Chapter 14 The Archaeology of Two Early Gospels
P.Oxy. 1 and 2 and the Trash Mounds of Oxyrhynchus
In: The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians
Author:
Geoffrey S. Smith
Geoffrey S. Smith
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Abstract
In this article I revisit the archaeology of two important early Christian Gospels: P.Oxy. 1, the logia or sayings of Jesus that are now known to belong to the Gospel of Thomas, and P.Oxy. 2, a portion of the Gospel of Matthew. I argue that these two manuscripts, often thought to have been discovered at a mound known as K1, were actually discovered further south at K18–19, a mound adjacent to the city’s Roman temple. I also explore what can be known about the layers of datable documents in K18–19 in order to arrive at a date for these two Gospel fragments that relies not on paleography, but on archeological evidence.