Executive Director of CSNTM & Senior Research Professor of NT Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary
Zondervan is offering a 30% discount on all videos of language courses! My lectures based on Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament are included.
https://courses.zondervanacademic.com/biblical-languages/greek/greek-grammar-beyond-basics
The course on DVDs is half price through January 21! https://churchsource.com/products/greek-grammar-beyond-the-basics-video-lectures-an-exegetical-syntax-of-the-new-testament?variant=14932164870213
I am delighted to share some exciting news that has been a great blessing to my team and me at the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM)! Through the generosity of a valued donor, the Center has received a remarkable $150,000 matching grant for our Year-End campaign. This means that every dollar contributed during the fundraising period (Nov. 1st – Dec.31st) will be doubled, presenting an incredible opportunity for us to advance in our fundraising goals, and an opportunity for you to join us in this noble task.
This grant has been designated specifically for our project at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, where my team and I are preparing more than 100 manuscripts for digitization. Since returning from the initial phase of this expedition, we have been eager to return to these manuscripts, as we have discovered a few unidentified palimpsests (a manuscript whose text was erased, with another layer of text written over the previous one) that require multispectral imaging to bring up the undertext clearly for reading.
In order to receive adequate funds to move forward in this project, CSNTM is anticipating meeting this matching grant through Year-End contributions.
The support that we have received throughout this past year has been invaluable to us, and we cannot thank our supporters enough for the integral role that each plays in advancing our mission and fueling our passion.
I invite you to join CSNTM in this centuries-long mission to preserve ancient manuscripts and make them accessible for research and translation, by contributing to this match grant goal. Every dollar that you donate will be doubled, and thus, will double the impact that you will have on our efforts at the Bodleian Library, as well as on other crucial projects that are in process.
There is an urgency for these projects to get fully funded; all handwritten manuscripts—regardless of age, material, or care—are deteriorating. We are in a race against time to preserve them before the deterioration is so bad that these codices literally fall apart in one’s hands.
CSNTM is committed to following in the footsteps of the countless scribes who copied the New Testament for later generations—or, as one scribe wrote at the end of his manuscript more than one thousand years ago, “the hand that wrote this is rotting in the grave, but the letters remain until the fulness of the times.”
As we close out this year, I find myself reflecting with gratitude for all that we—the CSNTM staff and you, our partners—have accomplished as a community of people dedicated to the preservation of Scripture. I am eagerly anticipating the promise that this coming year holds for CSNTM and our mission. Thank you for joining us in this endeavor!
Daniel B. Wallace
Executive Director
The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts
Zondervan is doing another 50% off of my Greek syntax videos for a short time only. These are intended as a tutorial for my grammar and have supplemental information that goes beyond the grammar (e.g., greater discussion of verbal aspect, historical presents, etc.). Great gift for a graduate, pastor, or student entering second-year Greek.
The world has changed at a dizzying (and, concomitantly, nauseating, pace) in 2020, but one thing remains constant. Hebrews 13.8 declares, “Jesus Christ is the same—yesterday, today, and forever!” Yet, the Jesus Christ who is proclaimed in pulpits across the nation and spanning the globe is often conformed to the fashionable ideology of the day. He is not the same as he was yesterday.
The Church needs rock solid pastors and leaders who know the Lord and know the text. People who preach the same Jesus Christ the apostles proclaimed. We need leaders who have been trained well in Scripture.
I am in my fourth decade of teaching at Dallas Seminary. I have served under five of the six presidents this institute has had. One thing I have deeply loved about the school is its commitment to the word of God. It’s the only theological seminary I know of that, instead of offering a three-year Master of Divinity degree, offers a four-year Master of Theology degree. This has been the same from the beginning, 96 years ago.
The fourth year gives the student 33% more time than an MDiv to reflect, meditate, dialog, fellowship, and dig in. Things gel in that fourth year. And the high-level of biblically-based, earnest fellowship/discussions—from both the minutiae of the text to macro-current events that are reshaping our world, and everything in between—will almost never be replicated after you leave seminary. You will find that Christians—even Christian leaders—are usually just not that interested in the Bible. This sad state of affairs needs an equal and opposite reaction if evangelical Christianity is going to survive.
During the pandemic, potential students are really questioning the necessity of that fourth year, and questioning moving to Texas. It’s too expensive. It’s not necessary. I have a ministry right where I am. Dallas is too hot. It’s too great a sacrifice. My advice: Don’t shortcut your training when preparing for a lifetime of ministry. The Lord never put a premium on ignorance. His condemnation of the religious leaders of his day was both that they did not know the power of God or the Scriptures. Our students learn the biblical languages especially with a view toward faithful exegesis and exposition of the text. And yes, they pay a big price.
The One Dollar House
I grew up in Newport Beach, California. To move to Texas with my new bride was challenging. I was leaving a ministry in SoCal—a church where I was the assistant pastor. We bought a house for $1.00 (you read that right) and lived in it for most of my years of preparation in the ThM program.
(The house was part of the Homestead Urban Renewal program. Essentially, a lottery was set up for potential homeowners to get a foreclosed, dilapidated house in a very bad neighborhood for a buck and bring it up to city code. They had to own it for at least three years. Ours was at the very bottom of our list: house built in 1920, asbestos siding, lead paint, no AC, no heat, no shower, foundation shifting 12” from one end of the house to the other. And thousands upon thousands of roaches which we could never eradicate. We lived there for three and a half years, and we got to know poverty well—both because all our neighbors were very poor and because we shared in their economic state. We also got to see the underbelly of racism and oppression.)
In spite of our poverty, in spite of the sky-high crime rate in our neighborhood, in spite of the weather, in spite of the army of roaches, God provided for us. He saw us through our difficulties. He was faithful. The Sovereign of the universe, God himself, designed this wilderness experience for our good and his glory. These were formative years. We made the sacrifice because we believed that the ThM was the best way for me to prepare for a lifetime of ministry. And along the way, the Master Teacher put us through a curriculum of his own. I wouldn’t trade those years for a million bucks.
No Excuse
Tuition costs have gone up exponentially since the 1970s. And houses nowadays—even in Dallas—usually cost a bit more than a buck. But Dallas has one of the lowest unemployment numbers in the country. It’s been that way for decades. And DTS has made a remarkable, stunning offer to ThM students: fourth year free! The last twenty-four units will cost you nothing, nada, zilch—provided you take them the way they should be taken: on campus, in the flesh, in Dallas. The particulars are found at this link: https://www.dts.edu/admissions/tuition-aid/scholarships-discounts/last-year-free/.
Lots of things are competing for your time. But the deep-dive training that is a pastor’s and teacher’s requisite are a small price to pay in order to serve King Jesus for the rest of your days. And you just might find that the benefits and blessings that accompany you during the four years in Dallas are something that you would not trade for a million bucks.
Epilogue
The administration of Dallas Theological Seminary has neither endorsed this blog, nor was it even aware that I was writing it. These are my own reflections.
Guest post by Stratton L. Ladewig
In November, New Testament Papyri 𝔓45, 𝔓46, 𝔓47: Facsimiles (NTP) will be released—a collaboration between Hendrickson and CSNTM. This publication is the culmination of a project started in 2013 when CSNTM digitized the collection at the Chester Beatty (formerly known as the Chester Beatty Library). The following year, the portion of P46 that is housed at the University of Michigan was digitized. There will be two facsimile volumes: one with papyrus images against a black background and the other with a white background. We are excited about the developments in these manuscripts’ presentation. Four advancements in P45’s textual history are presented in NTP and are highlighted here: (1) digital reunification of the multiple fragments with their larger papyrus leaves, (2) the in-print release of a new plate containing twelve fragments, (3) the identification of a previously unknown leaf, and (4) a fuller presentation of folio 8.
The development of technology facilitated the opportunity to reassemble the fragmentary pieces of P45’s papyrus. Almost every leaf of the manuscript could rightfully be considered a fragment. Of its 30 known leaves, most are “mutilated”—to quote Frederic G. Kenyon (General Introduction, p. 6). However, several smaller pieces have been discovered since the manuscript was initially placed in glass, and it is these fragments that are addressed here. These smaller fragments are found in separate plates of glass from the larger portions to which they belong. In NTP, these later discoveries are reunited digitally and presented as they once were. The result is that a fuller testimony is recorded. At times, letters were split in half, each being found on separate portions of the papyrus in multiple plates of glass. It is stunning to see these fragments united in a full color, high resolution reproduction.
(Image caption: Left: a portion of P45 folio 16, Middle:
a portion of fragment #4; Right: a portion of fragment #5)
The second advancement in the presentation of P45 is the release of twelve fragments that are in print for the first time. These fragments are located in a single plate at the Chester Beatty. This release supplements the knowledge base of this witness to the NT. The contents of six of the fragments have been identified. As such, in the facsimiles, these are placed with their respective leaves—as mentioned above—giving a more complete record of the manuscript’s contents. On occasion, two fragments were found to belong to the same leaf. It is thrilling to realize that research on P45, as vast as the literature has been in the past 86 years, still has room for discovery.
Third, two of the fragments, which were identified by T. C. Skeat and B. C. McGing in 1991, belong to the same P45 leaf. These two are currently found in the same plate, but they are mixed with other fragments from a manuscript of Numbers and Deuteronomy, not P45. Nevertheless, because they originally came from a single papyrus leaf, they were arranged as such in the facsimiles. Their alignment relative to one another is tentative, but the text contained on them makes it clear that they form a new leaf that comes between folio 15 and folio 16. Although this is not a new discovery, the placement of these fragments together gives the reader a glimpse of the text that has not been available for hundreds of years.
Finally, the fragments of folio 8 were assembled into a composite P45 leaf. This leaf is composed of five fragments with a complex history. The fragments were inconsistently presented in Kenyon’s initial publication of the manuscript. At first, none of the five fragments were known to belong to P45, leaving some additional fragments of this leaf to be discovered after his transcription volume was typeset. However, not all the fragments made it into his facsimile volume or his transcription volume. NTP unites the portions of folio 8 into a composite presentation.
NTP highlights the work of the Center in capturing images of P45, P46, and P47. Yet, the presentation in the facsimiles brings four advancements in P45’s textual history. Together, they bring together rich images and reunification of fragments to give the reader a greater understanding of this manuscript’s witness to the wording of the NT.
Daniel B. Wallace 