Jewish and Christian Scripture as Artifact and Canon

Jewish and Christian Scripture as Artifact and Canon constitutes a collection of studies that reflect and contribute to the growing scholarly interest in manuscripts as artifacts and witnesses to early stages in Jewish and Christian understanding of sacred scripture.

Scholars and textual critics have in recent years rightly recognized the contribution that ancient manuscripts make to our understanding of the development of canon in its broadest and most inclusive sense. The studies included in this volume shed significant light on the most important questions touching the emergence of canon consciousness and written communication in the early centuries of the Christian church. The concern here is not in recovering a theoretical “original text” or early “recognized canon,” but in analysis of and appreciation for texts as they actually circulated and were preserved through time. Some of the essays in this collection explore the interface between canon as theological concept, on the one hand, and canon as reflected in the physical/artifactual evidence, on the other. Other essays explore what the artifacts tell us about life and belief in early communities of faith. Still other studies investigate the visual dimension and artistic expressions of faith, including theology and biblical interpretation communicated through the medium of art and icon in manuscripts. The volume also includes scientific studies concerned with the physical properties of particular manuscripts. These studies will stimulate new discussion in this important area of research and will point students and scholars in new directions for future work.

Table of contents:
John P. Flanagan, “Papyrus 967 and the Text of Ezekiel: Parablepsis or an Original Text?”
Gregg Schwendner, “A Fragmentary Psalter from Karanis and its Context”
Thomas Kraus, “‘He that dwelleth in the help of the Highest’: Septuagint Psalm 90 and the Iconographic Program on Byzantine Armbands”
Don Barker, “Another Look at Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1353?”
Scott D. Charlesworth, “Public and Private — Second and Third-Century Gospel Manuscripts”
Pamela Shellberg, “A Johannine Reading of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 840”
Peter Arzt-Grabner, “‘I was intending to visit you, but . . .’: Clauses Explaining Delayed Visits and their Importance in Papyrus Letters and in Paul”
Annette Bourland Huizenga, “Advice to the Bride: Moral Exhortation for Young Wives in Two Ancient Letters”
Marianne Schleicher, “Transitions between Artifactual and Hermeneutical Use of Scripture”
Larry Hurtado, “Early Christian Manuscripts of Biblical Texts as Artifacts”
Stephen Reed, “Physical and Visual Features of Dead Sea Scrolls Scriptural Texts”
Eduard Iricinschi, “‘A thousand books will be saved’: Manichean Manuscripts and Religious Propaganda in the Roman Empire”
Kirsten Nielsen, “The Danish Hymnbook: Artifact and Text”
David Chalcraft, “Some Biblical Artifacts in Search of a Sociological Theory”
Dorina Miller Parmenter, “The Bible as Icon: Myths of the Divine Origin of Scripture”
Peter M. Head, “Letter Carriers in the Ancient Jewish Epistolary Material”
Juan Hernández, “The Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus”

Craig A. Evans (Ph.D., Claremont) is Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Acadia Divinity College Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada.

H. Daniel Zacharias is a Lecturer at Acadia Divinity College, Nova Scotia, Canada.