E-Book Overview
For the reconstruction of early Christianity, the lives of early Christians, their world of ideas, their ways of living, and their literature. Early Christian manuscripts - documents and literary texts - are pivotal archaeological artefacts. However, the manuscripts often came to us in fragmentary conditions, incomplete or with gaps and missing lines. Others appear to form a corpus, belong to an archive, or are connected with each other as far as theme or purpose are concerned. The present collection comprises of nine essays about individual or a set of certain manuscripts. With their essays the authors aim to present special approaches to early Christian manuscripts and, consequently, demonstrate methodically how to deal with them. The scope of topics ranges from the reconstruction of fragmentary manuscripts to the significance of amulets and from the discussion of individual fragments to the handling of the known manuscripts of a specific Christian text or a whole archive of papyri.
E-Book Content
Early Christian Manuscripts
Texts and Editions for New Testament Study Edited by
Stanley E. Porter and Wendy J. Porter
Volume 5
Early Christian Manuscripts Examples of Applied Method and Approach
Edited by
Thomas J. Kraus & Tobias Nicklas
Leiden • boston 2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Early Christian manuscripts : examples of applied method and approach / edited by Thomas J. Kraus & Tobias Nicklas. p. cm. — (Texts and editions for New Testament study ; v. 5) Includes index. ISBN 978-90-04-18265-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Christian literature, Early—Manuscripts. I. Kraus, Thomas J., 1965– II. Nicklas, Tobias, 1967– III. Title. IV. Series. BR60.E27 2010 270.1—dc22
2010008596
ISSN 1574-7085 ISBN 978 90 04 18265 3 (harback) ISBN 978 90 04 19434 2 (e-book) Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.
Contents Editors’ Preface ............................................................................................ vii Introduction ................................................................................................. ix List of Contributors . ................................................................................... xiii Preface ........................................................................................................... xv Abstracts . ...................................................................................................... xvii Chapter One Reconstructing Fragmentary Manuscripts—Chances and Limitations . ...................................................................................... Thomas J. Kraus
1
Chapter Two Hunting for Origen in Unidentified Papyri: The Case of P.Egerton 2 (= inv. 3) ....................................................... Rachel Yuen-Collingridge
39
Chapter Three Papyrus Oxyrhynchus X 1224 ..................................... Paul Foster
59
Chapter Four Is P.Oxy. XLII 3057 the Earliest Christian Letter? .... Lincoln H. Blumell
97
Chapt