[Magdalen] Check the date...

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

It is much too early to speculate on this. It may well turn out to be a
forgery. The circumstances of its discovery leave that possibility wide
open. Dating the material will also help.

Incredible claims demand incredible proofs, so look for this to be kicking
around the scholarly community for years before a real decisive result is
achieved.

And the connection with Matthew is pure conjecture.

Let's just wait and find out what we actually have.  I am especially
alarmed by the claim that the text has been peer reviewed, since such a
process takes an enormous amount of time and consultation.  No mention of
carbon dating, which is a minimum essential (they say the Hebrew is first
century? Well, how old is the material it's written on? Is the ink
consistent with first or second century practice? Etc., etc.)

I suspect this will have the same result as the Jesus'-wife text: big
hallabaloo, followed eventually by a slow lapse into silence.  Forgers are
out there, and they are incredibly good at what they do. That, of course,
does not say this text is a forgery, but all things considered, I'd say
that's the way to bet.

I'll be interested in whether this shows up in BAR, and what they have to
say about it. I expect they are working on an article now.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 2:11 PM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> And so it begins:
>
> http://liturgy.co.nz/archaeologists-find-q
>
> The earliest collection of the sayings of Jesus, written down in
> Hebrew by Jesus’ disciple Matthew, has been found.
>
> These sayings, older than our gospels, now leave us with unprecedented
> questions: if they disagree with the gospels, which do we follow?
> Should we add this to the Bible?
>
>
> --
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>