God's Library : The Archaeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts / Brent Nongbri.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nongbri, Brent, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christian literature, Early--Manuscripts.

Christian literature, Early.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (416 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In this bold and groundbreaking book, Brent Nongbri provides an up-to-date introduction to the major collections of early Christian manuscripts and demonstrates that much of what we thought we knew about these books and fragments is mistaken. While biblical scholars have expended much effort in their study of the texts contained within the earliest Christian manuscripts, there has been a surprising lack of interest in thinking about these books as material objects with individual, unique histories. We have too often ignored the ways that the antiquities market obscures our knowledge of the origins of these manuscripts. Through painstaking archival research and detailed studies of the most important collections of early Christian manuscripts, Nongbri vividly shows that the earliest Christian books are more than just carriers of texts or samples of handwriting. They are three-dimensional archaeological artifacts with fascinating stories to tell, if we're willing to listen.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Map Showing Locations in Egypt

Prologue: Reintroducing the Earliest Christian Manuscripts

1. The Early Christian Book

2. The Dating Game

3. Finding Early Christian Books in Egypt

4. A Discovery "Which Threw All Others in the Shade": The Beatty Biblical Papyri

5. An Elusive Collection: The Bodmer Papyri

6. Excavating Christian Litter and Literature at Oxyrhynchus

7. Fabricating a Second-Century Codex of the Four Gospels

Epilogue: The Future of Ancient Christian Books

Appendix: Christian Books from Oxyrhynchus

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Subjects

Index of Manuscripts

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

ISBN:

0-300-24098-8

OCLC:

1047729257