GakuseiDon wrote: ↑Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:47 pm
I looked on your website on your page on Duras Europos here:
http://mountainman.com.au/essenes/article_072.htm
You wrote:
It is not unreasonable to consider that both the manuscript and the graffiti (if indeed they are christian) could have been introduced to the city at a much later date, by unknown fringe desert dwellers, seeking shelter in a desolation. Another possibility is outlined below...
We are told by the historians Ammianus (23.5.1-15) and Zosimus (3.14.2) that the Roman army lead by Julian (the Apostate) travelled to the region called Zaitha (or Zautha [Zosimus]) near the abandoned town of Dura where they visted the tomb of the emperor Gordian. This was Julian's final campaign, and he was accompanied by the entire army.
Therefore it is entirely possible that post Nicaean literature was deposited in the wall at Dura, and that christian graffiti was scrawled on the walls, during this very brief Roman occupation of the town, for possibly only a few days, in early April of the year 363 CE.
That reads like the explanation of the lawyer: "My client didn't fire the shot because he wasn't there. And if he was there, he didn't have a gun to fire the shot. And if he was there and had a gun, it didn't work."
That page hasn't been revised since 2014. Since then I have sought out the Preliminary and Final Reports for the Dura Expedition. As a result I am informed that the house church itself was probably undisturbed between c.256 CE. It contains murals and graffiti from the earlier 3rd century. But I question whether the "religious room" is Christian and have offered an alternative interpretation that all the elements therein could be Jewish.
LC, in your view: were Christian manuscript fragments and Christian grafitti found there? Or at least, in your view what is the likelihood that the writings there were Christian (whether pre- or post-Nicene)?
At the moment my view is that the graffiti are not necessarily Christian, for the reasons outlined above. Ditto for the house church. This leaves DP24.
Dura Parchment 24
The manuscript Dura Parchment 24 is a separate and independent bit of evidence. It was discovered during excavations and is presumed to be dated securely because of it being found under the rampart.
StephenGoranson wrote: ↑Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:43 am
BYT, B.A.R. Aug. 16, 2021:
"THIS FRAGMENTED PARCHMENT was found in an undisturbed context at Dura-Europos, in present-day Syria. It contains Greek gospel text which does not correspond to any one canonical gospel. Rather, it mixes elements of all four. Because we know that Dura-Europos was sacked in A.D. 256, the manuscript must date to that year or earlier."
On another thread I wrote this:
(2) Dura Parchment 24:
In the case of DP24 the assumption (held to be true by most scholarship), is that the manuscript was buried c.265 CE under a rampart constructed by the Roman garrision in a last ditch attempt to defend Dura from the Persian forces. And it was buried by the sands which covered Dura until its discovery in the 20th century "in a workman's bucket". If you are deducing a "latest possible date" then you are obliged to make this assumption explicit. It follows that you must also reject the possibility that DP24 was otherwise introduced to the site anytime later - between the 3rd century and the 20th century. If you subscribe to the Apollonian aphorism "Certainty brings insanity" (as I do) then you could deduce a probability to your proposition.
I previous discussions I have placed a notional percentage / probability as high as 90%. I refuse to subscribe to the notion that anyone is 100% certain there is no other explanation for the provenance of DP 24. My earlier article cited above explored some of these alternate scenarios.
DP24 as a 3rd century manuscript
OK so we have a fragment of a harmony gospel containing a nomina sacra from the 3rd century (90%). 90% chance DP24 is 3rd century. 10% chance its later. Let's get the chalk board out and chalk up almost one point.
Is this an outlier? Are there any other chalk marks to mark up for any other Christian evidence which is "likely" to be from the 3rd century or earlier? We should ask about that first in case DP24 is all by itself. It was discovered in 1932. What physical evidence existed prior to then and dated "early". Aside from the Oxyrhychus fragments dated by paelography-in-isolation? I haven't been able to find anything much at all. To be honest.
If DP24 is early then we have evidence for a harmony narrative using a nomina sacra in the 3rd century. No direct evidence of the four gospels. Although many would claim that we should infer the existence of the 4 gospels from the existence of a harmony gospel. That's an extra assumption. It could be right. It might not be.