Papyri

This is an abstract for my PhD dissertation (University of Cambridge, 2015), in which I analyzed the discourse-pragmatic functions of a selection of Greek discourse markers in the documentary papyri and the Septuagint within a cognitive-functional framework. I then apply my findings to the study of Septuagint translation technique, with particular reference to The Twelve Prophets.

Revisions to the Greek NT in NA28 are restricted to the Catholic Epistles—the product of the Münster Institute’s ongoing work on the Editio critica maior. The text of the rest of the NT remains unaltered. The updated manuscript data, however, spans the apparatus of the entire NT and signals a new day for its textual history. The revised correctors of the Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus make the point. The proposed revisions have direct and far-reaching implications for the book’s textual history. Corrections once placed in the fourth through sixth centuries now occupy the seventh. The changes appear slight, even inconsequential—“touch ups” in support of the task of reconstruction. The clarification and re-dating of the correctors, though, represent a material shift with instant repercussions. The inclusion of new and additional witnesses—alongside of and in juxtaposition to the corrections—further portend altered textual alignments and disclose forgotten chapters in the history of textual criticism. The clarity of the new data also facilitates an examination of their limitations and unclutters the landscape for renewed textual research. The stage is set for a reappraisal of the Apocalypse’s textual history.

An overview of the variety of textual differences that exist between the Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus and the book in modern critical editions, thereby offering a window into the book's early readership. There is also a YouTube link to the lecture version of this paper, which was recently delivered at Samford University for their Holley Hull Lecture Series: https://vimeo.com/878444925/a35492dd8b?share=copy&fbclid=IwAR10Iu7HKuAjjcEcDdxgfT7XKqe2F6W6Bwb1cVHafNO0Yz6g4VhsIhXHMz4

The author discusses the chronology of the tomb-robbery papyri, showing that the verso of both P. BM 10068 and P. BM 10053 should be ascribed to the wHm mswt. Whereas the traditional ascription of P. BM 10053 vso. requires an otherwise unsubstantiated period of anarchy, in its new position this text can be seen to refer to the Suppression of the High Priest Amenhotep. Jansen-Winkeln's alternative explanation for the Pnekhtemope case is shown to be untenable and his remarks about P. Ambras are discussed. The chronology of P. BM 10054 is shown to be intimately connected to that of the papyri named in P. Ambras. Finally, P. BM 10068 vso. 1, 1-25 (the "Srmt-list") is interpreted as a very last effort by the authorities to retrieve stolen goods.

This important volume contains 175 documents from the Egyptian border fortresses of Elephantine and Syene (Aswan), which yielded hundreds of papyri in hieratic, Demotic, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Coptic, spanning a period of 3,000 years. The documents include letters and legal contracts from family and other archives, and are thus an invaluable source of knowledge for scholars of varied disciplines, such as epistolography, law, society, religion, language, and onomastics. The volume includes seven sections, each containing carefully translated and extensively annotated documents of one language group. Excellent cross-referencing allows the user to trace forerunners and successors. Each section is preceded by an introduction; the Aramaic, Demotic, and Greek sections are concluded with a prosopography. The book closes with a select topical index.

Praise for the first edition
“This is a groundbreaking work, intensely focused in its conception, comprehensive in scope, a priceless resource for students of law, society, and history. I wish I had written it.”
— Joseph Mélèze-Modrzejewski, Professeur à la Sorbonne-Université de Paris-I and author of Droit et justice dans le monde grec et hellénistique (2011) and The Jews of Egypt (1997)

“This publication, unique in its conception, provides the English reader with a window into three thousand years of continuity and change in the archival documents of a major Ancient Near Eastern site. It is an essential resource for all those interested in the social, political, religious, legal, or linguistic history of Upper Egypt and those who lived in it and ruled it from earliest historical times up to the rise of Islam.”
— Stephen A. Kaufman, Professor of Bible and Cognate Literature, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio; Editor-in-chief, the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project

Praise for the second revised edition
“There have been many books and articles about the ancient Jewish community of Elephantine in Egypt, first discovered more than a century and a half ago. But this book is unique: the only one to set that community within the sources for Elephantine and its environs over three millennia of Near Eastern history, from the Egyptian Old Kingdom to the early Islamic period. Porten’s book thus opens up Elephantine as a laboratory for studying long-term historical continuity and change in many dimensions. The challenge here is greatly enhanced by the meticulous presentation of the diverse textual sources for Elephantine, carried out by Porten and his associates; accompanying the careful translations are concise and yet comprehensive introductions to the texts and their historical contexts, detailed philological notes, and indices to the persons and topics mentioned. For the present new edition, the whole has been brought up to date, reconsidering issues of translation and historical background, and supplying missing textual elements. One can only congratulate Bezalel Porten for a major achievement: giving new life and accessibility to a volume that will remain an essential reference on Elephantine and much more in the ancient and classical history of the Near East.”
— Peter Machinist, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Harvard University.

The present paper, inspired by the article of Peter van Minnen, is devoted to the somewhat curious use of the term falkidion in three Dioskorean texts. In two deeds of disinheritation, P.Cair.Masp. III 67353 & I 67097 v° D, the Aphrodite Lawyer seems to have confused two distinct legal terms: quarta Falcidia and the portio debita/legitima (νόμιμος μοῖρα). In the third case, a will (P.Cair.Masp. III 67312), the term falkidion was applied in its classically correct meaning. The scholarship usually deemed the Dioskorean misconception of falkidion to have resulted from the common error of the Byzantine jurisprudence which had apparently applied it wrongly to describe legitim. Peter van Minnen thought that the notary’s seeming imprecision was rather due to his up-to-date legal education, as the Justinianic jurisprudence would have implicitly equalled the two concepts. The research of the Byzantine juristic sources proves however, that the legal texts – especially these of the Justinian’s era – almost always keep a clear distinction between these two legal institutes. After an examination of the dubious cases, the postulated identification is only ascertained in case of two works of scholarly use, Epitomae Novellarum of Julian and of Athanasius of Emesa. Subsequently the confrontation of some pre-justinianic legal sources allows to formulate a hypothesis that the justinianic compilers tried to recover the original meaning of falkidion. This supposition, in turn, may not only provide for better understanding of Dioskoros’s juristic expertise and his practical activity, but also illustrate the apparent contradictions between the pure imperial law, the legal practice and the teaching of law, based – one may speculate – still after the codification upon the pre-codified version of the law.

The publication of Josef Schmid's landmark work on the textual history of the Apocalypse seemingly established the Andreas Text Type as a fourth-century product. The primary evidence for Schmid's claim came from the fourth-century corrections of the Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus, corrections which bore a close resemblance to the Andreas text of the Apocalypse. Schmid's reconstruction, however, is flawed. The fourth-century corrections he identified are actually from the seventh-century. The data supporting a fourth-century Andreas text type does not exist. Schmid's widely influential error appears to have been based on a misreading of Milne and Skeat's "Scribes and Correctors of the Codex Sinaiticus."

The aim of this paper is to describe various features of the Septuagint Psalter. First of all, it is a translation of a Hebrew source text. A thorough comparison of the consonantal text preserved in the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint shows that the word order and the syntax of these two versions of the Psalter diverge only slightly. However, the Septuagint Psalter is much more than a mere trans¬lation. At times, the translator does not shrink from correcting the Hebrew Psalter text, e.g. for theological reasons. Moreover, the Egyptian context leaves its traces in the Greek translation. In this paper, I present various examples illustrating not only elements of trans¬lation technique but also the theological and cultural background of the translator.

Originally presented at the conference " Hidden in Plain Sight: The Influence of Western Esoteric Movements on Modern Thought, " this essay is an adaption, with additional updates and insights, from my 2004 Master's thesis " Gnosticism: Towards an Archaeological Definition. " It endeavors to provide suggestions for the possible identification of " Gnostic " material culture, while taking on the question of why there are very few legitimately recognized artifacts from an early Christian period religious movement termed " Gnosticism " by later scholars. This study works to aid scholars in the iconographic identification of ancient Gnosticism, so that we may trace and evaluate symbolic meaning as the movement has continued up to the present day, and its effects on modern trends of thought and belief. The ancient and modern definitions of " Gnosis, " " Gnostic, " and " Gnosticism " are discussed, along with images illustrating possible Gnostic iconography. The concluding section will take a look at the symbols of two modern Gnostic movements, the Ecclesia Gnostica of Los Angeles, California headed by Dr. Stefan Heller and Novus Spiritus, established by Sylvia Browne. Imagerie gnostique du début de notre ère à aujourd'hui Katherine Schaefers, M.A. Résumé À l'origine présenté à la conférence « Dissimulé en pleine lumière: l'influence des mouvements ésotériques occidentaux sur la pensée moderne », cet essai est une adaptation de ma thèse de maîtrise de 2004 intitulée « gnosticisme : vers une définition archéologique », avec des mises à jour et des notions supplémentaires. C'est une tentative pour proposer des suggestions d'identification potentielle de culture matérielle « gnostique », tout en considérant la question du pourquoi il y a peu d'artefacts légitimement reconnus provenant de la période religieuse du début du christianisme, appelée « gnosticisme » plus tard par les érudits. Cette étude a pour but d'aider les érudits dans l'identification iconographique de l'ancien gnosticisme, pour retracer et évaluer la signification symbolique du mouvement qui continue jusqu'à ce jour, et ses effets sur les tendances modernes de la pensée et des croyances. Les définitions anciennes et modernes des termes « gnose », « gnostique », et « gnosticisme » sont examinées, ainsi que les images illustrant une possible iconographie gnostique. La dernière section examinera les symboles de deux mouvements gnostiques modernes, le Gnostica Ecclesia de Los Angeles en Californie dirigé par Dr. Stefan Heller et Novus Spiritus, établi par Sylvia Browne.

Private associations organized around a common cult, occupation, ethnic identity, neighborhood or family were among the principal means of organizing social and economic life in the ancient Mediterranean. They offered opportunities for sociability, cultic activities, mutual support and contexts in which to display and recognize virtuous achievement. This volume collects 140 inscriptions and papyri from Ptolemaic and early Roman Egypt, along with translations, notes, commentary, and analytic indices. The dossier of association-related documents substantially enhances our knowledge of the extent, activities, and importance of private associations in the ancient Mediterranean, since papyri, unavailable from most other locations in the Mediterranean, preserve a much wider range of data than epigraphical monuments. The dossier from Egypt includes not only honorific decrees, membership lists, bylaws, dedications, and funerary monuments, but monthly accounts of expenditures and income, correspondence between guild secretaries and local officials, price and tax declarations, records of legal actions concerning associations, loan documents, petitions to local authorities about associations, letters of resignation, and many other papyrological genres. These documents provide a highly variegated picture of the governance structures and practices of associations, membership sizes and profiles, and forms of interaction with the State.

An "Alexandrian" encomiastic epigram in honor of Augustus (Supplementum Hellenisticum 982), "Aevum Antiquum" 11 (1998), 255-344

Contents:
1) Papyrological evidence. Hypothesis on the period and on the circumstances of the composition of the epigram. [The first known Greek epigram on papyrus with pentameters in eisthesis].
2) Epigram as Encomium and encomiastic ekphrasis. Possible epigraphical destination of SH 982.
3) Encomium as a hymn to the laudandus' divinity.
4) The Text.
5) August as a Zeus Eleutherios/Liberator: the Roman-Egyptian interpretation of the "Basileis soteres" Hellenistic tradition.
6) The Personification present in the epigram: a picture of the "Golden Age".
7) August as Nilotic ruler, bringer of Prosperity.
8) Iconography of the Augustean Apollo: the princeps and the elaboration of his own divine image.
9) Apollo "Actius" and Apollo "Leucadius".
10) Mutual influences of the Greek and Latin encomiastic poetry in the Augustan age: two different ways of expressing the same ideology.
11)  Appendix: the documentary texts of the tomos (P.Lond II 256 a, d, e) with translation and commentary.
12) Bibliography.

"The early papyri of Luke are remarkable for their diversity. Six pre-fourth century witnesses are extant. The content, date, provenance, textual relationships, and scribal habits of each vary from fragment to fragment. Their texts range from a few paltry lines to nearly an entire gospel. All were produced in the second, third, or fourth centuries. All are from Egypt--though their precise sites of discovery differ. The nature and frequency of their scribal variations also fluctuate. Nonsense readings, itacisms, and similar orthographic 'deviations' prevail in some; others exhibit little to none of these. The incidence of nomina sacra and numerical abbreviations varies from scribe to scribe, even line to line. Their significance is debated. The amount of surviving text is at once both an accident of history and a byproduct of particular scribal habits. The rates of additions, omissions, transpositions, and the like can be tracked to the individual copyist. Human hands have shaped the bequeathals of history and the absence of 'expected' readings continue to hold the imagination hostage. Questions swirl over textual alignments, while the very nomenclature of 'text types' is decried in some quarters. More than simple artifacts of early Christian piety, these papyri disclose the fault lines of Luke's textual history--well in advance of the great fourth-century codices."

List of objects from Deir el-Medina in the Leiden Museum of Antiquities, with a full bibliography of each item, comments, and a photograph. Altogether, there are three wooden statues, two canopic jars, a mummy shroud, two stelae, and two papyri.

This article provides two case studies concerning invisible which nevertheless has serious consequences. The first one is taken from a literary narrative, the so-called second story of Setne. There a Nubian magician challenges the Egyptians to be able to read a sealed letter he is carrying without opening it, otherwise they would be humiliated. The other case study are papyrus amulets which are normally folded together so that the writing is not visible, but the text is still thought to establish a communication situation with higher powers.

Written communications make up a particularly interesting and promising category of evidence for reconstructing social history. Compared to most other categories of evidence, letters offer relatively personal, sincere and informative glimpses into specific micro-histories, thereby allowing us to get closer to individuals of the past, as well as the relational ties connecting individuals and groups.

A general lack of theoretical and methodological approaches welcoming (or even comprehending) the diversity they present, has though led to letters often having been deemed too individualistic and multifaceted to represent an attractive evidence-type. In this respect, Social Networks Analysis (SNA) offers a range of analytical tools enabling quantitative, yet systematic, examinations of larger and more complex data-sets than has hitherto been possible.

Despite theoretical compatibility, the practical execution of ancient network studies is complicated by the fragmentary state of the evidence at hand. For the most part, ancient letters were written on highly perishable material such as papyri. Adding to the obvious difficulties presented by lacunae and missing text, is the fact that relevant information, such as specification of time and space, was often excluded altogether. For SNA's true value for ancient studies to become widely acknowledged, such limitations must be faced and attempted dealt with.

By means of presenting a case study of preserved military correspondences of Pathyrite soldiers on campaign in the North during the Judean-Syrian-Egyptian conflict of 103-101 BCE, my poster will exemplify the problem of missing data while arguing that, despite certain limitations, a distinct network approach has the potential to challenge, compliment and add valuable information to more traditional methodologies.

Hanafi bookman Ali ibn Ma’bad ibn Shaddâd al-Rakkī al-Misrī (d. 218/833) from Raqqa who actualized the major scientific activities in Egypt was a little-known narrator and canonist in our day. Ali ibn Ma’bad took lessons from teachers such as al-Layth ibn Sa’d (d. 175/791), Ismāīl ibn Ja’far (d. 180/796), Muhammad al-Shaybānī (d. 189/805) Abdullah ibn Wahb (d. 197/813). Moreover, he was the narrator of Imam Muhammad’s books called al-Jāmi al-Kabīr and al-Jāmi al-Saghīr. The book called Kitāb al-tā’at ve al-ma’siye that is the only text equated to him is still on the loose. We aimed to analyze the hadiths that are written on a papyrus recorded as “Mich.Pap.D.953” in Cambridge University. We have concluded by this papyrus that 13 numbered papyrus that N. Abbott analyzed in his book called Studies in Arabic literary papyri II is the two parts of the same book. In this regard, we also researched whether this papyrus belongs to the book we’ve mentioned about. However, this papyrus might be a part of his other book that we do not know. Our investigation of this book as a hadith fascicle that was directly written by the author will offer an insight to the reliability of narration of hadith books. Our goal is to contribute to arguments in this aspect. / Rakkalı olmakla birlikte asıl ilmi faaliyetlerini Mısır’da gerçekleştirmiş olan Hanefi âlim Ali b. Ma’bed b. Şeddâd er-Rakkî el-Mısrî (ö. 218/833) zamanımızda pek bilinmeyen bir muhaddis ve fakîhtir. Leys b. Sa’d (ö. 175/791), İsmail b. Ca’fer (ö. 180/796), İmam Muhammed eş-Şeybânî (ö. 189/805) Abdullah b. Vehb (ö. 197/813) gibi hocalardan ders alan Ali b. Ma’bed, aynı zamanda İmam Muhammed’in Câmi’u’l-kebîr ve Câmi’u’s-sağîr adlı eserlerinin de râvisidir. Kendisine nispet edilen tek eseri olan Kitâbu’t-tâ’at ve’l-ma’siye adlı kitabı da kayıp durumdadır. İşte bu araştırmamızda ona ait olduğunu düşündüğümüz, Cambridge Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi’nde “Mich.Pap.D.953” olarak kayıtlı bulunan bir papirüs üzerine yazılmış olan hadisleri değişik açılardan incelemeyi amaçladık. Söz konusu bu papirüsle N. Abbott’un Studies in Arabic literary papyri II adlı kitabında incelediği 13 numaralı papirüsün aynı eserin iki parçası olduğu sonucuna vardık. Bu bağlamda bu papirüsün söz konusu eserine mi ait yoksa, adını bilmediğimiz başka bir eserinin bir parçası mı olduğunu da araştırdık. Bir hadis cüzü/kitabı olarak doğrudan müellifi tarafından yazdırılmış olan bu eseri incelememiz hadis kitaplarının naklindeki güvenilirliğe de ışık tutacak niteliktedir. Amacımız bu çalışmayla bu yöndeki tartışmalara bir katkıda bulunmaktır.

THE PRESENT BOOK COLLECTS PAPERS delivered during the conference com- memorating the tenth anniversary of the death of Henryk Kupiszew- ski, eminent Romanist and Papyrologist, late Professor of Warsaw Uni- versity and the former Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw, now Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński University. This volume brings together not only his friends and students but also various topics that he used to work on. Important part of his scientific output had been dedicated to family relations in their social and legal aspects: a particularly broad subject, which allows and calls for a interdisciplinary research, a modern standard of studies on Antiquity.* Marriage as the Leitmotiv of the meeting com- memorating Henryk Kupiszewski suggested itself and seemed promising. We hoped it would stimulate a fruitful discussion employing different methodological tools, proper for all classical disciplines and presenting the multifaceted reality of marriage in the Graeco-Roman Antiquity. In this way we attempted at adding to the – still far from completeness – image of marriage between its dogmatic construction and its social reality as it emerges from legal sources, literature and last – but not least – prac- tice of the papyri.

SUMMARY This paper studies the question on which (Julian) date falls an ancient dating according to the Jewish calendar. It is only incompletely known how in Biblical times the beginning of the lunar month was reckoned and how the lunar calendar was adapted to the solar year. The article investigates ancient documents with double datings or with information about the day of the week, with the result that the calendar was mainly based on the observation of the moon and of the vegetation, which cannot be exactly reconstructed in retrospect. Hence, the dates provided by the Gospels are not sufficient in order to reconstruct the year in which Jesus was crucified.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Die Studie behandelt die Frage, auf welchen (julianischen) Tag eine antike Datumsangabe nach jüdischem Kalender fiel. Wie der Beginn des Mond-Mo-nats genau festgelegt wurde und wie der Mondkalender mit dem Sonne!ahr in Einklang gebracht wurde, ist für die biblische Zeit nur lückenhaft bekannt. Dieser Artikel untersucht antike Dokumente, die doppelt datiert sind oder die neben der Datumsangabe den Wochentag angeben, mit dem Ergebnis, daß der Kalender weitgehend auf der Beobachtung des Mondes und der Vegetation beruhte, was im nachhinein nicht genau rekonstruierbar ist. Deshalb genügen die Datums-und Wochentagsangaben der Evangelien nicht, um das Jahr, in dem Jesus gekreuzigt worden ist, rekonstruieren zu können.

Nel papiro di Cornelio Gallo scoperto a Qaṣr Ibrîm particolare interesse ha suscitato la frase carmina digna domina, da cui si è creduto di poter dedurre, talora forzando il testo e istituendo rischiosi paralleli con Properzio, la presenza dei concetti di domina iudex, di puella Musa e di “werbende Dichtung” già nel primo elegiaco latino. In realtà né il significato ricostruibile dei vv. 6-9, né i raffronti con i testi properziani e virgiliani da cui si pretende di poter dedurre tutto questo, autorizzano simili ricostruzioni. Certo, nulla esclude che queste idee tipicamente elegiache fossero già nella poesia galliana, ma esse non sono presenti nei versi del papiro.