« When is a Combination of 1.86% and 0.26% Better than 1.8%?
Main
The Problem with Ballot Initiatives »

April 17, 2005

More Oxyrhynchus Papyri Read

Bartholomew's notes on religion reports exciting news for classical studies and possibly biblical studies also. Using multi-spectral imaging techniques Oxford University scholars have been able to read additional fragments from the vast and largely unread Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

The Independent from which Bartholomew quotes has the following:

The previously unknown texts, read for the first time last week, include parts of a long-lost tragedy - the Epigonoi ("Progeny") by the 5th-century BC Greek playwright Sophocles; part of a lost novel by the 2nd-century Greek writer Lucian; unknown material by Euripides; mythological poetry by the 1st-century BC Greek poet Parthenios; work by the 7th-century BC poet Hesiod; and an epic poem by Archilochos, a 7th-century successor of Homer, describing events leading up to the Trojan War. Additional material from Hesiod, Euripides and Sophocles almost certainly await discovery.

As Bartholomew says, ". . . there is the inevitable speculation about “lost Gospels” popping up." Of course, fragments of canonical gospels are well known from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri: Mathew, Luke and John are represented as well as the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's letters to the Romans, the Galatians and the Hebrews, the Epistles of James and Jude, and the Apocalypse of John. In addition, the papyri contain fragments of the following apocryphal gospels:

So it wound not be too surprising if previously unknown Gospels turned up.

Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt discovered the Oxyrhynchus Papyri during excavations starting in 1896 at El-Bahnasa in Egypt. Excavations continued until 1934. Most of the papyri are stored at Stacker Library in Oxford. The official site for the ongoing research is POxy: Oxyrhynchus Online . The Biblical Archaeology Society has an article on their site about the discovery and the papyri. The papyri range in age from the first century CE to the fourth century CE.

There's a lot more to come. There are over 400,000 fragments of these papyri and only a small number have been read or even readable until now.

Footnote:
Bartholomew first heard the story from Light of Reason.

Posted by DuaneSmith at April 17, 2005 10:29 AM | Read more on Archaeology |

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://WWW.telecomtally.com/cgi-bin/blog/mt-tb.cgi/94