context and victims of violence in Northern Ireland.

In a statement Channel 4 says that Mr Adams, "as a former supporter of political violence" would also examine the "contradiction between Jesus' teachings and the involvement of Christians, and followers of other faiths, in conflict the world over. Further, Ralph Lee of Channel 4 says the programme will "offer an insight into how a man so strongly associated first with conflict and then with peace in Northern Ireland, has reconciled his religion with the decisions he has taken in his life".

Read the whole story at BBC News here.

The Daily Mail, on the other hand, reports on the outrage it has caused as "Channel 4 invites Gerry Adams to preach... on forgiveness." Apparently, the former Tory minister Lord Tebbit, who was injured in an IRA bombing in 1984, burst out laughing when he heard about Gerry Adams's programme, and said: 'I wish him well. And I hope he also comes across the doctrine of hell and the consuming of pernicious unrepentant murderers and sinners in general by the fires of hell for all eternity."

It has come to my knowledge that the English film crew that produces this particular episode has recently visited the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin to shoot the significant Gospel MS Chester Beatty Biblical 1 (P45). (Note that the proper designation is Chester Beatty Biblical 1, or I, not Chester Beatty 1; the latter is in fact another manuscript, an ancient Egyptian Love Poem, published in the 1920's.)

See image and brief description of P45 here.

See also the on-line exhibition of Chester Beatty Biblical 2 (P46), "In the Footsteps of Saint Paul" including manuscript images.