Harvard Lycopolitan John – kolejne fałszerstwo? Koptyjski manuskrypt w świetle Ewangelii Żony Jezusa i współczesnych badań

Tomasz Bartłomiej Bąk

doi:10.31743/ba.1300

Harvard Lycopolitan John – Another Forgery? A Coptic Manuscript in the Light of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and its Contemporary Examinations

Tomasz Bartłomiej Bąk

The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin , Poland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31743/ba.1300

Abstract

On 18 September 2015, during the International Congress of Coptic Studies in Rome, Professor Karen L. King from Harvard Divinity School, presented a previously unpublished Coptic papyrus fragment, known as the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife. This text was among the scraps of ancient manuscripts, one of which is known as the Harvard Lycopolitan John and contains small fragments from the Gospel of John. In my article I attempt to analyze this second manuscript and demonstrate, on the basis of various scientific examinations performed by contemporary scholars, that the aforementioned Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, and also the Harvard Lycopolitan John, are modern creations. Unknown origin of the HLJ, unusual dimensions of the manuscript, dialectal implausibility, linguistic errors, etc. – all these phenomena allow us to treat the Harvard Lycopolitan John as a forgery, which was faithfully copied from Herbert Thompson’s 1924 edition of the fourth-century Lycopolitan “Qau codex”.

Keywords:

Coptic, forgery, Harvard Lycopolitan John, Gospel of Jesus’ Wife

Supporting Agencies:

References

Askeland C., „A Lycopolitan Forgery of John’s Gospel”, New Testament Studies 61/03 (2015) 314-334.

Askeland C., John’s Gospel: The Coptic Translations of its Greek Text (ANTF 44; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012).

Bagnall R.S., Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

Bąk T., Il Proto-Isaia in copto-saidico. Edizione critica sulla base di sa 52 (M 568) e di altri testimoni. Estratto della dissertazione per il Dottorato in Studi dell’Oriente Antico (Roma: [bez wyd.], 2014).

Brankaer J., Coptic. A Learning Grammar (Sahidic) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010).

Clark R.J.H., „Pigment Identification of Medieval Manuscripts by Raman Microscopy”, Journal of Molecular Structure 347 (1995) 417-427.

Clark R.J.H. – Smith G.D., „Raman Microscopy in Archeological Science”, Journal of Archeological Science 31 (2004) 1137-1160.

Crum W.E., A Coptic Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939 [ed. oryginalna]; Eugene – Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2005 [reprint]).

Emmel S., „The Codicology of the New Coptic (Lycopolitan) Gospel of John Fragment (and Its Relevance for Assessing the Genuineness of the Recently Published Coptic «Gospel of Jesus Wife» Fragment”) (for non-commercial internet publication, 2014-06-22),

dostępny na stronie: https://suciualin.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/emmel-codicologyharvardjohn-2014-06-22.pdf.

Funk W.P., „Toward a Classification of the «Sahidic» Nag Hammadi Texts”, Acts of the Fifth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Washington, 12-15 August 1992 (red. D.W. Johnson) (Rome: Centro Italiano Microfiches, 1993) II, 163-177.

Horner G.W. (red.), Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Southern Dialect otherwise Called Sahidic and Thebaic. III: The Gospel of S. John (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911).

Kasser R., „A Standard System of Sigla for Referring to the Dialects of Coptic”, J. Copt. Stud. 1 (1990) 141-151.

King K., „ «Jesus said to them: ‘My wife…’»: A New Coptic Papyrus Fragment”, Harvard Theological Review 107/2 (2014) 131-159.

Kőrte A., „Literarische Texte mit Ausschluss der Christlichen”, Archiv fűr Papyrusforschung 11 (1935) 220-283.

Layton B., A Coptic Grammar (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004).

Orlandi T., „La patrologia copta”, Complementi interdisciplinari di patrologia (red. A. Quacquarelli) (Roma: Città Nuova, 1989) 457-502.

Robinson G.S., „How a Papyrus Fragment Became a Sensation”, New Testament Studies 61/3 (2015) 379-394.

Thompson H. (red.), The Gospel of St. John According to the Earliest Coptic Manuscript Edited with a Translation by Sir Herbert Thompson (London: Britisch School of Archeology in Egypt, 1924).

Till W.C., Koptische Dialektgrammatik mit Lesestűcken und Wőrterbuch (Műnchen: Beck Verlag, 21961).

Turner E.G., The Typology of the Early Codex (Eugene – Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2011).

Yardley J.T. – Hagadorn A., „Characterization of the Chemical Nature of the Black Ink in the Manuscript of The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife through Micro-Raman Spectroscopy”, Harvard Theological Review 107/2 (2014) 162-164.

Wykorzystane strony internetowe:

http://alinsuciu.com/2014/05/01/guest-post-joost-l-hagen-possible-further-proof-of-forgery-a-reading-of-the-text-of-the-lycopolitan-fragment-of-the-gospel-of-john-with-remarks-about-suspicious-phenomena-in-the-areas-of-the-lac/

http://www.etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/15248.pdf

https://suciualin.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/emmel-codicologyharvardjohn-2014-06-22.pdf

http://www.etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/15248.pdf

http://gospelofjesusswife.hds.harvard.edu/

http://gospelofjesusswife.hds.harvard.edu/ink-study

http://gospelofjesusswife.hds.harvard.edu/QA

http://gospelofjesusswife.hds.harvard.edu/radiocarbon-dating

http://gospel-thomas.net/gtbypage_112702.pdf

http://www.theologyweb.com /campus/showthread.php?1618-Analyses-of-Jesus-Wife-Fragment-Finally-Published/page11

http://ww2.smb.museum/berlpap/index.php/03284/

http://www.livescience.com/45020-gospel-of-jesus-wife-questioned.html

Download

PDF (Język Polski)

Published

2016-04-25

Bąk, T. B. (2016). Harvard Lycopolitan John – kolejne fałszerstwo? Koptyjski manuskrypt w świetle Ewangelii Żony Jezusa i współczesnych badań. The Biblical Annals, 6(2), 227–249. https://doi.org/10.31743/ba.1300

Tomasz Bartłomiej Bąk tomciobak@gmail.com
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Pursuant to the Act on Copyright and Related Rights of February 4, 1994, the Author of the publication grants to the Publisher of the journal „The Biblical Annals” e a non-exclusive and royalty-free license to use the Work submitted for publication, without time and territorial restrictions in the following fields of use:
a) record the Work and copy it by means of any technique (including printing and electronic recording) on all known data carriers (including IT, electronic and polygraphic), and in all IT systems (in particular those available online);
b) enter the Work into computer memory, disseminate the Work and its copies, as well as market the Work and its copies;
c) publicly perform, replay, display and screen the Work, as well as lend, rent and lease the Work and its copies;
d) make available, market and disseminate the Work and its copies via IT networks, and in particular via the Internet, including the promotion or advertising of the Work, the journal or the Publisher.
The Author shall further grant his/her consent for the Publisher to use and dispose of derivative works.
The Publisher may sublicense the work.
Third parties may use the articles and other materials containing the Works, or developed on the basis of the Works in line with the model Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (also referred to as CC BY 4.0).