Here's an interesting article if only to show the depth of the research that scholars are willing to undertake in pursuit of an ancient text.
http://magazine.pepperdine.edu/2013/08/i...scoveries/
Interesting also that the earliest manuscript for this stuff is guessed at as third century but the papyrologists, Orsini and Clarysse have recently dated it to late 4th century. That would make it virtually identical to the Codex Vaticanus...allegedly our earliest complete "bible" even though it does not contain the Pastorals, Philemon, and Revelation (indicating that such shit was added later.)
Still, one needs to be impressed by the diligence of the scholars and students who worked on this. Rivals the work being put into the burned Villa of the Papyri trove at Herculaneum and surpassed only by the piecing together of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Unlike Indiana Jones, archaeologists rarely find this stuff in one piece.
http://magazine.pepperdine.edu/2013/08/i...scoveries/
Quote:For the past six months the Seaver College Religion Division has been studying a significant piece of religious history that could impact the way scholars and theologians translate and understand a part of the Bible.
The document, a small piece of vellum containing a partial copy of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans in Greek, dates to the third century and is the oldest copy of Romans chapters 4 and 5 known to exist. However, the decisive letter in the crucial word that would favor one or the other of two competing interpretations of Romans 5:1 is missing.
Interesting also that the earliest manuscript for this stuff is guessed at as third century but the papyrologists, Orsini and Clarysse have recently dated it to late 4th century. That would make it virtually identical to the Codex Vaticanus...allegedly our earliest complete "bible" even though it does not contain the Pastorals, Philemon, and Revelation (indicating that such shit was added later.)
Still, one needs to be impressed by the diligence of the scholars and students who worked on this. Rivals the work being put into the burned Villa of the Papyri trove at Herculaneum and surpassed only by the piecing together of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Unlike Indiana Jones, archaeologists rarely find this stuff in one piece.
