Archaic Christianity

Last year CSNTM photographed most of the Greek manuscripts owned by the National Archive of Albania. You can read about the trip here. Last night we posted samples of several of those manuscripts. These are uncatalogued and so have not yet received a GA number. Go have a look!

A friend just invited me on Facebook to be a part of the NT Wright Appreciation Society. Since I know Jim West is a big fan, I sent him an invitation to join. I'm sure he will :)

Perhaps this is sad, but I'm so busy that I've decided that I have to schedule myself and make task lists to make sure I don't forget things and leave things off the calendar that should be on there. In a way it is sad.

It has been a while since I've posted on ULF. It's time to get back on the wagon and finish this up, don't you think?

The following question occurred to me just now: on average, if you take a manuscript and compare it to a modern Greek New Testament, what will be the degree of difference? Will it be 1%? 5%? I am sure 10% is way too high.

So I finally got through to the manuscript viewer on http://www.codex-sinaiticus.net/. I tried all day yesterday and got the same problem as everyone else...the server connections were too high. So now that I can see everything, here are my first thoughts:

I was reading in Irenaeus' Against Heresies last night and ran across this interesting little tidbit (you can read the text in context here):

I was poking around on Google books this morning (as I have been doing a lot lately) and found the 1885 edition of Westcott and Hort's New Testament. I don't own a copy of that edition, but I do own a student's edition from 1948. I compared the two and the only difference was my student edition has a lexicon in the back by W.J. Hickie (a most unfortunate name).

So this got me thinking: what was the first edition of the Greek New Testament to include a lexicon for the large mass of people like myself who don't like carrying around BDAG? Anybody know?

And just in case you were wondering, no, me digitizing some text of a Hellenistic romance novel does not give you the right to make fun of me.

Added something tonight that a few of you might be interesting in. There is now a texts section for the site. For now there's not much. There is chapter one of book of a Hellenistic romance novel by Chariton. This is also the digitized text of Chrysostom's epistle to the imprisoned bishops which I am working on translating. For the Greek text of both, go here.

Random stuff post ahead!

As I am sure most of you who read this blog already know, codex Sinaiticus will be going online this week here: http://www.codex-sinaiticus.net/. Thanks to Wieland for pointing out the link.

I received an email this morning from someone whom I do not know who was asking for help with a claim she heard about the number of the beast and Greek manuscripts. Most of us who are familiar with New Testament textual criticism are familiar with the rather famous textual problem in Rev 13:18. But then I was a little surprised when her question went another way. I have spent time with Muslims before and though sometimes they are quite sane, sometimes they come up with the oddest historical perspectives, which is a nice way of saying that they are frequently distorting the facts. This is definitely one of those instances.

Just in case you were wondering, yes, the latest Batman movie is uber awesome. Go see it!

If you care, Michael from Pisteuomen interviewed me last night and posted it on his blog. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here or there.

I have a couple of other comments I need to make here on the site, but I have to leave to go see The Dark Knight on the local IMAX! Woohoo!

Which textual variants of the Greek New Testament are important? Well, it really depends on who is asking, and why you are asking the question. Regardless, it is a good question.

I've received a few emails about textual variants in the Greek New Testament (GNT) from one of my readers and I've decided to answer those questions here. If I leave any out or these bring up other questions, feel free to leave more in the comments and I'll answer them if I can.

I saw Michael Goulder's St. Paul Versus St. Peter at Half Price Books yesterday. Has anyone read it and can tell me if it is worth buying?

It happens once a year or so and it's fun for a little while. What is it? It is bachelor week here at the Sowell household. The fam packed up today and headed to my mom's house so she can have them for a week. In the meantime, I stay here and attempt to live without them. It's fun until I forget that I don't know how to do a lot of stuff around the house anymore :)

I signed up for Facebook a while back, but I've finally decided to make it one of my online homes. I think this link will get you to my profile. If you're a reader of the blog, add me as a friend and send a note like "Hey I read your blog because you are totally stellar" or "Hey I read your blog because I enjoy reading what idiots have to say" or just "Hey, I read your blog".

My little Greek reading group here in Dallas is going to start meeting again tomorrow, Lord willing. Tonight I am finishing up the material we will cover tomorrow night. We are going to start reading Mark 1. I don't expect us to finish. I am preparing the reader now. I've got my text ready; I'm just adding vocabulary and syntax notes for them to help them out. Of course I'll be there to help them tomorrow night, but these notes will be with them during the week when I'm not. When I am done with it, I will post it here for everyone to use.

Perhaps this has hit the blogs today, but I haven't checked my feed reader yet, so I don't know. I got a comment for a fella named Kent on my post entitled "On Migne The Great". He alerts us of a pre-pub for a portion of Migne for Logos. You can see the pre-pub information here. Thanks for the note.

I received Fathers Of The Church: A Comprehensive Introduction in the mail today. I have only spent about thirty minutes in it (given my current translation practice, I had to read the section on Chrysostom, of course). So far it looks really good. Will post a review when I spend more time with it.

I do not have a huge amount to say about the book, but I have posted a review of Grant's The Emperor Constantine. Though brief, I hope you find it useful.

If you see anything wonky going on with the site today, it's probably because I'm in the middle of messing with it. I am upgrading to the latest version of .NET, putting up more book reviews, and doing other sundry things that make us tech geeks happy.

Finished with my first reading of Τοις Εγκεκλεισμενοις Επισκοποις, "To the Imprisoned Bishops". I didn't find much of it difficult. It did take a while, however, simply because I was not familiar with much of the vocabulary.

I have today and tomorrow off from work so I have a nice four day weekend. Other than some reading, most of what I've done today is work on Chrysostom's epistle Τοις Εγκεκλεισμενοις Επισκοποις. I am now half-way through, though I think that will be all I do today. Today is a "class day" for me to work through Athenaze (I'm on ch 4) and I need to spend some time working on vocabulary. It has been a while since I've juggled 250 new words in my head at one time. And when I'm finished with this epistle I'm sure I'll have added over a hundred more.

Last night I finished the biography of Constantine that I've been reading. I am planning on putting together a review sometime today, though it may wait till tomorrow.

Now, off to more studying!