Friday, February 24, 2012

Provenance of Picture of Mark Fragment

Earlier this week, a photograph of an alleged fragment of Mark's Gospel began to circulate on the internet and it has rightly been treated with the scepticism, if not always ridicule, that it deserves (Near EmmausPaleojudaica, Exploring our Matrix, Earliest Christianity, Zwinglius Redivivus, Thomas Verenna and others).

One fact that has not received adequate attention is that the provenance of the picture.  It emerged for the first time last Saturday in a posting of a certain "GodAlmighty" on a fringe internet forum. If you were curious about where "GodAlmighty" found the picture, he* says "A Facebook friend of mine posted a pic. He knows his Koine pretty well and he says it's definitely from Mark 5:15-18."  (The picture has since disappeared, but the post is still present).

As far as I am concerned, this settles the question.  So often we are faced with artifacts appearing on the antiquities market with unknown provenances, or vague tales about their being found in caves somewhere.  Not here.  The artifact is from no less a source than GodAlmighty himself and his Facebook friend who knows some Greek.  What more do we need to know?

* I am not here assuming that GodAlmighty is male but rather inferring it from his long beard, clearly visible in his avatar.

2 comments:

geoffhudson.blogspot.com said...

The furore over the fragment of Mark is because Mark is considered the earliest gospel in Greek. In the Introduction to his book The Correspondence Between Paul and Seneca, the author has assembled a some powerful arguments to the effect that Latin was the lingua franca of Rome and the Roman world in the first century.

Rudolph Zelenka said...

Please let Dr. Daniel Wallace publich his finding along with the other scholars. Do you not knows what the scholarly world will do to his reputation if fragment is not close to the time period of what he has mention already?

Let of the disciplines of evidencial discovcery have their time AFTER they publish the finding.

Who says that maybe they use Greek first then very right away they had it translated in Hebrew and Latin. Or who is to say that maybe some (Apostles)of them or their followers wrote it in all three of the languages .

Besides we know this, when Emanual (Jesus Christ) was hanging on the cross there was a sign that said 'King of the Jews' in all three languages.

Don't forget to give credit to at least one of the thieves who hang there besides him.

HE UNDERSTOOD WHAT IT MEANT FOR HIM AT THAT MOMENT. Who knows maybe in all three languages.