Reviewed Book: Thiede, Carsten Peter. Eyewitness to Jesus: amazing new manuscript evidence about the origin of the Gospels. New York: Doubleday, 1996

Scott-Thomas, John

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 24Issue 1 Leadership into the 21st Century Article 135-1-1998Eyewitness to Jesus: amazing new manuscriptevidence about the origin of the GospelsJohn Scott-ThomasFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationScott-Thomas, John (1998) "Eyewitness to Jesus: amazing new manuscript evidence about the origin of the Gospels," Consensus: Vol.24 : Iss. 1 , Article 13.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol24/iss1/13146 Consensusand available the testimony of the Old Testament in all of its polyphonic,elusive, imaginative power and to offer it to the church for its continuingwork of construal toward Jesus.”In spite of some of the suspicion surrounding the postmodern perspec-tive I personally believe this perspective provides an opportunity to thechurch. In a day when the witness of secular society and the universityis being called on the carpet for its own over-confident objectivism, thechurch and synagogue can increasingly make its own testimony about theGod of Israel and our Lord Jesus Christ in equal and new-found legitimacy.I believe this book is one such testimony.Roger W. UittiLutheran Theological SeminarySaskatoon, SaskatchewanEyewitness to JesusC.P. Thiede and M. D’AnconaNew York: Doubleday, 1996Basically this book is the account of the reasoning and path followedby Dr. C.P. Thiede, an eminent papyrologist, in re-dating the MagdalenPapyrus, as recorded by his amanuensis, M. D’Ancona, the Deputy Editorof The Sunday Telegraph. Putting aside the breathless and rather pre-cious prose of the dust jacket, it really is a fascinating volume to read.In addition to reporting the line of argument developed by Dr. Thiede,Mr. D’Ancona, who is himself a graduate of Magdalen, records a brief bi-ography of Rev. C.B. Huleatt who acquired the manuscript fragments whileserving in Luxor, Egypt, and donated them to Magdalen College at the turnof the twentieth century. Rev. Huleatt was also a graduate of the College,and thought of himself as a “Magdalen man”.Dr. Thiede’s contention is that the fragments contain elements fromMatthew 26:7-8, 10, 14-15, 22-23, 31-33, that the fragments came from acomplete codex of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and that the codex pre-datesthe end of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, which occurred in the latesixties and early seventies of the first century A.D. The arguments are de-tailed, filled with examples taken from other investigations in papyrology,and replete with esoterica such as line length analysis, the use of “nom-ina sacra”,editorial techniques used in marking “new lines” or “new para-graphs”, the development of microscopes and microscopic analysis methodsin order to reconstruct debatable characters, and so on. Further, the storyof Charles Bousfield Huleatt is interwoven through the text. Unfortunately,this rather mixed method of presentation gives the lay reader much troublein following the thread of the argument. To the expert in the field it is nodoubt obvious that the work of O’Callaghan on 7Q5 is being used as anBook Reviews 147example of methodology, but to a lay person, running into a discussion ofthe dating of fragments of a scroll from Qumran of St. Mark’s Gospel whilein pursuit of fragments of a codex lodged in Magdalen College, purport-edly from St. Matthew’s Gospel, is somewhat disconcerting. Similarly therepeated emphasis on the digraph iota beta as standing for twelve (ten-ftwo), causes one with “little Latin and less Greek” considerable difficulty,since iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. (This confusion is re-solved by asking at your local library. It turns out that in Archaic Greekthere was a letter allied with the Phoenician Vav, or the Hebrew Vaiv, lo-cated in the sixth position. When it became obsolete in the language, itwas retained for counting and arithmetic. It is called Digamma.) Althoughthe presentation is somewhat chaotic, following the argument is great fun.The conclusion reached is very plausible. Dr. Thiede does not dispute thepriority of St. Mark—he just pushes things back to the middle of the firstcentury. Thus it would be probable that many of those who had been eye-witnesses to all or part of Jesus’ teaching and ministry would have beenable to read and comment on the reliability of at least the Gospels of Markand Matthew, and quite likely that of Luke in addition. Discussion of theimplications for the church would lead us too far afield, and would be outof place in a book review. For an alternative view, it might be well to read“The Search for a No-Frills Jesus” in the Atlantic Monthly of December,1996,278/6 .John Scott-ThomasTrenton, ONThe Road from Damascus: The Impact of Paul’s Con-version on His Life, Thought, and MinistryMcMaster New Testament Studies 2Richard N. Longenecker, editorGrand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997XV + 253 pp. $25.00The purpose of the McMaster New Testament Studies (MNTS) seriesis to make accessible substantial biblical scholarship to a non-specialist,though educated, audience through annual symposium volumes. In thiscollection of essays on Paul readers are brought into the very complex worldof Pauline studies. The conversion/ call of Paul has been one of the mostprofound and debated conversions in Christian tradition and scholarly dis-cussion. Here the focus is placed upon the impact of Paul’s conversion inhis later thinking as a Christian leader.The essays included in this volume are varied in the range of the-matic topics addressed. After Richard Longenecker’s introduction, (xi-xv),the following eleven essays are given: Bruce Corley, “Interpreting Paul’s

Eyewitness to Jesus: amazing new manuscript evidence about the origin of the Gospels

Scholars Commons

Consensus
Volume 24
Issue 1 Leadership into the 21st Century Article 13
5-1-1998
Eyewitness to Jesus: amazing new manuscript
evidence about the origin of the Gospels
John Scott-Thomas
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus
This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Scott-Thomas, John (1998) "Eyewitness to Jesus: amazing new manuscript evidence about the origin of the Gospels," Consensus: Vol.
24 : Iss. 1 , Article 13.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol24/iss1/13
146 Consensus
and available the testimony of the Old Testament in all of its polyphonic,
elusive, imaginative power and to offer it to the church for its continuing
work of construal toward Jesus.”
In spite of some of the suspicion surrounding the postmodern perspec-
tive I personally believe this perspective provides an opportunity to the
church. In a day when the witness of secular society and the university
is being called on the carpet for its own over-confident objectivism, the
church and synagogue can increasingly make its own testimony about the
God of Israel and our Lord Jesus Christ in equal and new-found legitimacy.
I believe this book is one such testimony.
Roger W. Uitti
Lutheran Theological Seminary
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Eyewitness to Jesus
C.P. Thiede and M. D’Ancona
New York: Doubleday, 1996
Basically this book is the account of the reasoning and path followed
by Dr. C.P. Thiede, an eminent papyrologist, in re-dating the Magdalen
Papyrus, as recorded by his amanuensis, M. D’Ancona, the Deputy Editor
of The Sunday Telegraph. Putting aside the breathless and rather pre-
cious prose of the dust jacket, it really is a fascinating volume to read.
In addition to reporting the line of argument developed by Dr. Thiede,
Mr. D’Ancona, who is himself a graduate of Magdalen, records a brief bi-
ography of Rev. C.B. Huleatt who acquired the manuscript fragments while
serving in Luxor, Egypt, and donated them to Magdalen College at the turn
of the twentieth century. Rev. Huleatt was also a graduate of the College,
and thought of himself as a “Magdalen man”.
Dr. Thiede’s contention is that the fragments contain elements from
Matthew 26:7-8, 10, 14-15, 22-23, 31-33, that the fragments came from a
complete codex of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and that the codex pre-dates
the end of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, which occurred in the late
sixties and early seventies of the first century A.D. The arguments are de-
tailed, filled with examples taken from other investigations in papyrology,
and replete with esoterica such as line length analysis, the use of “nom-
ina sacra”
,
editorial techniques used in marking “new lines” or “new para-
graphs”, the development of microscopes and microscopic analysis methods
in order to reconstruct debatable characters, and so on. Further, the story
of Charles Bousfield Huleatt is interwoven through the text. Unfortunately,
this rather mixed method of presentation gives the lay reader much trouble
in following the thread of the argument. To the expert in the field it is no
doubt obvious that the work of O’Callaghan on 7Q5 is being used as an
Book Reviews 147
example of methodology, but to a lay person, running into a discussion of
the dating of fragments of a scroll from Qumran of St. Mark’s Gospel while
in pursuit of fragments of a codex lodged in Magdalen College, purport-
edly from St. Matthew’s Gospel, is somewhat disconcerting. Similarly the
repeated emphasis on the digraph iota beta as standing for twelve (ten
-f
two), causes one with “little Latin and less Greek” considerable difficulty,
since iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. (This confusion is re-
solved by asking at your local library. It turns out that in Archaic Greek
there was a letter allied with the Phoenician Vav, or the Hebrew Vaiv, lo-
cated in the sixth position. When it became obsolete in the language, it
was retained for counting and arithmetic. It is called Digamma.) Although
the presentation is somewhat chaotic, following the argument is great fun.
The conclusion reached is very plausible. Dr. Thiede does not dispute the
priority of St. Mark—he just pushes things back to the middle of the first
century. Thus it would be probable that many of those who had been eye-
witnesses to all or part of Jesus’ teaching and ministry would have been
able to read and comment on the reliability of at least the Gospels of Mark
and Matthew, and quite likely that of Luke in addition. Discussion of the
implications for the church would lead us too far afield, and would be out
of place in a book review. For an alternative view, it might be well to read
“The Search for a No-Frills Jesus” in the Atlantic Monthly of December,
1996
,
278/6 .
John Scott-Thomas
Trenton, ON
The Road from Damascus: The Impact of Paul’s Con-
version on His Life, Thought, and Ministry
McMaster New Testament Studies 2
Richard N. Longenecker, editor
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997
XV + 253 pp. $25.00
The purpose of the McMaster New Testament Studies (MNTS) series
is to make accessible substantial biblical scholarship to a non-specialist,
though educated, audience through annual symposium volumes. In this
collection of essays on Paul readers are brought into the very complex world
of Pauline studies. The conversion/ call of Paul has been one of the most
profound and debated conversions in Christian tradition and scholarly dis-
cussion. Here the focus is placed upon the impact of Paul’s conversion in
his later thinking as a Christian leader.
The essays included in this volume are varied in the range of the-
matic topics addressed. After Richard Longenecker’s introduction, (xi-xv),
the following eleven essays are given: Bruce Corley, “Interpreting Paul’s


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