An Insider’s Look Into the Work of CSNTM

The three largest discoveries of New Testament manuscripts in the last half-century are discussed by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM). The discoveries include the uncovering of the “New Finds” manuscripts, the New Testament papyri housed at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University, and a discovery of manuscripts in Tirana, Albania discovered by CSNTM. Dr. Wallace also uses this lecture as an opportunity to discuss the practice of papyrology in recognizing New Testament manuscripts.

The Chester Beatty papyri, published in the 1930s and 1950s, are some of the oldest and most important biblical manuscripts known to exist. Housed at the Chester Beatty Library (CBL) in Dublin, they have attracted countless visitors every year. It is safe to say that the only Greek biblical manuscripts that might receive more visitors are Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus, both on display at the British Library. The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) sent a six-person team, in a four-week expedition during July–August 2013, and digitized all the Greek biblical papyri at the Chester Beatty Library. The CBL has granted permission to CSNTM to post the images on their website (www.csntm.org). The New Testament papyri at the CBL include the oldest manuscript of Paul’s letters (dated c. AD 200), the oldest manuscript of Mark’s Gospel and portions of the other Gospels and Acts (third century), and the oldest manuscript of Revelation (third century). One or two of the Old Testament papyri are as old as the second century AD. Using state-of-the-art digital equipment, CSNTM photographed each manuscript against white and black backgrounds. The result was stunning. The photographs reveal some text that has not been seen before. Besides the papyri, CSNTM also digitized all of the Greek New Testament manuscripts at the CBL as well as several others, including some early apocryphal texts. The total number of images came to more than 5100.

The primary goal of CSNTM, to preserve and make available ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, is elaborated upon by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) in an interview that was recorded for the Sky Network.

CSNTM took a trip to Cambridge for their 6th trip of the summer of 2008. Dr. Daniel B. Wallace of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) relates the story of the trip. Dr. Jeff Hargis, Jeff Miller, Andrew Wallace, and Dr. Wallace were able to stay at the Tyndale House, while photographing old fragments of Romans in majuscule script that had been re-purposed for book binding.

In the recent past, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) has discovered around 20 new Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Dr. Jeff Hargis discusses how CSNTM consults a book and now a website known as the Kurzgefasste Liste to determine whether a new manuscript has been discovered.

A famous verse to the practice of New Testament Textual Criticism (NTTC) known as the Comma Johanneum, 1 John 5:7, is elaborated upon here by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM).  Dr. Wallace gives a brief history of this verse followed by an exposition of its discovery in Munich, Germany in the margin of an 11th century manuscript, Gregory-Aland 177. Making finds like this available to more scholars through the availability of high quality digital images is one of the goals of CSNTM.

The University of Michigan is the house of approximately 1 out of every 6 Greek New Testament manuscripts. Dr. Daniel B. Wallace of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) describes the opportunity and difficulty of photographing Codex 2364, affectionately dubbed "The Wee Beastie," due to its tiny size and beastly difficulty of photographing it.

The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) exists to digitally preserve ancient manuscripts of the New Testament with specialized photographic equipment in order that scholars around the world may have uninhibited access to these ancient wonders in high resolution images. This advertisement serves to promote the purposes of CSNTM abroad.

The National Archive in Tirana, Albania was thought to be home to 13 Greek New Testament manuscripts. A team led by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace from the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) went to Albania to photograph these manuscripts, but upon arrival found that the archive is actually home to nearly 47 Greek New Testament manuscripts! Most of these had never been cataloged by Western scholarship.

The experiences of a team from the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) during an expedition to the Monastery of St. John the Apostle on the Greek isle of Patmos is chronicled by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace.  Join the team as they journey into the monastery to photograph ancient manuscripts and share fellowship with the monks of the monastery.

Jeff Baldwin is the director of the Greek Bible Institute in Athens, Greece. Jeff is one of the many friends of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) that help open doors for the photographing of manuscripts around the world. In this interview, Jeff discusses his role in educating evangelicals in Greece, his relationship with Dr. Daniel B. Wallace (director of CSNTM), and the importance of textual criticism in the process of Bible translation.