{"id":29111,"date":"2015-01-24T16:25:06","date_gmt":"2015-01-24T22:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=29111"},"modified":"2015-01-24T16:27:08","modified_gmt":"2015-01-24T22:27:08","slug":"on-mark-papyrus-and-mummies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/24\/on-mark-papyrus-and-mummies\/","title":{"rendered":"On Mark, Papyrus and Mummies"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_29114\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29114\" style=\"width: 325px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/papyrus_42-21303735.jpg__800x600_q85_crop.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-29114\" src=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/papyrus_42-21303735.jpg__800x600_q85_crop.jpg\" alt=\"A fragment from a copy of the Gospel of John, circa 200 CE, is displayed at Sotheby's auctioneers in London. Researchers now claim to have found a gospel text that is over 100 years older. (SUZANNE PLUNKETT\/Reuters\/Corbis)\" width=\"325\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29114\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fragment from a copy of the Gospel of John, circa 200 CE, is displayed at Sotheby&#8217;s auctioneers in London. Researchers now claim to have found a gospel text that is over 100 years older. (SUZANNE PLUNKETT\/Reuters\/Corbis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There was a lot of news coming out of the world of archeology this week and most of it involved controversies surrounding mummies and masks. One such story is especially significant for Christianity and biblical scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>A team of researchers has apparently found what is believed to be the oldest-known copy of a gospel, a section of the Gospel of Mark dating back to about 90 CE, much older than previously discovered texts. The text was found in a papyrus-wrapped mask of a mummy, believed to be of someone from the ancient world who wouldn&#8217;t have been wealthy enough\u00a0to afford a more adorned and jeweled mask.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/papyrus-found-mummy-mask-may-be-oldest-known-copy-gospel-180953962\/?utm_source=twitter.com&amp;no-ist\">Smithsonian Magazine reports<\/a> that the gospel section and other\u00a0discoveries were\u00a0made possible by\u00a0a technique that removes the glue\u00a0from papyrus or linen but keeps any writing in tact:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\">Craig Evans, a professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and one of the\u00a0scientists and scholars working on the project,\u00a0told Live Science\u00a0that gospel text isn\u2019t the only writing they\u2019re finding:<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000; padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;We&#8217;re recovering ancient documents from the first, second and third centuries. Not just Christian documents, not just biblical documents, but classical Greek texts,\u00a0business papers, various mundane papers, personal letters,&#8221; Evans told Live Science. The documents include philosophical texts and copies of stories by the Greek poet Homer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\">Evans said that the team was able to zero in on the approximate date of the gospel text by using these other documents\u00a0(some of which were dated), handwriting analysis\u00a0and carbon dating.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A similar technique might have been at least partly responsible for damage reported to King Tut&#8217;s mask this week. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2015\/01\/21\/king-tuts-mask-damaged_n_6520910.html\">Huffington Post reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One of the most priceless treasures in archaeology,\u00a0the gold funerary mask of King Tutankhamun, was damaged during a cleaning attempt at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Efforts to repair the problem were also botched, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>The mask&#8217;s beard snapped off during an attempt to clean the mask in October. Museum staff stuck it back on using epoxy, which leaked onto the face of the mask and dried. Then,\u00a0the mask was scratched when the workers scraped off the epoxy, according to Al Araby Al Jadeed, a London-based Arabic news site.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers has apparently found what is believed to be the oldest-known copy of a gospel, a section of the Gospel of Mark dating back to about 90 CE, much older than previously discovered texts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[8,1216],"tags":[2909],"class_list":["post-29111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-and-architecture","category-scripture","tag-gospel-of-mark"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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