An alternative theory of the history of christianity
Arguments against "Early Dated" Papryi Fragments Oxyrhynchus City demographics and C14 Analysis
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

PreConstantinian papyrii fragments and manuscripts

Possible Early Fragments from the New Testament Canonical "Books"

Beatty papyri: The major papyri in this collection are p45, p46, p47. The first p45 is dated to 150-250 CE; and contains some (or all) of Mt 20, 21, 25, 26; Mr 4-9, 11-12; Lk 6-7, 9-14; Jn 10-11; Acts 4-17. The second p46 is dated to 90-175 CE; contains some (or all) of Rom 5-6, 8-16; all of I & II Cor, Gal, Eph., Philp., Col, I Thess 1,2,5; all of Hebrews. The last, p47, dated to the third century, contains Revelation 9:10-17.2

The Bodmer papyri: The major papyri in this collection are p66, p72, p75.
p66: 150-200 CE, contains almost all of the Gospel of John
p72: 200's, containing all of I & II Peter, Jude
p75: 175-200 CE, contains most of Luke 3-18, 22-24; John 1-15.

The Rylands papyrus: Asserted to be the earliest surviving new testament fragment of a papyrus codex containing John 18:31-33, and 37. It has been dated from 130 CE.

Other papyrii: Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 658 dated to 250 CE, P. Oxy. 1464 dated to 250 CE, P. Oxy. 2990 dated to the third century, and a whole swag of others.




Possible Early Fragments from the New Testament Non Canonical "Books"

See the separate article on New Testament Apocryphal Corpus and the Greek Papryi.

The dating process used to assess the estimated date of all the above manuscripts and fragments is called paleography, and resembles handwriting analysis.

While it may be reliable, paleographic assessment is only an estimate, it will not usually detect forged handwriting. For example, if a manuscript were to be written in 325 CE, but in the more ancient Hadrian script, the paleographic assessment would tend to place the MS in the time of Hadrian. Paleographic assessment cannot be relied upon as a primary method of dating, unlike C14 analysis, or a dated fragment, for example.

The population demographics for the city of Oxyrhnchus take a huge explosion of high orders of magnitude in the mid-fourth century. One might therefore expect the rubbish dumps to have followed suit. One might be so bold as to congratulate anyone who found the small and completely overshadowed deep layer of rubbish from the 2nd and 3rd centuries underneath the veritable mountain of rubbish left behind after the population explosion peaked in the mid-4th century.

The city is described then as dual -- one city inside the walls became so overcrowed that another then formed outside the walls. The claim that anyone has walked into Oxyrhynchus and managed to find 2nd and/or 3rd century "christian papyri fragments" is not supported by the demographic evidence. Grenfell and Hunt employ local Egyptians at a few pence per day to gather up the fragments from over seventeen ancient rubbish dumps around Oxyrhynchus.



The fragments are then securely packed in biscuit tins and placed into a series of over 900 brief cases sized boxes and sent back to Oxford in the early twentieth century. Perhaps detailed academic analysis has made its way through at least 128 boxes to date.

The conjecture that the papyri fragments from the Oxy tips predate the extreme explosion of its population demographics is not logical. Neither does it seem to be supported by the carbon dating process. .

There are located on the web a number of copies of THE COINS FROM OXYRHYNCHUS By J.G. MILNE. Example site (1): The Open Library; example site (2): Coins from Egpt. The data from this article has been collated to present the following analysis of the numbers of coins found at the Oxyrhynchus tip network according by the decade of their mintage. The result supports the above assertion, that prior to the fourth century, the city which became Oxyrhynchus was quite small.

Please also see the major article Radiocarbon Dating the Gnostic Gospels

Our response to this mass of paleographic dating before the time of Constantine is to urge a carbon dating process to be undertaken on any of these purported NT fragments or manuscripts. This will either lend support to the existing paleopgraphic dating, or it will not. Unfortunately these fragments are not amenable to C14 analysis due to their contamination with the environment, and manual handling in the modern epoch by the archaeological teams.

To my knowledge (2006) there has been no results published in respect of any carbon dating test of a manuscript or fragment of the new testament canon.

The two extant C14 citations in the field are both in respect of non canonicaltexts:

(1) 348 CE (+/- 60 years for the Nag Hammadi Codices containing Gospel of Thomas)

This result may be depicted diagramatically as follows:



(2) 280 CE (+/- 60 years) for the Ahkim Codex containing the Gospel of Judas.

This result may be depicted diagramatically as follows. However in this instance it should be noted that in this case, most of the members of the investigative teams prefer a date in the fourth century.



NOTE: The following Analysis is to be revised

Resultant C14 Dated "Bell Curve" for the two indendent C14 test results

Since we have two independent C14 test results, they may be averaged, with the following result. The peak probability is clustered around the year 319 CE and the range has now become plus of minus 42 years. Here is the corresponding diagram, showing the averaged results to be 319 CE (+/- 42 years)



COMPOSITE DRAFT PRESENTATION



PREDICTION

This provides an opportunity of making a prediction, namely that the carbon dating (or any new technology) of any NT manuscript or fragment will yield a date no earlier than Constantine. Further, it is envisaged that technological advances may yield a new method of dating such archaeological fragments, perhaps for example, a method to detect the age of the oldest water molecules in the specimen, without having to destroy the specimen. Such technology may arise from multi-spectral imaging.

Practically all of the new testament related fragments appear to be sourced not from scrolls but from pages which were bound in codices - a sewn and folded book not a roll. If these fragments were to be dated even to the first half of the second century, then these fragments would be amongst the earlier surviving examples of a literary codex. Around 90 CE, Martial circulated his poems in codex form, presenting this as a novelty. Some people have even suggested that the "early christians" were very smart people and invented (or at least exploited the invention of) the codex. This is thus a highly tenditious argument.

The study of the handwriting of other known and dated documents and fragments of documents from the early centuries has been used to make a comparison to the handwriting found on these new testament related fragments. The term "Comparanda" is used, in this context, to refer to these other documents and fragments by which scholars are able to compare the handwriting to that found in the new testament fragments.

If scholars are using other fragments of writings from the early centuries to serve as benchmarks for the dating of the handwriting, is not the assumption that the collection of scribes' handwriting were somehow all representative of their century and station in the milieu. The comparanda include all sorts of common documents, prepared by common people who were scribes of the common and everyday empire. In contrast, the "christian" people who were supposedly copying the new testament texts were some form of secret society, underground and out of sight - to all intents and purposes some form of insular and separated group. We might assume they did not "subcontract" their NT copying to the common scribes of the empire. This suggests that the principles of comparanda (used to date the fragments by comparing scribal handwriting) might be stretched to the limit. The New Testament scribes were not the common everyday scribes in the empire.

A HISTORY OF EGYPT

ROMAN EGYPT

CHAPTER I
THE ORGANISATION OF EGYPT UNDER THE ROMANS

THE conquest of Egypt by the Romans produced
little change In the internal organisation of the country.
It was always the policy of Roman statesmen, when a
country possessing" a fully developed system of govern-
ment was added to their empire, to interfere as little as
possible with existing institutions ; and there was a
special reason in the case of Egypt for adopting this
course. The country was, In a sense, the personal
spoil of Augustus ; while the older provinces of the
Roman Empire had been won from foreign kings for
the Republic by its generals and with Its armies, Egypt
was the fruit of his victory over a Roman rival, albeit
a recreant to Roman ideas ; and, as the personal pro-
perty of that rival's wife, was confiscated for the private
benefit of the victor.

2. The elaborate system of government which had
gradually been developed by the native and Greek
kings was therefore taken over bodily by the Roman
emperors. In all probability the lower grades of
officials were left to complete their terms of office :
even in so high a position as that of epistrategos there
is found a Greek, Ptolemaios, the son of Henikleides,
thirteen years after the conquest ; W and as in later
times that post was always held by a Roman, it may
be presumed that he had continued in his place undis-
turbed by the change of dynasty. For, indeed, the
Roman conquest of Egypt was practically nothing more
than a change of dynasty, and was attended by far less
disturbance than had many times been caused by the
transference of power In the time of the native kings,

3. In the course which Augustus chose to follow
with regard to the government of Egypt, he was
guided partly by his personal claim explained above,
and partly by considerations of prudence : ^ the country
was rich, and could easily furnish the materials for
supporting a revolt ; while, at the same time, anyone
who held Egypt could cause great inconvenience to
the population of Rome without any further hostile
measures than simply stopping the export of corn from
Alexandria, and could thus practically starve Rome
to his side, as Vespasian proposed to do.^ More-
over, Egypt was difficult of access, especially from
Rome : there was only one harbour on the Mediter-
ranean coast available for large vessels, at Alexandria ;^
and the approaches by land across the deserts, either
from east or west, were dangerous for a body of any
large number of men. The Egyptians, too, were
always ready for a disturbance ; the most trivial
question would raise faction-fights among the crowds
of various nations and beliefs who inhabited Alex-
andria/ 5 ) while the inhabitants of the upper country
from time to time took up arms to settle their local
grievances ; < (i ) and from such small beginnings there
might arise serious troubles, unless prompt and
vigorous measures were taken. In all these reasons lay
a great argument for autocratic rule, which could act
on such an occasion without the danger of delay which
might arise from the necessity of consulting the senate,
purely formal as the consultation might be, to get con-
sent to measures which seemed good to the emperor.

4. Egypt was therefore treated as the personal domain
of the Roman emperor ; and from him, directly or
indirectly, all the Egyptian officials held their posts.
To guard against any possibility of senatorial inter-
ference, no member of the senate was allowed to take
office, or even to set foot, without the special leave of
the emperor, in the country/ 7 ) The highest position
that of prefect was usually filled by a Roman of
equestrian rank ; < 8 > on one occasion at least a freed-
man/ 9 ) and on one an Alexandrian/ 10 ) who had obtained
the Roman citizenship, were placed in this office. 'The
prefect, nominally a procurator of the emperor, was
really a viceroy, taking" almost the whole part played
in the system of government by the Greek kings. His
power was limited only by the right of appeal to the
emperor ; and he was head of every branch of the
administration, financial, judicial, and military/ 11 ) The
sum -total that was to be raised by taxation was
determined by the emperor ; but the prefect was re-
sponsible to him for the collection and transmission
of the money to Rome/ 1 -) and consequently was par-
ticularly concerned to supervise the collectors and
other subordinate officials, with a view of keeping in
check their exactions, which tended to diminish the
revenues of the state ; ( 13 > and also had to decide upon
claims of exemption from taxation made by commun-
ities or individuals/ 11 ) The judicial duties of the prefect,
which theoretically embraced all cases, both civil and
criminal, were lightened by the .delegation of authority
to lower officials;^ 5 ) but large numbers of legal
questions came before him for settlement, as petitions
for the redress of injuries could be addressed directly
to him/ 1 *') and he received appeals or references from
the inferior courts/ 17 ) He went on circuit throughout
the country, probably every year, to try such causes/ 18 )
He was also specially concerned to inquire into the
efficiency of the police of the various districts/ 19 ) The
nominations to subordinate offices and liturgies, and
appeals against them, also came before him;( 2 ) and
from him emanated the orders for official inquiries
and returns, such as the census lists of persons and
property of all kinds which were constantly required,
and for the safe keeping of these and other records/- 1 )
All the troops in Egypt were under his control, and
their complaints and disputes were specially referred
to him for decision/ 2 -) He held office at the will of the
emperor, and was not, apparently, appointed for any
definite period ; C 23 > the longest recorded tenure of the
office being that of Vitrasius Pollio, who was in
Egypt for upwards of sixteen years : W and he was
assisted by a council of Romans, who sat in the
prsetorium/ 25 )


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