The Jesus Papyrus: The Most Sensational Evidence on the Origin of the Gospel Since the Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls

by Carsten Peter Thiede, Matthew d'Ancona

In 1901, the Reverend Charles B. Huleatt acquired three pieces of a New Testament manuscript on the murky antiquities market of Luxor, Egypt. He donated these papyrus fragments to his alma mater, Magdalen College in Oxford, England, where they sat in a display case and drew very little attention. Nearly a century later, the fragments--part of the Gospel of Matthew and thought to date from a.d. 180-200--were reevaluated by scholar Carsten Peter Thiede. His research showed the bits of papyrus to be significantly older, written about a.d. 60.
But what is all the fuss about? How can three ancient papyrus fragments be so significant? How did Thiede arrive at this radical early dating? And what does it mean to the average Christian? Now readers have authoritative answers to these pivotal questions, in a book written by Thiede himself and by Times of London journalist Matthew d'Ancona, who originally broke the story to the public. Indeed, the Magdalen Papyrus corroborates three things: Saint Matthew actually wrote the Gospel bearing his name; he wrote it within a generation of Jesus' death; and the Gospel stories about Jesus are true. Some will vehemently deny Thiede's claims, others will embrace them, but nobody can ignore THE JESUS PAPYRUS.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, History, Biblical Studies

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Leon McNair · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Jesus Papyrus
A good book to pair with this reading might be - The Earliest Gospel Manuscript?, Carsten Thiede


Carsten Thiede makes the case that P64, an ancient Greek New Testament manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew typically dated to c.150-175AD, should be dated to the first Century - specifically to c.70AD - along with its sister-manuscripts P4 and P67. P4+64+67 are all considered belonging to the same ancient codex.

Thiede compares the manuscript with the Greek Minor Prophets Scrolls 8HevXHgr from Nahal Hever, dated 50BC - 50AD, among other first Century manuscripts, based primarily on the method of morphology, the study of similarities forming between a particular set of individual letters. Paleographical studies of manuscripts generally emphasis on the overall similarity style and appearance of letters, from author to pen and pen to papyrus, and as such many paleographers are somewhat sceptic of the approach, along with other methods for dating. It would be a significant discovery, if proven, overhauling P52 as the earliest extant manuscript allowing to give credence to the Matthean Priority.

[October671 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Have had this book for years and never done more than dip into it before. Had to read some bits more than once and even watched a documentary on it on YouTube. I'm not sure I found the main argument entirely convincing, but I'm no expert on dating papyri and I didn't find the counter argument convincing either. Really enjoyed reading it and thinking about the issues though. This is part of my plan to read properly some of the books I have been using for reference over the last 20 years.

[Nick Carey · Rating 1 out of 5]

All hype and no substance. The evidence is simply rival interpretation, no solid proof. The Rev Huleatt, who found the papyrus is, as the authors admit, someone about whom we know little. They also reveal, in passing, that there is no knowledge of how the Rev gentleman came into possession of the papyrus, exactly when or any detail of provenance. In all, much ado about nothing.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.