Robert A. Kraft

Some uncatalogued papyri of theological and other interest in the John Rylands Library

I was in the early part of 1963, as I was finishing my final year as Assistant Lecturer in New Testament Studies at the University of Manchester, that my attention was drawn to the uncatalogued Greek papyri in the John Rylands Library. Together with my fellow countryman, the Rev. J. Julius Scott, I made an examination of this collection, concentrating on those items in uncial script and those which had possible interest for students of ancient literature in general and the literature of the JudeoChristian religious tradition in particular. In the entire collection, which I would estimate contains well over one thousand pieces (exclusive of mere scraps), we found only one fragment which clearly comes from a codex and very few others that could be said to have been written in a literary hand. The bulk of the collection consists of non-literary, mostly Byzantine, materials (letters, lists, deeds, contracts, petitions, etc.). Following the examination, certain items were photographed for us by the Library, and these photographs together with my notes on a few of the pieces which have a potential interest for students of religion have formed the basis of the present study. Miss Tripolitis, who became interested in these materials in the course of her work at the University of Pennsylvania, has been concerned primarily with deciphering and editing the nontheological texts and the dating formula, while I have expended relatively more effort on the theologically relevant pieces, as well as adding the final editorial touches. It is our hope that this sampling of the uncatalogued Rylands collection may encourage others to examine it, for it should be emphasized that the pieces

Review And Prospects

In this review, the author highlights that the modest contributions to the study of Jewish and Christian antiquity underline the truth of the Gilbert and Sullivan line tThings are seldom what they seem.t The author also talks about tArmchair archaeology,t and similar tarmchairt manuscript study, which are coming a necessary commonplace to which the researcher can contribute as well drawing from it.Keywords: armchair archaeology; Christian antiquity

The Greek Minor Prophets Scroll from Nahal Hever (8HevXIIGr) (The Seiyal Collection I)

Part 1 Introduction: archaeological data and identification columns and measurements content and scope special characteristics - tetragrammaton the two scribes material description, Robert A.Kraft the scripts and their date, Peter J.Parsons. Part 2 Transcriptions of the text. Part 3 Notes on palaeography and identification. Part 4 Notes on the reconstructions. Part 5 Translation technique, orthographic peculiarities and textual relations.