7Q5

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Fragment 5 from Cave 7 of the Qumran Community in its entirety 7Q5.jpg
Fragment 5 from Cave 7 of the Qumran Community in its entirety

Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 7Q5 is the designation for a small Greek papyrus fragment discovered in Qumran Cave 7. It contains about 18 legible or partially legible Greek letters and was published in 1962 as an unidentified text. The editor assigned the fragment to a date between 50 BCE and 50 CE on the basis of its handwriting. [1] In 1972, the Spanish papyrologist Jose O'Callaghan argued that the papyrus was in fact a fragment of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verses 52 and 53. While most liberal theology scholars have been unpersuaded by this argument, a vocal minority continue to support the identification of the fragment as a part of the Gospel of Mark. [2] [3] More important is that the vast majority of papyrologists support the identification of 7Q5 as part of Mark’s gospel. This is objectively demonstrated by 1991 symposium in Eichstatt and is recorded in a book of the minutes and presentations of the meeting by B. Mayer. [4] A handful of the universally acknowledge world famous papyrologists such as Orsolina Montevecchi, Sergio Daris, Herbert Hunger and others have come out with papyrological support of identifying 7Q5 as part of the Gospel of Mark that was written in the 50s CE [5] [6] In order to refute this on empirical grounds it is not sufficient to merely claim that leading papyrologists disagree but show objective/external evidence to the contrary such as peer reviewed journals where leading papyrologists are on record saying they disagree with the identification of 7Q5 as Mark’s Gospel. This does not exists! World Renowned Papyrologists and general sentiment in favor of the identification at the 1991 symposium is documented. Most summaries show those who oppose the identification are from a different discipline (biblical scholars mainly from the liberal perspective) and the proponents are actual papyrologists of Ancient Greek manuscripts. [7]

Contents

O'Callaghan's proposed identification

O'Callaghan challenged the reading of the original edition of the fragment, largely because he misunderstood the original editor's use of an iota subscript in line 2 of the fragment. [8] The Greek text below shows O'Callaghan's reconstruction with bold font representing proposed identifications with characters from 7Q5: [9]

for they did not
understand concerning the loaves
but was their heart harden-
ed. And crossing over [unto the land]
they came unto Gennesaret and
drew to the shore. And com-
ing forth out of the boat immediately
they recognized him.

Argument

The 7th Cave at Qumran, where 7Q5 was found. Cave7Q.JPG
The 7th Cave at Qumran, where 7Q5 was found.

O'Callaghan's argument is as follows:

  1. According to O'Callaghan, in line 2 "after the ⲱ, the ⲁ suggested by the editors seems inadmissible. The traces of the facsimile are too uncertain to allow a satisfactory reading, even though one comes to discover the left vertical stroke and the peculiar descending contour of a ⲛ similar to that of line 4." [10] By reading a nu after the omega, O'Callaghan was able to reconstruct the words [α]υτων η [καρδια], which could be matched with a passage in Mark's gospel.
  2. O'Callaghan pointed out that the combination of letters ννησ <nnēs> in line 4 may be part of the word Γεννησαρετ <Gennēsaret>.
  3. O'Callaghan argued that the spacing before the word και <kai> ("and") suggests a paragraph break, which is consistent with the normative layout for Mark 6:52-53.
  4. Furthermore, a computer search "using the most elaborate Greek texts ... has failed to yield any text other than Mark 6:52-53 for the combination of letters identified by O'Callaghan et al. in 7Q5". [11]

The reasons why most scholars have rejected O'Callaghan's arguments include the following:

Further counterarguments

Anachronism found in Mark's Gospel

Significance

If 7Q5 was actually a fragment of Mark 6:52–53 and was deposited in the cave at Qumran by 68 AD, it would become the earliest known fragment of the New Testament, predating P52 by at least some if not many decades. Yet, since the amount of text in the manuscript is so small, even a confirmation of 7Q5 as Markan "might mean nothing more than that the contents of these few verses were already formalized, not necessarily that there was a manuscript of Mark's Gospel on hand". [17] Since the entirety of the find in Cave 7 consists of fragments in Greek, it is possible that the contents of this cave are of a separate "Hellenized" library than the Hebrew texts found in the other caves.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 M. Baillet, J.T. Milik, and R. de Vaux (eds.), Les 'petites grottes' de Qumrân (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan III; Oxford: Clarendon, 1962), 144.
  2. ↑ "... Qumran ms. 7Q5 ... is captioned as if it contains a fragment of Mark: it was of course O'Callaghan who made that controversial — and now virtually universally rejected — identification of this Dead Sea text as a piece of the New Testament ..." Elliot (2004), JK, Book Notes, Novum Testamentum, Volume 45, Number 2, 2003, pp. 203.
  3. ↑ Gundry (1999), p.698. Carlo Maria Martini, S.J., Archbishop of Milan and part of the five member team which edited the definitive modern edition of the Greek New Testament for the United Bible Societies agreed with O'Callaghan's identification and assertions.
  4. ↑ https://www.jstor.org/stable/4201465
  5. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=ZqR6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT77&dq=papyrologists+qumran+eichstatt&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-s_fS8aaFAxWckYkEHYHdDVgQ6AF6BAgFEAM#v=onepage&q=papyrologists%20qumran%20eichstatt&f=false
  6. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=swL_8_T7H0oC&pg=PA55&dq=%C2%A0most+eminent+eminent+montevecchi&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6paW1pqaFAxWbAjQIHXxFAbkQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=%C2%A0most%20eminent%20eminent%20montevecchi&f=false
  7. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=8AIzH7OXUAgC&pg=PA84&dq=montevecchi+hunger+daris&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwipn9esw6eFAxUBl4kEHbe1BjYQ6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&q=montevecchi%20hunger%20daris&f=false
  8. ↑ Brent Nongbri, "The Strange 'nu' Story of 7Q5," Variant Readings (March 19, 2022) https://brentnongbri.com/2022/03/19/the-strange-nu-story-of-7q5/: "It’s not the case that O’Callaghan judged the editors’ omega–iota-space-alpha sequence to be a bad reading in need of improvement. Rather, he appears to have failed to understand that Baillet and Boismard rendered the script ⲱⲓ (omega–iota) by means of a printed ῳ employing the iota subscript. O’Callaghan took the printed ῳ to represent just one letter–ⲱ–and then believed the editors had misconstrued the following vertical line (“el palo vertical”) as part of an alpha." Nongbri cites as the source of this observation Stuart R. Pickering and Rosalie R.E. Cook, Has a Fragment of the Gospel of Mark Been Found at Qumran? (Sydney: Macquarie University Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, 1989).
  9. ↑ VanderKam, James; Peter Flint (2004). The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity (First HarperCollins paperback ed.). New York: HarperCollins. p. 315. ISBN   0-06-068465-8.
  10. ↑ Brent Nongbri, "The Strange 'nu' Story of 7Q5," Variant Readings (March 19, 2022) https://brentnongbri.com/2022/03/19/the-strange-nu-story-of-7q5/.
  11. ↑ Thiede n. 31, pp. 40-41
  12. ↑ Robert H. Gundry, "No NU in Line 2 of 7Q5: A Final Disidentification of 7Q5 With Mark 6:52-53," Journal of Biblical Literature 118 (4): 698–707. doi:10.2307/3268112.
  13. 1 2 3 [ clarification needed ]
  14. ↑ Gundry (1999)
  15. ↑ See Wallace, footnote 18.
  16. ↑ Zeichmann, Christopher (2017). "The Date of Mark’s Gospel Apart from the Temple and Rumors of War: The Taxation Episode (12:13–17) as Evidence". https://www.academia.edu/34194619/The_Date_of_Mark_s_Gospel_Apart_from_the_Temple_and_Rumors_of_War_The_Taxation_Episode_12_13_17_as_Evidence(2017)
  17. ↑ Picirilli, Robert E. (2003). The Gospel of Mark (first ed.). Nashville, TN: Randall House Publications. p. 11. ISBN   0-89265-500-3.

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