Discoveries and Manuscripts NT-1000 NT · PDF fileDiscoveries and Manuscripts NT-1000 NT...
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NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
1. Writing materials A. Parchment (Pergament)
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Targum 11th century IraqLindisfarne Gospel, 8th century
1. Writing materials A. Parchment (Pergament)
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
City of
Pergamon
Model at
Pergamon
Museum
Berlin
1. Writing materials A. The Making of Parchment
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Recipe Schedula diversarium artium. Theophilus Presbyter. Early twelfth century
Take goatskins ( 1 ) and stand them in water for a day and a night.
Take them and wash them till the water runs clear ( 2 ).
Take an entirely new bath and place therein old lime (calcem non
recentem) and water mixing well together to for a thick cloudy
liquor. Place the skins into this, folding them on the flesh side. Move
them with a pole two or three times each day, leaving them for
eight days (and twice as long in winter) ( 3 ).
Next you must withdraw the skins and unhair them ( 4 ).
Pour off the contents of the bath and repeat the process using the same quantities, placing the skins in the lime
liquor, and moving them once each day over eight days as before ( 5 ).
Then take them out and wash them well until the water runs quite clean ( 6 ).
Place them in another bath with clean water and leave them for two days ( 7 ).
Then take them out, attach the cords and tie them to the circular frame ( 8 ).
Dry, then shave them with a sharp knife, after which, leave for two days out of the sun…( 9 )
moisten with water and rub the flesh side with powdered pumice ( 10 ).
After two days wet it again by sprinkling with a little water and fully clean the flesh side with pumice so as to make it
quite wet again ( 11 ).
Then tighten up the cords, equalise the tension so that the sheet will become permanent. Once the sheets are dry,
nothing further remains to be done ( 12 ). Britisch Museum MS. Harley 3915, fol. 128r
1. Writing materials A. Parchment
Prachment production
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
A parchment-seller’s
shop, illustrated in a
15th-century Italian
chronicle.
One man is trimming
the sheets into
rectangles, the other is
rubbing them down
with chalk in
preparation for writing.
The stock for sale on
the shelves includes
both rolls and packets
of ready-folded sheets
1. Writing materials A. Parchment
Prachment production
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
1. Writing materials A. Parchment
Def: a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin.
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Parchment manuscript - Part of Isaiah scroll from Qumran
1. Writing materials B. Parchment – Examples from Antiquity
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Dieter Mitternacht
1. Writing materials C. Papyrus
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
1. Writing materials B. PapyrusPapyrus paper production – Modern illustration
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
1. Writing materials B. PapyrusPapyrus texture
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Papyrus find
1. Writing materials B. Papyrus - Examples
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
P 115, POxy56.4499
3rd/4th century, Rev 6
POxy 3522, 1st century CE
Job42-11-12 (LXX)
1. Writing materials B. Papyrus – Examples from Antiquity
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
2. DiscoveriesA. Papyrus finds in the
Desert sand of Egypt
(Oxyrhynchus)
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Satellite image of Egypt
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
The Nile River near Aswan
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Garbage dump
in the desert sandOxyrhynchusVillage
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Excavation site 23
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
2. DiscoveriesB. Manuscript finds in Nag Hammadi
The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts.
In December of 1945 two Egyptian brothers found several papyri in a large earthenware vessel. They were
digging for fertilizer around limestone caves. At first, the brothers tried to sell the individually at intervals.
In 1946, the brothers became involved in a feud, and left the manuscripts with a Coptic priest, whose brother-in-law in October that year sold a codex to the Coptic
Museum in Old Cairo (this tract is today numbered Codex III in the collection). The resident Coptologist and religious historian Jean Dorese, realizing the significance of the artifact, published the first reference to it in 1948.
During the years many tried to make money with the
manuscripts. Finally the papyri were brought together in
Cairo in the 1970s.
Of the 1945 find, eleven complete books and fragments of two others, 'amounting to well over 1000 written
pages are preserved there.
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
2. DiscoveriesB. Manuscript finds in Nag Hammadi, List of codices found
Codex I (Jung Foundation Codex):
The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
The Apocryphon of James (also
known as the Secret Book of James)
The Gospel of Truth
The Treatise on the Resurrection
The Tripartite Tractate
Codex II:
The Apocryphon of John
The Gospel of Thomas a sayings
gospel
The Gospel of Philip
The Hypostasis of the Archons
On the Origin of the World
The Exegesis on the Soul
The Book of Thomas the Contender
Codex III:
The Apocryphon of John
The Gospel of the Egyptians
Eugnostos the Blessed
The Sophia of Jesus Christ
The Dialogue of the Saviour
Codex IV:
The Apocryphon of John
The Gospel of the Egyptians
Codex V:
Eugnostos the Blessed
The Apocalypse of Paul
The First Apocalypse of James
The Second Apocalypse of James
The Apocalypse of Adam
Codex VI:
The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
The Thunder, Perfect Mind
Authoritative Teaching
The Concept of Our Great Power
Republic by Plato - The original is not
gnostic, but the Nag Hammadi library
version is heavily modified with then-
current gnostic concepts.
The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth - a
Hermetic treatise
The Prayer of Thanksgiving (with a hand-
written note) - a Hermetic prayer
Asclepius 21-29 - another Hermetic
treatise
Codex VII:
The Paraphrase of Shem
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth
Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter
The Teachings of Silvanus
The Three Steles of Seth
Codex VIII:
Zostrianos
The Letter of Peter to Philip
Codex IX:
Melchizedek
The Thought of Norea
The Testimony of truth
Codex X:
Marsanes
Codex XI:
The Interpretation of Knowledge
A Valentinian Exposition, On the
Anointing, On Baptism (A and B)
and On the Eucharist (A and B)
Allogenes
Hypsiphrone
Codex XII:
The Sentences of Sextus
The Gospel of Truth
Fragments
Codex XIII:
Trimorphic Protennoia
On the Origin of the World
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
2. DiscoveriesC. Manuscripts from the Dead Sea (Qumran texts)
Grotto 4 in Qumran
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Jars from the
Qumran Caves
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Fragment from
the book of Leviticus
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
Isaiah scroll from Qumran
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
The Copper scroll • discovered in 1952 in Cave 3Q
• almost eight feet (2.44 m) in length
• unique both in construction and content
• written on the purest copper
• not a book but an inventory and guide to fabulous caches
of gold and silver
Some experts believe
that the text describes
hidden treasures from
Salomon’s Temple in
Jerusalem (including
the Jeweled Breast
Plate of Judgment and
the legendary Ark of the
Covenant.
Some even claim that
the Copper Scroll might
be linked to the Holy
Grail.
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
2. DiscoveriesD. Manuscript finds in the Kairo Geniza
In the late 1800s a
9th century
synagogue was
discovered in Kairo.
In the geniza more
than 200 000
papyrus fragments
with over 100 000
pages of religious
and other Hebrew
texts were found.
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts
A geniza is a storage space in a synagogue, where (גניזה)
outworn scriptures are kept until they are “buried”
according to a ritual for religious texts.
Solomon Schechter (1847-1915)
Surrounded by papyrus fragments from the Kairo Geniza, c. 1895
NT-1000 NT IntroductionDiscoveries and Manuscripts