After an always exhausting and worrisome trip over the ‘Pond,’ I arrived in London with three friends on August 16 (or, as the Brits say, 16 August).

Exhausting? Yes, because I choose not to go to sleep the night before flights to Europe so that I can sleep on the plane. OK, maybe ‘choose’ is too strong of a word. The reality is that I have so much work to do before I leave for the airport that I don’t have time to sleep. But it’s a great plan for curing jetlag. Of course, if there are crying babies in the vicinity, then my scheme fails miserably. Or if one of our team happens to lose his lunch due to a migraine and turbulence, and if he happens to be my son, it’s hard to fall asleep. It’s also exhausting hauling 17 large pieces of luggage, paying the increasingly exorbitant extra luggage costs, and wondering if we’ll ever see our bags again. If we don’t, the expedition is over before it begins.

But worrisome? I admit: I’m a worrier. I wish I weren’t. I wish I trusted God much more, especially since he has a pretty decent track record with me. I wish I didn’t get heartburn as I park my big derriere in a tiny seat and try to take my mind off of all that we have to do. I wish I could just relax, believing that our gear is going to be OK, believing that we won’t have hassles from the passport folks or the customs agents when we land, believing that the four of us can haul everything to the next vehicle to take us somewhere without incident. I don’t relax until we get to our new home and I see that the gear is still in one piece. Even though it’s all insured, it’s a lot of delicate equipment. Each person is allowed to take one bag for personal belongings; the other 13 are for our work of photographing manuscripts. Continue Reading »

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The famous codex from St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mt. Sinai, Egypt has begun to show up on the Internet. A joint project between the British Library, the University of Leipzig, the National Library in St. Petersburg, and St. Catherine’s Monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai, Egypt, has been underway for some time now. All four institutes own portions of this manuscript (with the BL owning the largest section, the complete New Testament—which, incidentally, is the oldest complete New Testament by half a millennium!). The project to post these images on-line has involved new digital photography and some slick search-capable tools.

One can see the images already posted by going to this site: http://www.codex-sinaiticus.net/en/

Unfortunately, only selections from the codex are on-line currently. The entire codex should be up by July 2009.

CSNTM has the complete NT on its site, but our images are digital photographs from the 1911 black-and-white folio photographs (http://www.csntm.org/Manuscripts/GA%2001/). Continue Reading »

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I’m in England right now, photographing ancient New Testament manuscripts housed at various colleges of Cambridge University. The name ‘Cambridge’ evokes respect, wonder, even a certain awe. It’s a conglomerate of 31 colleges, spreading out from the 13th century on, and sprawling out from the center of town (which is, technically, Great St Mary’s Church, across from King’s College). (One of the most recent, Darwin College, is shaped like Noah’s ark to mock the biblical story of the flood and creation. But Trinity College, where Isaac Newton taught, allows no Trinitarians into its halls; I understand that one has to be an atheist, or at least an agnostic to be a part of that college, whose focus is mostly on mathematics and the sciences.) The street names change every block—a most irritating feature for those of us who are already directionally challenged. (When I was living here during one of my sabbaticals, when walking home from the grocery store one day I got so lost that the milk soured by the time I got home!) But the street names also have a certain logic for they are often named after the most prominent institute on that street. Thus, King’s Parade is named after King’s College; Queens’ Lane after Queens’ College, etc.

Well, after a terribly busy week shooting manuscripts, we decided to take a break on Saturday and visit the Orchard in Grantchester, just a couple miles from Cambridge. The Orchard is on a spot that has been frequented by Cambridge students and alumni for over seven hundred years. But in the early twentieth century, it took on a new significance. A shack was bought by an entrepreneurial litterateur (Rupert Brooke, poet) who shared it with his colleages. Seven friends would come here frequently to talk about life, love, logic, and literature. Famous friends, too: Forster and Virginia Woolf, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Maynard Keynes (economist), and Augustus John (artist).

These were not your normal pillars of the community. They were wild, creative, energetic, passionate, troubled, deeply feeling individuals. Wittgenstein, the brilliant logician-philosopher, came from a family full of musicians and artists, and full of inner turmoil. Three of his four brothers had committed suicide. Virginia Woolf, the novelist, was in many ways a free spirit—freedom that bore deep and passionate literary fruit. She later committed suicide because of the challenges of facing depression. Bertrand Russell, a genius in math, logic, and philosophy, and a social activist whose views anticipated the great social revolutions of the 60s, fit in well with this group. Augustus John lived with two wives and ten naked children who ran wild in the woods near Cambridge. And the list goes on. But my point is simple: these were creative geniuses, social odd-balls, comrades in countercultural values. But they weren’t just that; they also changed the world in which we live. They changed the way we think and talk about life, love, logic, and literature.

So here we were, sitting at a table having tea and crumpets at the world-famous Orchard, thinking about the great thinkers who had gone before. And we wrestled with the thread that seemed to bind them all together: they were not normal. They were troubled souls, in deep turmoil, social outcasts to some degree, yet with such innate qualities that society could not ignore them. In the end, society embraced their views and their lifestyles and those of others like them in other orchards in other parts of the world.

It got me to thinking: First Continue Reading »

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N.B. RMMers, this email is something that my little old gray-haired mother sent to a long-time friend recently. Many of you can relate to the bombardment of factoids on your computer from well-meaning friends and conservative spam-generators. You may not agree with Nayda Wallace about her viewpoints, but I trust that you’ll see some good wisdom here nonetheless. I have found her missive to be a very articulate statement about how conservatives (both politically and religiously) should integrate politics with Christian beliefs. There is a priority scheme here that focuses on kingdom ethics and on Christ Jesus. Mom, thanks for your continued wisdom and sage advice that you have shown now for more than five decades of my life.

Dear _________,

Whereas I usually agree politically with most of what you say, I don’t always agree that we must repeat the message to our liberal loved ones. Here’s why (choose whichever reason you prefer): 1) I have a stronger message for them (especially if they don’t know it already), and that is that Jesus loves them. 2) As Joe Aldrich used to say, “when love is felt, the message is heard.” 3) If # 2 is true the message will not be heard if it is mixed with capitalized Obama factoids (some of which are highly suspect as to being fact). 4) I don’t believe that the conservatives are the good guys and the liberals are the bad guys. However, I do believe that some of the strong points of each party are worth merit and many of each party are not worth merit. And I do agree with more of the conservative basics than the liberal ones. 5) I don’t believe we live in a black and white world except in matters of faith. And even then, I have reduced my matters of faith to just what I believe the Bible teaches absolutely! I like the way Dan explains it and it is thus: “The older I get and the more I study, I find I believe less and less but that which I do believe, I believe more and more.” (Apologies to Dan as I paraphrased from memory.) (In other words, no arguments about “dunking or sprinkling,” which version of the Bible was the one Paul used, and whether I would stake my life on post-trib or pre-trib rapture—either way, I want to be there!) 6) I don’t believe Jesus died for a political party, but for sinners…including Democrats, Republicans, Muslims, and HORRORS, even Nazis! I do believe that conservatives are frequently arrogant about that fact. 7) Hence, although I read what you send, and digest it, and frequently save it on my computer, I seldom send it on because I want my relationship with these loved ones based on my love for them which is only possible because I’m forgiven. Having said all that, I admit to storing little bits of political trivia in my ancient brain to recall at moments of opportunity. Always couched in the greater truth that the body politic is not the end-all, be-all in God’s kingdom. And having said all that, I nevertheless really enjoyed the ad the conservative businessman placed in the paper. It took guts and conviction, traits which are frequently in short supply. And so for it’s worth, your passion is admirable. Your consistency is …well…consistent! And even though I commented that I might have enough guts to forward certain items on, I actually knew I wouldn’t. I will, however, store it away as a possible topic of conversation at the rare opportune moment. End of sermon for the day.

Love, Nayda B.

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By the time you read this blog post, I will be back in Athens, coming off a week-long expedition to the island of Lesbos. Yes, Lesbos. This is the third largest of the 2000 Greek islands. And yes, it’s the place where the name ‘lesbian’ comes from. The reason for the name and its association with female-to-female sex is due to the classical Greek poet, Sappho. She lived here on Lesbos and founded a finishing school for girls. Apparently (the historical documents need to be pieced together, if I recall), part of what she taught in the school was how to love one’s husband. But since it was inappropriate for the girls to be with men, they were taught such techniques by older women. Hence, the name lesbian.

The Lesbians actually don’t care much for their name being co-opted by a socio-political group with an agenda. One of the ways they’ve dealt with the problem is to have an alternate name for the island: Mytilene. But no one here, as far as I know, is known as a Mytilenian.

One travel guide book mentioned that one could frequently see women holding hands on Lesbos, since the island was a magnet for such people. The only problem with this statement is that European girls in general hold hands with each other, without any sexual connotations at all. We’ve seen absolutely nothing unusual here, nothing out of the ordinary for the rest of Europe.

But that’s not what brought us to Lesbos in the first place. We finished our photographic work on Patmos and decided to spend a week on another Greek island in search of manuscripts. Lesbos has one of the largest collections of any Greek island, so we decided to come here. The manuscripts are to be found in something like seven monasteries, spread all over the island, and two other places. That’s the interesting part of the story. One of those other places is a high school! It’s an old ‘gymnasium,’ founded in 1840, and dedicated to the highest levels of learning. They even have a professor who is earning his doctorate in paleography at Oxford University. Pretty impressive place. The gymnasium (now called the Experimental Lyceum of Mytilene) is in downtown Mytilene, but it took us a day and a half to find it. We knew of two Greek New Testament manuscripts there, but discovered that the real treasure is a third one, unknown to us previously. We are hoping to get permission to photograph these manuscripts later this year; this trip was simply intended to make initial contact. We met Vasilis Vlachos, the Oxford-trained professor. Delightful fellow, good scholar.

The other place that was a surprise is an institute called ‘Club Benjamin.’ At least that was the name of the place listed in the Kurzgefasste Liste, the standard reference book on where New Testament manuscripts are located in the world. The K-Liste is basically a Bible on Bibles. We always bring a copy of it with us on expeditions.

Club Benjamin is in a town known as Plomari. That’s all the information we had. We drove to Plomari on hairpin mountain roads without guard rails. The drop off was deadly. The many crosses erected on the sides of this twisting, turning, tiny road are mute testimony to the treachery of driving in Greece. The one thing we didn’t want to do was to drive back in the dark.

Unfortunately, we arrived in Plomari a little late in the day due to my underappreciated navigational skills. (Anyone who knows me knows that I should never be assigned the navigator! I get lost going home!) Anyway, after a 40-mile detour, we finally found Plomari. But we didn’t find Club Benjamin. We got out of the car and asked all the locals if they had heard of the Club. No one had. We then drove another half a kilometer (on Lesbos, everything is allegedly half a kilometer away), right into the heart of this harbor town. We found some parking and Billy Todd, veteran of several Patmos expeditions, got out of the car and looked up at the two-story building right in front of us. The title of the old building was “Beniamin, o Lesbios.” Benjamin the Lesbian. Could this be the place? We found a way up to the second story (a back staircase) on this unnamed street. When we got up there, the folks in the place were surprised to see us there. In part, because we were younger than all the patrons by a good margin! This ‘club’ was not a nightclub, but a retirement home of sorts. It was a place where old, retired Greeks could play backgammon, billiards (though the pool table hadn’t been used in years), drink Ouzo, and gawk at the folks walking below in the town square. It was a place where gossip and old yarns could be spun without anyone looking at a watch. Very charming in its own way.

We noticed some glass-covered book shelves with some very old books in them. But the shelf number we were looking for was not there. So we spoke with one individual about what we were looking for, but he could hardly understand our impeccable English or Erasmian-slaughtered Greek. So, I wrote out in Greek what I wanted to say and he immediately placed a phone call. Answers were coming.

About 25 minutes later, the president of the ‘club’ and a friend came on the scene. It was about dusk now. We figured that we had better leave in the next few minutes if we were going to miss Death Trap Highway. I gave us fifteen tops before we could kiss our lives goodbye.

These gentlemen were most helpful, especially the friend. His English was excellent, making communication much easier. I asked where he learned it. He said, in a thick Australian accent, that he had been living down under for the past 44 years. Giorgio was just in town visiting old friends when the phone call came. Timing is everything.

We learned that the manuscript was no longer there, but we didn’t know where it was. Another phone call was placed and the owner of the club indicated that he had the manuscript in Athens currently (where he also happened to be). It was being photographed so that it could be published in a book, coming out next month.

Although this was disappointing news, we were able to buy a pre-release version of the facsimile with a handshake and exchange of some Euros. Before we could leave, however, food was served. Food and drinks and more old-timers showing up. Ouzo, the national drink of Greece, is especially big on Lesbos. The local Ouzo distillery was just a couple of kilometers away, and it had a great museum. The CEO of the distillery was soon at our table inviting us to take a tour of the place with him as our guide!

By the time we could say our goodbyes, daylight was a thing of the past. We were going to have to grope our way home on those unforgiving mountainous roads. When I thought that the Lord would surely protect us, I was reminded of the many crosses I had seen on the way to Plomari. Obviously, God doesn’t always work that way for his children. Sobering thoughts, but the kinds that get one to pray a bit harder.

As it turned out, driving in the dark ended up being a blessing in disguise. We could always see when an oncoming vehicle was approaching, and both could slow down and make the necessary adjustments. I suspect that many of the highway fatalities in Greece are due to small cars having to swerve to avoid big tourist busses that give no quarter. But our driver, Michael Schumacher (a.k.a. Brian Wright) himself gave no quarter. I’m just glad the police were sleeping off their Ouzo in other parts of the island!

Such are the adventures in looking for ancient copies of the New Testament. Now, we are back in our hotel—which has no telephone, no alarm clock, no television, and no air conditioning. And the Internet is unreliable, shutting down by 11 pm every night and hardly running well at other times. But since we’re on the coast, and the Aegean is especially calm tonight, I can get reception from another hotel half a kilometer away. Yes, half a kilometer away. Everything in Lesbos is half a kilometer away.

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Three days after I came home from our first expedition of the season (to Albania and Greece), I took off again—this time, on a road trip. With two other guys, we drove north to Ann Arbor to photograph the Greek New Testament manuscripts at the University of Michigan. UM boasts the largest collection of Greek NT MSS in America: 1 out 6 MSS are in their collection! We will be photographing all of them except for the papyri which have already been digitized.

Two teams went to Ann Arbor this week. Four people flew in and four drove. We are a little slow in setting up, but the library has cooperated marvelously with us. We are occupying four tables in the manuscript room—about one third of the whole room! Altogether, there are over 20,000 images to shoot. But to date, far and away the most challenging manuscript has been codex 2364, or shelf number MS 182. For starters, this is an ultra-tiny manuscript. It measures 3.5 inches by 2.75 inches—barely larger than the fragmentary leaf known as P52. Think of a 3 x 5 card and cut it in half. That’s pretty close to the size of this document. But it’s also just as thick as it is tall!

The text is 12th–13th century, and it includes the four Gospels. Yes, all of them. The handwriting is so small that it’s hard to believe that such delicate work could have been achieved eight hundred years ago. I am not sure how it would have been done; if anyone has a clue, I’d appreciate the information. The font size is about 3 points. It looks like this. So, not only is it difficult to imagine someone producing this text, it is also difficult to imagine the kind of person who could read it.

I prepared the manuscript for photography. It barely opens wide enough to photograph, which presents its own challenges. But in order to prep the manuscript, I had to measure dimensions, document content, check on the date, confirm shelf number, note how many columns and lines per column it has, record its material (parchment or paper), and list any other important material. Most manuscripts’ leaves are numbered, although there are almost always mistakes with these numbers. Usually a page is skipped or two others in sequence have the same number. The ‘wee beastie’ as we are affectionately calling this tiny text is unnumbered. This creates a significant problem for photography: we must have the same amount of recto (right) side images as verso (left) side images. If we don’t, then we have to go back through the manuscript and find the error. If we accidentally duplicate a page, it might take us 10–15 minutes to find out where. If we skip a page, it might take us double that time. The wee beastie needed to be numbered very, very accurately—yet we are not allowed to write the number in pencil in the text (which most manuscripts have). So, I took slips of paper, marked with the leaf numbers, and placed them after every ten leaves. After triple and quadruple checking every section, I was satisfied that I had probably gotten the leaf count right. (I ended up being wrong twice!) It came to an astounding 492 leaves. That computes to 984 pages! That was a challenge just to prepare for shooting.

We learned that Wee Beastie had never been microfilmed before. One of the librarians tried to take a few pictures of it recently, but gave up quickly. When I told her our nickname for the manuscript, she said that she had a much more vulgar term!

Finally, the photographers took their turn. The first 61 leaves are on paper—the text was written out in a much later hand to replace the leaves that had disappeared over the centuries. These leaves are made of paper. But starting on leaf 62, the manuscript is parchment. This continues on until leaf 326, when it reverts to paper. Just over half the manuscript is thus on the original parchment, while the rest is replacement leaves.

The binding is tight, which means that the photographers can’t open it very far. And with a tiny manuscript, even the slightest jostling of the table, even a gust coming across the manuscript as someone walks by, can cause the letters to blur. Further, the f-stop needs to be set very high so as to maximize depth of field focus. The higher the f-stop, the greater depth of focus can be achieved. But it comes at a price: the higher the f-stop, the longer the shutter is open. The reason this is necessary is because we’re dealing with proportions: a relatively flat page on a large manuscript that varies, say, ¼” across its face can be shot at a lower f-stop because proportionately it doesn’t vary very much. But on a tiny manuscript, the same variation is proportionately equal to a 1-2” dip in the page! We had to use f-16 for Wee Beastie; it requires a good five seconds of exposure for each page.

Three people were needed to shoot the manuscript: one computer operator and two ‘page turners.’ One person holds the manuscript in place by using one hand as a block to keep the manuscript from moving. She puts her hand under the black cloth, and with her other hand holds the verso side at a right angle to the page being shot. Another person holds the recto side in place, making sure to keep the fingers from getting in the way of the text. Small hands are needed for this work! And because the vellum leaves are so thin, a white sheet of paper needs to be placed behind the vellum on every shot. The text in many places has etched through the vellum so that only a silhouette of each letter can be discerned. The whole thing looks like a miniature stencil.

Tomorrow, we should be done shooting the Wee Beastie—a manuscript that has heretofore never been photographed and hardly ever read. And when the photography is done, the work of transcription begins. But instead of having to read tiny text through a magnifying glass, we will be able to blow up each image to about 30 square feet without any pixilation! Our goal of making the photographs more readable than the original in this case will become an uncontested claim. And another copy of the Word of God will be accessible for research and study.

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008. The day started at 11 am at the Greek Bible Institute in Pikermi, just outside of Athens. Late start because we thought driving to the famed monasteries of Meteora would take four hours. Four of us (Billy Todd, Tim Ricchuiti, Brian Wright, and Dan Wallace) shoehorned ourselves into a tiny car, and took off for the road north. But we were not prepared for what would await us today.

We took the E75 up the east coast of Greece’s mainland. For the most part, a very fine, modern highway. After we had traveled for about 2 & ½ hours, we got an email on Tim Ricchuiti’s cell phone from Jeff Baldwin, the director of the Greek Bible Institute and a former student of mine. Jeff grew up in Greece (his dad, Bill Baldwin, another Dallas Seminary grad, was the founder of the school decades ago) and is completely bilingual. He has many friends in low places (since he’s not Orthodox), but even low places here are sometimes high enough. As I said, we were headed for the monasteries built high up on top of rocks that ascend straight up into the heavens hundred of meters above the town below. We thought we would visit them today, and tomorrow see if we could examine some manuscripts there. The monasteries here have nearly 60 Greek New Testament manuscripts. In centuries past, the only way that people could get to the top of these rocks was to get pulled up on a rope. But once, when a rope broke, the rules changed. Now, there are steps to the heights. A veritable stairway to heaven. Led Zeppelin would be envious. We were eager with anticipation (as much as four Testoterone-laden eggheads can be). But the email from Jeff changed our plans instantly.

For the rest of the story, you’ll have to go to www.bible.org. The link to the essay is here.

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Spending another week on Patmos has been a great joy. It has occurred to me that I have not given you much of a detailed look at what it’s like to spend a day here, though. We walk up to the monastery after we park our car about 400 yards downhill. We’re all dressed in black (including long sleeve shirts) to honor the monks, even though it can get quite warm here. We enter the courtyard and receive stares from dozens of pairs of eyes belonging to faces from all over the world. (People wonder if we are priests. Two folks from an internationally known institution pontificated while we were a few feet away that we must be priests from a different sect, not knowing that we spoke English. We made the gentle correction.) We then enter the subterranean library to do our work. There we will be from 9.30 am until 1 pm.

The electricity is not particularly reliable and it’s very easy to trip the circuits. We cannot plug all of our computers and cameras into sockets, so we must bring batteries to backup at least one of the cameras. After breaking the circuits multiple times from minor infractions, we finally realized that we had to pull the plug to get the work done.

At about 9.45 am, the assistant librarian tells us that coffee is served. We go to the foyer and enjoy a cup of Greek coffee (non-filtered, with all the grounds in the bottom of the cup). Fifteen minutes later we’re back at the job. At 1 pm, we pack up for the day and exit the library. But our time at the monastery is not yet over.

Every day just before 1 pm, a priest rings the monastery bell, signaling that lunch is served in the dining room. Although there may be over 100 people visiting the monastery at that time, only a few are invited to the meal. This week has been especially busy with extra guests: two paleographers from Italy, and two more from Thessaloniki, have eaten with the monks, along with the four of us from CSNTM. The exact number of places are set. Only men are allowed in the dining room. We all file in and stand behind our chairs, standing in silence. The priests and monks (about half a dozen) meander in and stand behind their chairs. Finally, the abbot comes in, rings a small table bell, and prays over the meal. Then we all sit and eat while another priest reads ancient letters from the desert fathers. (Last year, he read from St. Chrysostom.) About 12-15 minutes into the meal, the abbot pounds his cane on the floor twice, signaling that the reading may cease and the priest may join those who are dining.

On normal days, the abbot will chime the table bell several minutes later, signaling the end of the meal. But on Fridays, things are different. Wednesdays and Fridays are fast days in the Orthodox world (a tradition that goes back to the Didache), and this means that meat and milk products are not allowed, as well as dessert (except for fruit) and wine. Wine is served with every lunch, so to not have it is a bit unusual. However, the wine carafes are still placed on the table. On Wednesday, those who are sensitive to Orthodox traditions will not drink the wine, even though they have the opportunity to do so.

On Fridays, things are a little different. A few minutes later, the abbot chimes the table bell once again. This signals that the fast is over: the priests start pouring the wine, which signals that the guests may do the same. A few minutes after that, the abbot chimes the bell one more time, then all the priests and then the guests rise to their feet. The abbot prays a concluding prayer, and the priests all file out. The abbot and one other priest stand at the door while the rest of the priests and monks walk out of the room, with head bowed. Then the guests walk out, also with head bowed (or they should be!). It does not matter how much one has eaten, the meal is over when the abbot rings the final chime. (However, last year the abbot told us that we may stay to eat more and were not required to leave with the rest. We said that we wished to honor the monastery and not be singled out for special privileges, so we have always exited the dining room with the monks and priests.)

Very interesting meal time! And not one for idle chit-chat (or any chit-chat, for that matter). We are there to be nourished in body and soul by the healthful meals and the reading of saints of old.

After our time at the monastery, we spent a few hours wrestling with where to go next since we finished our work here sooner than we had budgeted for. We decided to go to the island of Lesbos. There are eight monasteries there that have New Testament manuscripts. Please pray for travel mercies and open doors as we try to get into the monasteries to at least look at the manuscripts and, we hope, photograph them as well. We are all a bit weary from hauling all our luggage around, but we have two more weeks of work to do. Already the expedition has been a great success, and the rest of our time is up to us to use wisely. We are hoping to get into several sites in Greece before returning to the States. Pray for open doors!

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May 24, 2008: The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts has sent a team to Albania for the second year in a row. Four of us are here in Tirana as I write this. The National Archive opened wide its doors to us today. We began in earnest, setting up the cameras to do UV photography. We had to borrow some poster boards and duct tape them to the windows. By the time we could start shooting with UV photography, everything went at a good clip. We brought two UV lamps which really sped up the process. With one, it can take up to 30 seconds to shoot one page. With two lamps, that was cut down to less than 10 seconds.

The UV photography is necessary for pages that are water damaged, faint from wear, erased by a later scribe, smudged, and the like. Even with our new 21 megapixel camera, such pages cannot be shot successfully without black light.

We were able to photograph more than one fourth of the pages that we are scheduled to shoot this week. We are scheduled to be here only one week, so time is of the essence.

After we finish our duty here, we will fly to Athens next Saturday and take an 8-hour ferry to Patmos. With seventeen (!) large pieces of luggage in tow, this is no picnic.

Please pray for continued mercy from our Lord as we seek to please him in all we do. And pray, if you would, that we could receive donations of frequent flyer miles from friends. The cost of travel has risen considerably since last year’s expeditions, and even checked-in luggage is starting to cost. Our budget this year was based on an anticipated rise in costs, but not one that has gone up as significantly as this. If any of you are interested in donating some miles, please write to miles@csntm.org.

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Even though the full document of the Evangelical Manifesto appeared last Wednesday, I have not had a chance to read it until now. And I must say, it’s far more impressive (and longer!) than I expected. It answers the objections that many raised to the notion that to believe in a Christ who is above politics is to believe in the real Jesus and is to be a real Christian. I was fascinated by those who signed this document—folks on the far left politically and those on the far right.

I do have some problems with the Evangelical Manifesto, however. But the problems are not intellectual, nor political, nor ideological. Rather, they are problems with me. There is a strong call to community repentance here, and it begins with the framers of this document. There is a recognition that all of us who go by the name ‘Evangelical’ are in need of repentance. I felt convicted over many things.

Most importantly, there is a calling of every Evangelical to reaffirm the lordship of Jesus Christ and to live in such a way that reflects his lordship. C. S. Lewis’ biographer said that Lewis was the most thoroughly converted person he’d ever known. It has been my desire to follow in Lewis’ train, but I have failed more often than I can tell.

I am so refreshed by the Evangelical Manifesto that I decided to sign the document. I was surprised, frankly, to find only a few score of signatories thus far. One of the original signers lamented that the secular media simply are not sure what to make of this document because of its call to community repentance. It’s like they’re reading Greek. They have no category for such an idea. I have been assured that the explanation that is to follow will put things in terms that can be understood by the secular media, but the fact that the document did not yet do this fully is the reason that the news of this document has not gained much media attention.

I would like to propose that the readers of Parchment & Pen who would consider themselves to be Evangelical sign the document. We need to get thousands of signatures—tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. If you feel as I do that this document reflects your views, sign it.

Here’s the link

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OK, I admit it: this is shameless of me. It’s tactless, mercenary, and almost despicable. Nevertheless, I’m going forth with it because I believe that, in this case, the ends justify the means. Not that I’ve changed my ethical convictions, but rather than the ends are so vital that a “certain moral flexibility” (as Martin Blank said in his self-description in Grosse Point Blank) is tolerable. And if not tolerable, at least I can always ask for forgiveness (I’ll take that route over asking for permission any day! (;-)).

Here’s my spiel: This past Saturday evening was the annual fundraiser dinner for the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. As many of you know, we are trying to raise $500,000 for 15 months’ worth of photographic expeditions, starting next month. After the fundraiser, we now have over $150,000 toward that lofty goal. We are extremely grateful to all who have contributed to the work of digitally preserving ancient copies of the Word of God. We did a new thing at the dinner, and it’s something that I’d like to pass on to you who live in the USA. We had some blow-ups of manuscript photographs for sale. The size was 18” x 24”. Each was laminated and was glued to a stiff backboard. The resolution was outstanding. Each picture is numbered on the back; we will only make 500 copies. Then no more. Each comes with a certificate giving the details of what’s in the image, including the age of the manuscript, the text, etc. (A much briefer description is found below.)

The images are for sale at $150 apiece. Half of that money constitutes a tax-deductible donation to CSNTM; half is the market price of the image. Shipping is extra: $10 for the continental US. Many of you live in the Dallas area and could pick up the picture yourself, thus saving on shipping costs. Some of you may wish to add more to the check as a donation to CSNTM. We’ll note the difference and send you a statement to that effect.

Please understand that the reason I’m making these available to you is because I believe in what CSNTM is doing. Our goal of photographing as many as 200,000 manuscript pages during the next 15 months requires a great deal of funding. If you believe in what we are doing, then owning a piece of history while supporting our efforts may well be a win-win opportunity for you. We urge you to partner with us in this endeavor. And, of course, we urge you to invest in RMM, since that ministry is how you found out about CSNTM and since it is doing an awesome and unique work for the Lord!

These pictures are suitable for framing and would be a great conversation piece in your home. They also would look marvelous in church hallways, offices, classes. And they immediately pique one’s interest in the transmission of the text of scripture. In that respect, they become springboards, as educational tools, into the reliability of the biblical manuscripts as pointers to the essential teaching of scripture.

I’m attaching low-res images of these pictures below, followed by a brief description. If you’re interested in purchasing such a picture, please send the check to the following address:

CSNTM
5729 Lebanon Road
Suite 144, #403
Frisco, TX 75034

Make sure to specify which picture you are purchasing on your check. Allow 4 weeks for delivery.

1. “John the Apostle”: An icon of St. John, as he is sitting in the Cave of the Apocalypse on the island of Patmos, writing the Gospel of John. This is from codex 676, a 13th century Greek Gospels manuscript.

2. “Lectionary 2276”: a portion of a text that would have been read for a particular day, this leaf is of John 13.31-14.3. It thus starts with “Now the Son of Man is glorified” and ends with “I will come again.” The color photograph especially shows the beauty of the rubrication (red lettering).

3. “Codex 2882”: This is a 10th-11th century Greek manuscript of the Gospel of Luke. Although it is probably the least attractive of the four images, it is probably the most important. The text on the image begins with Luke 1.21 (“Now the people were waiting for Zechariah”) and ends with Luke 1.33 (“And his kingdom will never end”). The image was selected because it clearly shows the hair side of the parchment; this is the outside of the animal skin, and the follicles are still clearly seen.

4. “Vulgate MS of Proverbs”: This is an uncatalogued Latin manuscript, in the possession of a private owner. Written c. AD 1250, this image is the opening page of the book of Proverbs. Look at the bottom of the page to see the artwork. Written 200 years before the printing press, this manuscript was produced close to the apex of Latin iconography. They don’t get much more beautiful than this!

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Of interest to the readers of Parchment & Pen: Christianity Today this week (April 23, 2008) published its article on the Greek New Testament manuscripts that the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (www.csntm.org) discovered in Albania last summer. It appeared both as a full-length interview in the on-line version of CT and a shorter treatment in the print version for May 2008. In addition, the on-line CT had a sidebar discussing the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11). For this article, the reporter interviewed a few scholars (including Ben Witherington, Craig Evans, Mike Holmes, and Doug Moo) about the authenticity of the pericope and, if inauthentic, how they viewed the story. This article was included because several of the newly discovered manuscripts in Albania either lacked the story or placed it at the end of John. Interesting perspectives on whether it should be treated as scripture and whether it was historical.

The on-line interview is found here: http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2008/aprilweb-only/117-32.0.html  

The sidebar on John 7:53-8:11 is found here: http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2008/aprilweb-only/117-31.0.html

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From the very beginning of the Christian faith, believers’ commitment to Christ was often tested with their own blood. Stephen was the first casualty; James a few years later. During the Neronic persecutions, many believers— Peter and Paul among them—gave up their lives for Christ in the city of Rome. Whether this persecution officially went beyond the walls of Rome is difficult to tell. Under Domitian, toward the end of the first century, the persecution of Christians became more severe. The apostle John was exiled to Patmos during this era. Tradition has it that all but one of the twelve apostles (sans Judas) died a martyr’s death. As the second century rolled on, more and more Christians lost their lives for the sake of Christ. Same with the third century. But the worst persecutions in the ancient world came with emperor Diocletian. From AD 303 to 311, he was gathering up biblical manuscripts for destruction, burning down church meeting-halls, and imprisoning and killing Christians by the bushel. One historian called this “the last war of annihilation waged by paganism against Christianity.”

Of course, the persecutions of Christians did not stop even after the religion became legal under Constantine. And certainly one of the darkest periods of the Christian faith was when Christians killed other Christians—during the Crusades and even today. Modern-day atrocities continue to remind us of the sacrifice that many have made in the name of Christ, even when standing up to their ‘brothers’ in Christ.

But a new kind of martyrdom has begun to emerge. Religious sociologists call it ‘green martyrdom.’ It’s not the martyrdom of one’s life, but of one’s livelihood. Part of the American dream is to be secure, healthy, and wealthy. Christians have assimilated this dream and have all too often viewed convenience as a litmus test of God’s will, wealth as a measure of happiness. But there has always been a backlash to this dream, and it’s hit the pocketbook hard. At times, a Christian needs to make a choice: should I take the cushy job that will feed my family well but has some questionable ethics to it, or should I take a lesser job that preserves my honor and conscience? And if I work for a boss who reveals himself to be unscrupulous, do I do his bidding or stand up to him? In the marketplace, medicine, law, politics, education, and virtually every arena where a paycheck is cut, ethical choices have to be made. And green martyrdom is often the result—though not as often as it should be.

Years ago, I worked at a restaurant as I was taking classes in seminary. I would report on my time cards how much I earned in tips each week. It never occurred to me that I should declare less than what I earned. But the boss had a problem with me. He said that no one else did the same thing, and that the restaurant might have to deduct more money than what they owed me if I kept it up! Besides, it made everyone else look suspicious to the IRS. There were well over 100 wait staff there, yet no one else was reporting accurate income on their time cards.

Often, it’s not just ethical choices that can affect one’s financial security. Many of the best jobs in today’s world require intellectual schizophrenia: one may believe one way, but he or she can’t speak up about it on the job—even when that job is related to the topic. This point was underscored in Ben Stein’s film Expelled. And it was seen in Hollywood’s scornful treatment of Mel Gibson when he produced The Passion of the Christ. Just as Communists were blackballed especially in the Hollywood of the 1950s, so today Christians are being blackballed especially in educational circles (most notably in science and theology). The pressures to abandon a set of beliefs, to sign on the dotted line, are enormous. Enormous in that several zeroes are at stake.

It is not only Christians who are often facing green martyrdom. All too often, in corporate America, it is those who take a stand for the environment, those who take a stand for racial equality, those who take a stand for any unjustly oppressed group who lose the jobs and the salaries and the security. And ironically, Christians are sometimes the ones doing the persecuting. Maybe we need to take stock of where all of our priorities are. As C. S. Lewis’s biographer noted, Lewis was the most thoroughly converted Christian he had ever met. Many believers are certainly following his lead. But many more of us need to think through what it means to be a believer—ethically, socially, intellectually, politically—in a non-believing world.

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Here is an ALR New Release about the CSNTM find:

DALLAS, March 25, 2008 - Normally, two or three New Testament manuscripts handwritten in the original Greek are discovered each year.

Last summer, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) found a treasure trove of them during a trip to Albania. The Center, based in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas, devotes itself to the high-resolution digital preservation of these early copies of the New Testament.

Scholars tried for decades to gain access to the National Archive in Tirana with little success, partly because Albania is a former police state. Until now, only two manuscripts of the 13 there known to Western scholars had been photographed, both with microfilm many years ago.

Recently though, Dr. Daniel B. Wallace, the CSNTM director, received permission to send a team of four men to Albania to photograph the manuscripts with state-of-the-art digital methods. By the end of their first day in Tirana in July, they realized there were more than 13 manuscripts - far more.

"When the news came back across the Atlantic, I was stunned," Wallace said.

The catalog at the National Archive listed 47 New Testament manuscripts, and at least 17 were unknown to Western scholars. Evidence suggests that some of the other manuscripts had been presumed lost elsewhere in Albania, but no final determination has been made.

The oldest manuscript in the collection is Codex Beratinus, written in the sixth century. It contains only the Gospels of Matthew and Mark today.

The codex is the ancestor of the modern book form, replacing the scrolls and wax tablets of earlier times. Early Christians popularized the codex, adopting it for their scriptures and other writings.

Codex Beratinus was dyed in purple; only a handful of purple biblical codices exist today — with silver and gold letters on it.

The staff at the National Archives said that during World War II, Hitler tried to obtain this particular document. Several monks and priests risked their lives to hide the manuscript. Today, it is registered with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a world treasure.

Among the other notable finds were four manuscripts, dating from the 11th century on, that provided more information on a familiar Biblical controversy. The story of the woman caught in adultery in John 7:53-8:11 is included in most Bibles today, but many scholars doubt its authenticity. These four manuscripts either have the story at the end of John or lack it altogether, suggesting it is something of an add-on.

Wallace says that no basic teaching of the Bible such things as the virgin birth and the deity of Christ — has been compromised by such study but that some of the particulars have been brought into question.

When studying these manuscripts, the age is important, but so is the pedigree (which previous manuscript it was copied from.) Experts like Wallace, also a Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, strive to trace the antecedents of a Biblical manuscript much like an expert in genealogy would reconstruct a family tree.

It’s a daunting task.

"It is like working on a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing," Wallace said. "But with the discovery of new manuscripts, more of the pieces make sense. And the result is we are getting closer to reconstructing the original wording of the New Testament in the few places where there still is question."

Wallace has personally examined manuscripts at the base of Mount Sinai in Egypt; The Vatican; Cambridge University, Oxford University and the British Library in England; Dresden, Cologne and Berlin in Germany; and Florence, Italy, along with several other sites in the United States and abroad .

In its five years of existence, CSNTM has photographed manuscripts in, among other places, Istanbul, Turkey; Patmos, Greece and Muenster, Germany at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research. The Institute is the clearinghouse for original manuscripts. When a “new†manuscript comes to light, it is assigned a unique number certifying the discovery. To date, some 5,700 manuscripts containing about 1.3 million pages have been catalogued.

Photographing these manuscripts is painstaking work. Wallace says that the average Greek New Testament manuscript has about 550 pages. Optimally, a team can shoot 1,200 to 1,800 pages a day, depending on the size and condition of the manuscripts. Members of the team take extraordinary measures, including wearing white cotton gloves, not to damage the manuscripts.

The bill is high — $6 to $7 a page, when all the expenses are figured in and the task is Herculean. Wallace, not one to set his sights low, wants to photograph all 1.3 million pages of manuscripts known to scholars.

"We’ve photographed several thousand pages, but it’s just a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done,"he said. "These manuscripts are deteriorating, and older photographs done on microfilm, a much poorer quality than what we can do today, are deteriorating as well.

"Plus, some manuscripts are lost or stolen, and others are damaged by fire, worms or water. So there is a sense of urgency about this. We have to get these photographed while we have the opportunity."

For more information on the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, visit www.csntm.org.

Note to editors: For more information or to schedule an interview with Dr. Daniel B. Wallace, contact Steve Yount of A. Larry Ross Communications at 972.267.1111 or steve@alarryross.com.

For more details, go here.

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For a long time, Albania has closed its doors to western scholars. Last summer, a four-person team from the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts went to Tirana to photograph 13 manuscripts in the National Archive. They were unprepared for what would happen on their first day on the job. They saw an old typewritten, in-house catalog of manuscripts, and noticed that there were forty-seven (47) NT MSS! The Dallas Morning News reported on this to some degree, featuring a full-page article on the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts.

In addition to this article, Christianity Today is scheduled to post a more in-depth story about the manuscript discoveries on March 10 at their website. Be sure to check it out.

I’ll leave the details of the importance of these manuscripts to the CT article, and will post later about what we discovered.

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Last week we looked at the Greek construction of the Great Commission (Matt 28.19-20) and concluded that the typical English translation, Go and make disciples,was pretty accurate. The participle translated Go is really dependent on the mood of the main verb (the imperative, make disciples ) for its force. However, in such constructions (known as attendant circumstance), the main idea is not shared by both verbal forms; rather, it falls on the main verb. The participle is the prerequisite needed for the fulfillment of the imperative. Thus, going is commanded rather than assumed, but the going is not the main idea, for if someone were to go without making disciples he would miss the point. But making disciples “of all the nations†cannot be accomplished apart from going. So much for the grammar.

This blog will look at the historical context. Both with reference to grammar and history, many a pastor has put the applicational horse before the interpretive cart. It is crucial that we distinguish these two, and deal with interpretation apart from application. Obviously, there is a huge intersection between the two, but we confuse them only to our peril. Too many Christians are impatient with interpretation and simply want to get to the application. Sadly, too many pastors accommodate them and the result is often eisegetical anarchy. One of the question that must be asked before one gets into application of a text is whether such a passage has direct validity, indirect validity, or merely illustrative, historical, or negative value for believers today. The Great Commission is a classic text that has been applied before it has been interpreted, or has been applied with the interpretation, making a hopeless mess of things, and the result is that both the interpretation and application often miss the point.

This blog will deal with the historical setting; next week’s blog will deal with the application of this passage to our lives today.

Now for the history lesson. The scene of the Great Commission is an unspecified mountain in Galilee (28.16). Jesus gives his command here, then the gospel concludes. No ascension to heaven is mentioned. However, by comparing the data in Luke 24 and Acts 1, we see that Jesus’ ascension took place on the Mount of Olives (where the village of Bethany was located), in Judea just across from Jerusalem. And the final instructions he gave the disciples were to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them. Then they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth (Acts 1.8). Why does Matthew seem to ignore the ascension right outside of Jerusalem? He is in the habit of telescoping events in his narrative (compare Matt 9.18-26 with Mark 5.21-43). And since the resurrection account has the women being instructed to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee, that’s what they do. And there they get their commission, and the gospel ends. (One of the things that is quite amazing about the resurrection appearances is how understated they are compared to later apocryphal gospels; this at least hints at being a mark of authenticity.) But it’s important for us to recognize that the place where the commission is to start is in Jerusalem, not Galilee.

The disciples then are waiting in Jerusalem until the Spirit comes upon them, which will occur some ten days after the ascension of the Lord. We may be puzzled as to why Jesus wanted the apostles’ evangelistic ministry to begin in Jerusalem rather than in Galilee. It could be that this was where Jesus was executed and where the apostles abandoned the Lord in the moment of his sacrifice. The apostles needed to stand up here, and demonstrate that they were no longer afraid of the enemies of the gospel or of the consequences to their own lives. It may be that Jesus wanted to have the apostles witness to the Jews in the heart of Judaism, so that the announcement of God’s coming kingdom would be directly relevant to these folks since the kingdom would begin here. It may be that the Lord recognized that the Day of Pentecost was strategic for the quick spread of the gospel throughout the Mediterranean world. Whatever the reason, the main point for our purposes is that the apostles begin their testimony within Israel, within Judaism, and to the Jews.

The commission then is to begin with the nation of Israel. But it is not to end there. The command to make disciples of all the nations clearly indicates that more than Jewish evangelism is in view. When that command is juxtaposed with Acts 1.8, a hint of how the commandment would be implemented might be coming into view: although the apostles were commanded to go to the nations, Acts 1.8 only says that they will do this. It is thus here predicted, not commanded.

How do the disciples obey the Great Commission? What is the catalyst that gets them to move beyond the walls of the Holy City, and into Samaria and beyond? Persecution. Specifically, the persecution carried out by one Saul of Tarsus, a zealous Pharisee, a man who hated Christians and hated Jesus because he was an accursed criminal whom God judged by hanging him on a tree. The next several chapters in Acts show, in rapid literary succession, how the gospel spread outside of Judaism. Immediately after the stoning of Stephen, Saul (also known as Paul—this was not a name given to him later, unlike Simon Peter) goes on a witch-hunt for Christians, and he ends up looking for them in Syria (Acts 9). In chapter 8, Peter goes to Samaria to check on the responses of the half-Jews to the gospel that Philip had brought to them. And in chapter 10, Peter is sent to Caesarea Maritima, a largely gentile city on the coast of Palestine in northern Samaria. He is sent to preach the gospel to gentiles. And when they have the same experience of the Spirit that the apostles had had on the Day of Pentecost, Peter is convinced that the gospel was also meant for gentiles and, further, that they did not need to observe the dietary laws of the Jews to be saved. But it was persecution that got the apostles and other disciples out of Jerusalem.

In short, it almost seems as if Paul led more people to Christ as a Pharisee than as an apostle! The Lord was able to use persecution to get the eyewitnesses of the resurrection out the door. You will be my witnesses… in Samaria was indeed a prophetic word.

Seen in the light of history, the Great Commission altered the manner and contents of evangelism by God’s people. For the most part, Old Testament evangelism focused on pagans coming to Israel to get saved (the story of Jonah is an exception that proves the rule). But they could not remain uncircumcised gentiles and get saved. They had to follow dietary laws, get circumcised, and offer the sacrifices that marked the Jews out as a special people.

Now, with the Great Commission, we see in seed-plot form an evangelism that is no longer ethnocentric (i.e., focusing on and staying within Jerusalem as the ethnic, political, and religious center of Judaism) but rather was eccentric (i.e., moving away from this center). Further, with the removal of the food laws as a barrier to getting within the community of believers, the evangelists themselves were forced into an unfamiliar world. The vision that Peter had about killing and eating unclean animals underscored this to him. Just imagine what it would be like to be an apostle who, for the first time in his life, ate a ham sandwich or had bacon and eggs for breakfast! If these men had been taught all their lives of the repulsion of such cuisine, how would that first bite go down? Frankly, my guess is that it would come up just as fast! Obedience to the gospel certainly made them squirm. It got them way outside their comfort zone.

The apostles may have been acquainted with the story of Eleazar’s refusal to eat defiled meat before Antiochus Epiphanes and his subsequent torture and death by fire (4 Maccabees 5-6), or the more famous story of the murder of seven brothers before their monther’s eyes (4 Macc 8–12). In this text, the guards had placed before them wheels and joint-dislocators, rack and hooks and catapults and caldrons, braziers and thumbscrews and iron claws and wedges and bellows†(4 Macc 8.13 [NRSV]) to help persuade these seven brothers to eat pork. The next several chapters of 4 Maccabees (8-18) describe in an NC-17 manner the tortures that these young men suffered out of reverence for the Law. Each died without so much as taking a bite. Whether or not this story is true is not the point; rather, that it would have been used in Jewish circles to teach young Jewish children to be brave and obedient to the law is.

But through the paradoxical route of redemptive history, once the gospel was unleashed from its Mosaic fetters, eating defiled food was regarded as a courageous act and refusal to eat was considered cowardly (Gal 2.11-14)! I cannot stress enough how difficult this change in perspective must have been for these apostles. But for the sake of the gospel, they became evangelists on an eccentric mission with a Christocentric focus. In short, they went and then made disciples rather than making disciples along the way.

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That’s the title of a press release that is going out this week. I’ll have to wait until the news of the location, as well as the number and significance of the manuscripts, is broken before I can say too much more. But as many of you know, these discoveries were made by a team from the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (www.csntm.org). The team came back with over 18,000 high-resolution digital photographs, filling one terabyte of data. Altogether, 47 manuscripts were photographed (though many of them were previously known to western scholars). The equipment broke down, the air conditioning was shut down by the government every day, and the heat of the summer beat down on this team mercilessly. It took five weeks and two different teams (four took the first shift and three the second) to shoot all the manuscripts.

What I can tell beyond the above is that a few of the manuscripts seem to be fairly important, although only one or two can properly be called “early.†(I take it that the title in the press release is descriptive rather than restrictive; that is, early could be applied to any New Testament manuscript since all such are handwritten documents and virtually all are prior to the invention of the moveable-type printing press.)

A class of graduate students at Dallas Seminary last semester worked on collating sample chapters in these manuscripts. Collation is, in principle, a transcription of the wording (even down to the letters) of a document. But a collation is different from a straight transcription in that a base text is collated against; all the differences from that base text are noted. The variants that are thus produced are the readings that do not agree with the base text. Otherwise, agreement with the base text is assumed. This method creates an apparatus that follows what is commonly called the subtractio princeps—that is, it creates only those readings that are not found in the base text. Since the base text is the Byzantine text (which basically stands behind the King James Bible), any differences from that base raise the eyebrows and suggest that such a reading may be early and important.

After spending what must have seemed to them like an eternity collating these manuscripts, the students finally were able to assess what the teams had photographed, or discover what they had discovered. To be sure, the library in which these manuscripts are housed had a record of their contents; they knew what they were, at least in broad strokes. We are extremely grateful for the library opening its doors to us, too! But what CSNTM provided were the specific details, as well as decent digital images. And what the press release will say is that at least four of these manuscripts are significant for telling us about the wording of the original text. What it won’t say is that we didn’t get a chance to look at all the manuscripts yet. There may be, therefore, many others that are significant as well.

I can also mention that Hitler had shown an interest in one or two of these manuscripts during WWII. Fascinating story there.

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I realize that some of you were expecting this blog to give a few examples of meaningful and viable textual variants. But that will have to wait till next week. For now, I wanted to take on a different topic. I suppose I could justify this by saying that it is still on the topic of textual criticism, because I am discussing a man who was arguably the best textual critic ever to come out of North America. But this particular blog is not about textual criticism per se, so the justification will obviously wear thin… To make up for my lame attempt at an excuse, I will incorporate a glance at what is perhaps the most famous text-critical problem in the New Testament.

I was at the annual Society of Biblical Literature conference in San Diego today. One of the sessions was dedicated to the memory of Bruce Metzger (who died in February, just days before his 94th birthday), a man who taught New Testament at Princeton Seminary for nearly five decades. There were four presenters, the first of whom was Bart Ehrman, Professor Metzger’s last doctoral student.

Ehrman relayed the famous ˜squirrel story" that anyone acquainted with Metzger lore knew about: One day, while walking with an unnamed student across the campus at Princeton Seminary, Metzger and student stopped to see a squirrel racing up a tree. The squirrel jumped from the tree to another that was out of its reach. Suddenly, the squirrel fell to the ground and died. Metzger turned to the student and said, "I know what the Greek word for squirrel is."

Ehrman went on to note that the story had some features to it that simply didn’t ring true: Metzger was a compassionate man who would hardly have made such an insensitive comment at the demise of the furry little creature; Metzger was a humble man, not given to bragging about himself to the effect of using the occasion to parade his knowledge; and squirrels, as a rule, do not die if they miss their target: they simply get up and keep on scampering.

After several years of hearing many variations on this story (I have heard at least two quite different variations myself), Ehrman finally found the occasion to get to the truth of this seemingly apocryphal story. He began to tell Metzger the story and when he came to the part about the squirrel’s unfortunate end, Metzger interrupted: "poor little squirrel." This was proof that the story was a myth since Metzger’s attitude was obviously at odds with what he was supposed to have said years earlier.

From this, Ehrman offered an analogy to the SBL crowd: getting to the truth of the historical Jesus is a tricky task, and legends about him would often spring up without any genuine historical base. In other words, Ehrman saw in the apocryphal story about Metzger a parallel with the stories about Jesus that are recorded in the Gospels.

There are some difficulties with Ehrman’s analogy, however. First, the squirrel story only involved one unnamed eyewitness at an undefined period. In fact, several different names were given for the student (including Ehrman’s!) in different versions of the tale. The period in which it supposedly occurred spanned decades. This is unlike the Gospels in that most of the stories involve more than one eyewitness and are stated as occurring at relatively specific times.

Seco