Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts

Last updated
Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts
AbbreviationCSNTM
Formation13 September 2002
Founder Daniel B. Wallace
Legal status501(c)(3)
Location
  • Plano, TX
Executive Director
 Daniel B. Wallace
Chairman of the Board
 Michael W. Holmes
Parent organization
Center for the Research of Early Christian Documents
Website csntm.org

The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to digitally preserve Greek New Testament manuscripts. Toward that end, CSNTM takes digital photographs of manuscripts at institutions, libraries, museums, monasteries, universities, and archives around the world. The images produced are freely accessible on the Center's website—a searchable library of Greek New Testament manuscripts. With more than 50,000 users examining manuscripts in their digital library each year, the Center's digitization work facilitates a partnership between manuscript owners, archivists, and researchers around the world.

Contents

Background

New Testament scholar and professor Daniel B. Wallace founded CSNTM in September 2002 to utilize emerging technologies to photograph and fully archive all known Greek New Testament manuscripts. The Center is based in Plano, Texas. Since its founding, CSNTM has gained an international reputation for its expertise in digitization and manuscript studies. As of 2019, the CSNTM has collaborated with more than 45 institutions on 4 continents to produce nearly 300,000 images from approximately 700 New Testament manuscripts. In the process, they have discovered over 75 New Testament manuscripts that were previously unknown. Their online library features images or links to more than 1,700 manuscripts.

Equipment

CSNTM uses 50.6-megapixel Canon EOS 5DS cameras mounted on a customized Graz Traveller's Conservation Copy Stand for its standard digitization projects. The Traveller's Conservation Copy Stand is specially designed for digitally preserving fragile materials.

In 2018, CSNTM acquired Multispectral Imaging (MSI) technology from MegaVision and has adapted the Graz system to make this technology portable as well. [1]

GA 2882

In October 2005, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts acquired a tenth or eleventh century minuscule of the Gospel of Luke on parchment. It was later catalogued as Gregory–Aland 2882. [2]

Select major projects

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (2011)

In November 2011, CSNTM traveled to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (BML) in Florence, Italy. The phenomenal library, founded by the Medici family and designed by none other than Michelangelo himself, holds over 2500 papyri, 11,000 total manuscripts, and 128,000 printed texts. Through this trip, CSNTM added new images of 28 manuscripts from the BML.

This BML collection contains papyri, majuscules, minuscules, and lectionaries. Highlights from the expedition include GA Lect 117 (an eleventh-century lectionary, written entirely in gold letters), GA 620 (features Paul's epistles after the book of Revelation—a very rare phenomenon), and GA 367 (one of only sixty complete Greek New Testament manuscripts known to exist).

Chester Beatty Library (2013)

Over the course of a four-week expedition in July–August 2013, a six-person team from CSNTM digitized all the Greek biblical papyri at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland. The Chester Beatty Papyri, published in the 1930s and 1950s, are some of the oldest and most important biblical manuscripts known to exist. Housed at the CBL, they have attracted countless visitors every year. It is safe to say that the only Greek biblical manuscripts that might receive more visitors are Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus—both on display at the British Library.

The New Testament papyri at the CBL include P46 (the oldest manuscript of Paul's letters—dated c. AD 200), P45 (the oldest manuscript of Mark's Gospel, with portions of the other Gospels and Acts—3rd century), and P47 (the oldest manuscript of Revelation—3rd century). One or two of the Old Testament papyri are as old as the 2nd century AD. CSNTM photographed each manuscript against white and black backgrounds, every image being over 120 megabytes, and some of the photographs revealing text that had not been seen before. Besides the papyri, CSNTM also digitized all of the Greek New Testament manuscripts at the CBL as well as several others, including some early apocryphal texts. The total number of images came to more than 5100.

University of Michigan (2014)

In July 2014, CSNTM traveled to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan to digitize their portion of P46. This was part of a combined project that virtually reunited P46, since it is housed in two separate locations (University of Michigan & Chester Beatty Library). The University's preservation department is known around the world for their work in papyrological preservation.

National Library of Greece (2015–2016)

CSNTM completed one of their largest digitization projects at the National Library of Greece (NLG) in Athens. Beginning in 2015 and continuing into 2016, roughly forty-five people worked for months intermittently at the National Library digitizing their entire collection of Greek New Testament manuscripts. This collection is one of the largest in the world and has a multitude of priceless artifacts.

Over 150,000 pages of manuscripts were digitized (more than 300 manuscripts), and about 200,000 pages were examined—the difference due to the fact that several of the artifacts were deemed not to be New Testament manuscripts or were too fragile to digitize. In the process, 21 manuscripts unknown to the Institute for New Testament Textual Research (INTF) in Münster, Germany were digitized.

National Centre of Manuscripts (2018)

In the summer of 2018, CSNTM traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia to digitize five manuscripts housed at the National Centre of Manuscripts. Foremost among these manuscripts was Codex Koridethi (Θ), a 9th-century majuscule manuscript of the Gospels, but also early majuscules 0211 and 0240 of the Gospels and Paul's letters, respectively. 0240 is a palimpsest that required digitization utilizing multispectral imaging. Alongside these three manuscripts, two lectionaries were also digitized.

Heidelberg University (2018)

Following the expedition in Tbilisi, CSNTM digitized manuscripts at Heidelberg University's Institute for Papyrology. Once again, the multispectral imaging camera was used to capture images of three very early manuscripts: P40, 0166, and 0187. These three manuscripts contain portions of the Gospels, Acts, and Paul and date between the 3rd and 6th centuries.

Complete list of projects

Europe

Asia

Australia

North America

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus 46</span> Early Greek New Testament manuscript

Papyrus 46, designated by siglum 𝔓46, is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus, and is one of the manuscripts comprising the Chester Beatty Papyri. Manuscripts among the Chester Beatty Papyri have had several provenances associated with them, the most likely being the Faiyum. It has been paleographically dated between 175 and 225, or early 3rd century CE. It contains verses from the Pauline Epistles of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Hebrews. Some leaves are part of the Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, and others are in the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations into Coptic</span>

There have been many Coptic versions of the Bible, including some of the earliest translations into any language. Several different versions were made in the ancient world, with different editions of the Old and New Testament in five of the dialects of Coptic: Bohairic (northern), Fayyumic, Sahidic (southern), Akhmimic and Mesokemic (middle). Biblical books were translated from the Alexandrian Greek version.

A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. Biblical manuscripts vary in size from tiny scrolls containing individual verses of the Jewish scriptures to huge polyglot codices containing both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the New Testament, as well as extracanonical works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester Beatty Papyri</span> Collection of 3rd-century Christian manuscripts

The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri or simply the Chester Beatty Papyri are a group of early papyrus manuscripts of biblical texts. The manuscripts are in Greek and are of Christian origin. There are eleven manuscripts in the group, seven consisting of portions of Old Testament books, three consisting of portions of the New Testament, and one consisting of portions of the Book of Enoch and an unidentified Christian homily. Most are dated to the 3rd century CE. They are housed in part at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland, and in part at the University of Michigan, among a few other locations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus 45</span> New Testament manuscript

Papyrus 45, designated by siglum 𝔓45 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus, and is one of the manuscripts comprising the Chester Beatty Papyri, a group of early Christian manuscripts discovered in the 1930s, and purchased by business man and philanthropist, Alfred Chester Beatty. Beatty purchased the manuscript in the 1930s from an Egyptian book dealer, and it was subsequently published in The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, Descriptions and Texts of Twelve Manuscripts on Papyrus of the Greek Bible by palaeographer, biblical and classical scholar Frederic G. Kenyon in 1933. Manuscripts among the Chester Beatty Papyri have had several places of discovery associated with them, the most likely being the Faiyum in Egypt. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the early 3rd century CE. This therefore makes it the earliest example of not only the four Gospels contained in one volume, but also the Acts of the Apostles. It contains verses in fragmentary form from the texts of Matthew chapters 20–21 and 25–26; Mark chapters 4–9 and 11–12; Luke chapters 6–7 and 9–14; John chapters 4–5 and 10–11; and Acts chapters 4–17.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus 47</span> New Testament manuscript

Papyrus 47, designated by siglum 𝔓47, is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus, and is one of the manuscripts comprising the Chester Beatty Papyri. Manuscripts among the Chester Beatty Papyri have had several places of discovery associated with them, the most likely being the Faiyum. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the early 3rd century CE. The codex contains text from the Book of Revelation chapters 9 through 17. It is currently housed at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.

Lectionary 162, designated by siglum ℓ162 is a Greek manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 12th century. Formerly it was labelled as Lectionary 45a.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lectionary 313</span> New Testament manuscript

Lectionary 313 (Gregory-Aland), designated by siglum ℓ313 is a Greek manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 14th-century. The manuscript has survived in a fragmentary condition.

References

  1. ↑ "CSNTM Acquires Multispectral Imaging – CSNTM". www.csntm.org. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  2. ↑ "Manuscript GA 2882 – CSNTM". csntm.org. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
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