Re: Dead Sea Mark

From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Fri Apr 24 1998 - 20:53:09 EDT


On Fri 24 Apr 98 (10:13:52), jkilmon@historian.net wrote:
>ÊBrady R. Johnson wrote:
>Ê>
>Ê> Greetings all,
>Ê>
>Ê> I wonder if anyone knows of any good web sites or other info on theÊ'net
>Ê> dealing with the recent discovery of Dead Sea fragments claimed to beÊof
>Ê> the Gospel of Mark?

 Dear Brady,

 It does appear that three fragments from Cave 7 (7Q4, 7Q5 and 7Q8) are from
 New Testament documents.

 The primary source is a learned article in /Biblica 53/ (1972), pp 91-109,
 by Professor J O'Callaghan, a Jesuit, and an eminent papyrologist. Scholars
 had failed to identify 7Q5, 7Q4 and 7Q8 even after searching right through
 the entire Greek text of the Old Testament (LXX). Eventually O'Callaghan
 thought the unthinkable and looked for a match in the New Testament. He was
 amazed to find that 7Q5 fitted Mark 6:52-53 (Gennesaret). Encouraged by this,
 he looked further and found that 7Q4 fitted 1 Timothy 3:16-4:3, and that 7Q8
 fitted James 1:23-24. /Biblica/ only has a limited circulation, so he wrote
 to /The Times/ (London) about his discovery (16th March 1972).

 As it cut right across the received wisdom of the Redaction Criticism lobby,
 it met with considerable opposition from that quarter. But some very heavy
 guns were brought to bear in support, most notably CT Thiede.

 You will find a good brief discussion and evaluation of this in John Wenham, /Redating Matthew Mark and Luke/, Hodder, London 1991, pp 177ff, and further
 notes on p 288. [The late Dr John Wenham is well known as author of /The
 Elements of NT Greek/.]

 Maybe someone has reproduced this on the WWW; but where I know not.

 Ben

-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
 <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm


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