A new
scholarly publication makes the argument that an ancient and much discussed
fragment of the Gospel of Mark has now been dated as the oldest known surviving
piece of the Gospel, going back to the late 2nd-early 3rd century.
The case
is made in the latest volume of the Egypt Exploraton Society’s ongoing
Oxyrhynchus Papyri collection of Biblical texts.
“The two
sides of the papyrus each preserve brief traces of a passage, both of which
come from the Gospel of Mark. After rigorous comparison with other objectively
dated texts, the hand of this papyrus is now assigned to the late second to
early third century AD,” the Society reports.
The
papyrus has preserved Mark 1:7-9 and 16-18.
The
fragment, Papyrus 5345, was excavated somewhere around 1903 (on the basis of
its inventory number), and has never been up for sale. No other New Testament
texts published by the Egypt Exploration Society have been dated earlier than
the 3rd century.
The
document sparked a debate in 2012 when it was reported that it could possibly
date to the 1st century, which would have made it the oldest surviving New
Testament manuscript overall. Nevertheless, it is still the oldest surviving
fragment of the Gospel of Mark.
“It’s not
1st century after all. Still, it’s the earliest dated copy of Mark’s Gospel
which is exciting!” Peter Gurry, assistant professor at Phoenix Seminary, wrote
on Twitter.
The
earliest known fragment of the New Testament comes from the Gospel of John and
is dated to 125 AD.
Source: http://orthochristian.com/113385.html
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