Saturday, April 21, 2018

Ancient Christians read the OT Pseudepigrapha

RICK BRANNAN: What Did Early Christians Read?
P.Oxy. 63.4365 (transcription, images) is a letter from one woman to another regarding lending books to each other. This letter, albeit short, indicates that both women were Christian and familiar with reading Christian manuscripts.
The letter is one of the papyri recovered from Oxyrhynchus. It dates to the early fourth century. Specifically the two women were lending each other a copy of "the Ezra" (4 Ezra?) for a copy of "the Little Genesis" (Jubilees). How cool is that?

Cross-file under Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Watch. There are many, many past PaleoJudaica posts having to do with the Oxyrhychus papyri, some of which have to do with fragments of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and New Testament Apocrypha, and of course also of biblical manuscripts and many documentary texts like the one above. Recent posts on the Oxyrhychus papyri are here, here, here, here, here, and here. And follow the links for earlier posts.

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