Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Roger Pearse · 03-15-2008, 05:49 AM

Here.

Toto · 03-15-2008, 11:07 AM

Interesting. About Oxyrhynchos:

Quote:

In 1896, when two scholarly papyrus-hunters, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, arrived at the same spot, now called el-Behnesa, they found the village depopulated for fear of Bedouin raids, with nothing to show for the departed glory but a single Corinthian column. "A thousand years' use as a quarry for limestone and bricks had clearly reduced the buildings to utter ruin," wrote Grenfell. The most prominent features nearby were some low hills, the dumps where rubbish had accumulated long ago. And here the papyrologists struck gold - or rather manuscripts.

There were seams of fragmented papyrus buried in the sandy soil in little drifts, preserved by the dry desert climate. Some held lines of Greek poets that had been lost to the world. More detailed the daily lives of the Greek-speaking citizens of this ancient Roman territory on the banks of the Nile. Others reflected the growth of Christianity that had so impressed the fourth-century pilgrim. In all there were 500,000 papyri, and they are still being deciphered and published. The 72nd volume has been printed, and 40 more are expected.

A vivid picture of the life they reveal is given by Peter Parsons in his engrossing City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish. It was enthusiastically reviewed in this paper a year ago and is now in paperback (Phoenix, £9.99). The author, a papyrologist and former Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, has a happy knack of choosing significant details. He devotes a chapter to the Christian period in the centuries of this lost civilisation.

* * *

Thus a scrap of papyrus dated February 28 256, during the persecution under the Emperor Valerian, from the Mayor of Oxyrhynchos to the police of a nearby village, orders them to "send up forthwith Petosarapis son of Horos, Christian [or rather 'Chresian']".

The City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish (or via: amazon.co.uk)

From an Amazon review:

Quote:

The archeologists were hunting for religious texts, and they found them, but not all were consistent with Victorian orthodoxy. A written blessing to secure a house from vermin ("every evil crawler and thing") invokes Egyptian, Babylonian, Jewish, and Christian deities or saints; fifteen hundred years later, words from the Koran were used for the same purpose.

mountainman · 03-16-2008, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

Thus a scrap of papyrus dated February 28 256, during the persecution under the Emperor Valerian, from the Mayor of Oxyrhynchos to the police of a nearby village, orders them to "send up forthwith Petosarapis son of Horos, Christian [or rather 'Chresian']".

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 3035

The WIKI article is also quite unnecessarily erroneous:

Quote:

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 3035 (or P. Oxy. XLII 3035) is a warrant for the arrest a Christian, issued on the 28 February 256 AD, by the authorities of the Roman Empire. This is one of the earliest uses of the word Christian attested on papyrus. The order was issued by the head of the Oxyrhynchus ruling council, to the police in a country village, to arrest a man described as a Christian (note χρισιανόν, the papyrus has the early spelling χρησιανόν). The charge which makes the Christian liable for arrest is not given, unless this is Christianity itself. Persecution would explain this document, but Christians were generally tolerated by the authorities, periods of systematic persecution stand out as distinctive and exceptional in other documentation.

The term appearing on the papyri is χρησιανόν ("chrestian").
The term appearing on the papyri is not χρισιανόν ("christian").

The page has been marked:

Quote:

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Christianity, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to Christianity on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

Evidence for "early christianity" is so rare we here see modern christians presenting fabricated evidence to support their fabricated cause.

03-15-2008, 05:49 AM	#1
Roger Pearse Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: N/A Posts: 4,370	The city lost in the sands -- article in the Daily Telegraph Here.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.