[Magdalen] Check the date...

[Molly Wolf]

April 1st, Jim.

The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. -- Mark Twain

> On Mar 31, 2016, at 3:13 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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
>>