It’s officially the mythical mummy Gospel. The “first century” manuscript of Mark Christian apologists have been gloating about and beating everyone over the head with for years…is not a first century manuscript of Mark. It also didn’t come from a mummy. It came from, apparently, garbage. And on top of all that…there is a weird unsolved question about it still looming. Here’s the latest.
Backstory & Update
I’ve written on this legendary Mummy Gospel several times already (see The Mummy Gospel Isn’t Even a Mummy Gospel!? and From Lead Codices to Mummy Gospels). Publicly, this all began in 2012 when Dan Wallace, a credentialed but oft gullible Christian apologist, tried to “gotcha” Bart Ehrman in a debate claiming we’d found a first century copy of the Gospel of Mark. Legend grew. It supposedly came from mummy masks. And this supposedly had something to do with how we know its date. All of that was bullshit. But we already knew that (see the first link above).
Now the manuscript in question has finally been published under peer review. Hallelujah! Only…oh no. It says it dates to the late second, early third century. And the dating is based on what it usually is: paleography (handwriting style). Also…it’s being published in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus collection. And has always been there (that collection was famously excavated in and around 1903, but as it recovered half a million papyri, the collection is still being translated and published to this day; it is nowhere near done). Which is news to us, contradicting some previous (and even some still current) insistence it was in someone’s private collection and on the market (more on that in a minute). But no. It is now confirmed to have been recovered in the original dig and never left the collection (figuratively speaking). That means it comes from the Oxyrhynchus excavation—famously an ancient garbage heap in the Egyptian desert.
This manuscript is also just another tiny, torn fragment, containing only a few verses from Mark 1—which we knew; but now we know it only contains mere bits of Mk. 1:7-9 and 1:16-18. The official publication is in the 83rd volume of the The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (officially dated 2017; delayed printing is common for academic journals). It was translated and edited by Daniela Colomo and Dirk Obbink. The entry: [Oxyrhynchus papyrus] ‘5345. Mark I 7-9, 16-18’. They conclude it dates by paleography to the late 2nd early 3rd century. Just as we predicted would happen. Wallace has now apologized. [And tried explaining.]
Christians? You need to learn a lesson here. The Loch Ness monster doesn’t exist. That exciting new publication coming “any year now” that proves all your wildest dreams, is probably going to be bullshit. And when you start to realize that’s pretty much always the case, you’ll start to understand better why we’re not Christians.
More Details
You can see images and a brief on this new published papyrus, and how we know it’s really the mythical “mummy” Gospel, at the blog of Brice Jones (Ph.D., Early Christianity). Elijah Hixson (I assume the same who is a Ph.D. candidate in New Testament & Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh) is keeping tabs on this new development with updates appended to his own latest article on it. So much uproar has gone up already, that the owners of the fragment (the Egypt Exploration Society or EES) have posted an official press release to dispel various rumors about it [which they have since expanded with even more information; then more; and now even more]. And when that wasn’t enough, within hours they just went ahead and put the whole article online. It’s now designated P137 in Lists of NT Papyri.
The EES press release makes a special point of noting, “No other unpublished fragments of New Testament texts in the EES collection have been identified as earlier than the third century AD.” That’s a hint. They mean: the date range including late second century might be wishful thinking. It’s probably a third century papyrus. If all NT texts found there date 3rd century or later, arguably a literate Christian presence in Oxyrhynchus itself only began in the 3rd century (and hence no Gospel could have been tossed into the garbage there in the 2nd century, unless an old manuscript was tossed there later).
Granted, that’s not known for sure; it’s just playing the odds. But there is, after all, no other evidence from Oxyrhynchus placing Christians there before the 3rd century, either (see Greetings in the Lord: Early Christians and the Oxyrhynchus Papyri and Christian Oxyrhynchus: Texts, Documents, and Sources; and Lincoln Blumell’s chapter, “Is P.Oxy. XLII 3057 the Earliest Christian Letter?” in Early Christian Manuscripts). It should also be noted, the editors of the fragment wrote that “dating this hand presents even more difficulties than usual, since the sample is so small and damaged and the scribe inconsistent.” So even the “late second” century date could be questionable.
There are, front and back, in total only 10 whole words surviving on this fragment, with bits of less than twenty other words that we can guess at if we compare with other texts of Mark. Reconstructed as follows (the blue is what’s actually on the manuscript):
And notice how many letters are uncertain (marked with dots beneath). They weren’t kidding when they said they had so little to go on in dating the hand! This also means the editors are relying a lot on other manuscripts of Mark even to reconstruct what is written on this one. Granted, there are limits on what letters can be there. But this just illustrates how tiny and trivial and vexed it all is. The harrumph was all about this. A few barely legible scribbles on a piece of trash. Copied well over a hundred years after the book was even authored. Wah, wah.
New Questions
You’ll find in the linked articles a lot of serious questions about how this papyrus was marketed until now. Dirk Obbink denies ever offering it for sale, but there are eyewitnesses who claim he was [and now documentary evidence and formal investigations are starting to conclude he did]. Much confusion has ensued. I was once left to speculate if perhaps Obbink was claiming to offer it for sale, just to get a read on what people might pay for it, in order to suss out the viability of his creating and selling a forgery to retire on. [But I thought that’s far too sinister a speculation. It turns out it was not sinister enough: there is now evidence he signed a contract of sale, and the Museum of the Bible has confirmed he sold it to them and the EES has likewise concluded so; there is even evidence Obbink stole and sold off a lot more; although Obbink claims he’s being framed].
What others had been insinuating is no less nefarious; I’ve seen proposed everything from Obbink the thief [which so far appears to be correct], to his having planted it in the Oxyrhynchus collection to pass it off as authentic—which would imply a pious lie rather than a financial one; but are we to suppose the appointment of a second editor foiled his plans to assert a first century date? The EES says it is investigating and will publish an account clearing up these issues. [It has since found Obbink may have stolen about a dozen manuscripts and sold them, and even appears to have tried covering his tracks, as “catalogue cards and photographs of the texts also disappeared from the Oxford collection.”]
Aspects of this mystery are explored in an article at The Daily Beast [followed by another more recently, plus a very revealing insider perspective in Christianity Today]. For those who want a clearer picture of what’s riling folks, and what questions remain unanswered.
Concluding Amusement
An anonymous commenter on Jones’s article remarks, “I feel all this Mark stuff is overshadowing the much more exciting fact that volume LXXXIII [of The Oxyrhunchus Papyri] contains a drawing of a unicorn.” Is that true? The legend begins! No, really, it’s true. It actually does have an ancient drawing of a unicorn in it:
The final section of the volume contains art: a fine pen-and-ink drawing of a rampant goat, and seven sketches on a single sheet, including a cockerel and a peacock, a wild boar, and a unicorn. As the Artemidorus papyrus has renewed discussion of drawing as an art in the Greek world, with some finding its own spread of drawings so striking as to suggest forgery, the new examples from Oxyrhynchus now demonstrate comparable technique and similar subject-matter in papyri of undoubted authenticity.
So there you go. Fuck you, Markan scribe. We want unicorns! But seriously. Art history is as important if not more. Texts aren’t all we are discovering in the half million papyri dug out of that Egyptian town’s trash. If only Christians cared more about actual history than selling their mythology as fact. A first century manuscript of Mark is their unicorn. We have more evidence of ours. Both are myth.
Thanks Dr Carrier for sharing that up date ! Actually I’m learning more from you than from any Christian source !
Also thanks for that debate with Dennis MacDonald (even if there was a technical issue). First hearing from him and I hope you would be able to get a part 2 to complete the debate.
My view on Jesus is quite close to his, as to me Jesus was first a Jew if he ever existed, not a Christian at all. The rest is all about a pacthwork religion mixing Paul, Cephas (Peter), etc in order to have a State religion back then for Constatine, to get the Empire from collapsing maybe a hundred years earlier…
Also about the topic of that 3rd century Mummy Gospel, is there any truly fragment of any of the 4 Gospels dating from 1st century ever found ?
Or is it only later copies we do have and the surviving texts from the earlier fathers of the Church that are available to us ?
Nope. No first century manuscript of any Christian document has been found (any at all, not just from the NT). Not that we’d expect any. The manuscript counts back then would be so small, it would be extraordinary for any to have survived the filter of destruction of ordinary time.
Oxyrhynchus could have been an exception, as the conditions there preserved pretty much all the trash thrown away there for centuries, all the way back to pre-Christian times. So had there been a Christian presence there in the first (or even second) century, we should have had their trash by now. But the evidence of the trash suggests Christians (certainly literate ones) only started populating that city significantly in the 3rd century. So we missed out.
Also: Note the church father texts have even more problems than the manuscripts of the NT books themselves. See my thread with Zozeph Franciscoj here. As for the NT manuscripts, Wikipedia maintains a complete list (for antiquity: Uncials and Papyri; everything else is Medieval).
OMG that guy Z was truly intense, not to say else…
Even if I wanted to believe so bad there was maybe a real Jesus, I think that you have made the case quite clear, that the evidences are quite scarce to none existant.
The only thing remaining, that comes to my mind is that the Romans have probably destroyed a lot of evidences during those two Jewish wars….
That’s my only way to keep believing in such a small possibility there was a Jesus, like that Samaritan Prophet (was it the Man…), described by Josephus.
Otherwise I think you would have nailed it for good!
Grant: really informative and useful links. Can you confirm if the figure at the top of the post is the fragment?
It is. I’ve reduced the pixel count to comply with U.S. fair use doctrine. But you can see the full scale image in the article itself at the EES site (linked in my article above).
Dr. Carrier,
I love your analysis and insight. I believe your arguments would be stronger if you avoided immature language.
Most of society and the whole of the future disagrees with you. Along with nearly everyone under the age of 60.
This is the language of the people. And the people are who we should be talking to. The ivory tower’s elitism, isn’t admirable. Nor is it useful.
As long as what we say is honest, accurate, and not punching down, no language is immature. To the contrary, this is the language of adults.
At least we know that it is not the product of any fourth century conspiracy discovered by a guy wearing several tinfoil hats!
Thanks for the info!
The Hatter would surely still say the paleograph was forged and this manuscript really dates to the fourth century and is part of the conspiracy.
Great post Dr. Carrier. I’m curious about your opinion on the book of Revelations concerning the dating and the possible authors and motives behind it. There is a good link or source that you can recommend?
I’d recommend Pagels, Revelations, for a start. The most widespread view is that it was written in the 90s as a commentary on the reign of Domitian, and in defense of Torah observant Christianity against their Gentile opposition. It’s comparable to the Book of Daniel (and as such similarly probably credited to a false author) in serving the purpose of rallying the sect toward a current cultural mission through the motivation of a fast approaching end time (like apocalypses are usually used for, all the way even to Harold Camping in the present day, and the Seventh Day Adventists most famously).
Update: I’ve added links to Wallace’s now second article, in which he explains more of what went on on his end, and has some questions for the EES; and to a second, expanded statement of the EES (that he is responding to).
FYI: A Guardian article on the scandal (with, as is to be expected, obligatory inaccuracies, omissions, and oversimplifications).
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/jan/09/a-scandal-in-oxford-the-curious-case-of-the-stolen-gospel
Can you specify what in that article you find inaccurate, omitted, or oversimplified?
Oh, nothing significant – I’d have to read it again, but from memory I think for example they describe Ehrman as a theologian, and Mark as the author of Mark.
I realise my comment looks like I’m disparaging the article, but in fact I found it an absorbing read.
Ah. Yes. It seems dodgy only trivial things like that. The article is on substantive matters quite good.
And to be fair…
Technically Bart Ehrman is a theologian (all his degrees are in theology and he wrote a prominent book on the subject). And failing to make the distinction of theologian “in what sense” doesn’t bother me in an article where it isn’t relevant.
Likewise, lots of us will say off-hand that Mark wrote Mark—I’ve done that myself from time to time; and so has Ehrman. When I have space, I explain what I mean (it’s simply a convenient a place-holder for whoever did write it). But in an article like this, that distinction is again not relevant to anything the reporter is covering. So that doesn’t bother me either.
Aaand… Oxford professor arrested on suspicion of ancient papyrus theft
Update: A thorough story just appeared in the Atlantic, with further updates illustrating Obbink is looking really shady right now, and so is Scott Carroll and his possibly fake mummy masks even, and the Green family is looking even shadier, and so on.