This commentary started out with lofty expectations—to find a missing fragment of the Egerton Gospel that had been misidentified or uncatalogued by some papyrus collection. Unfortunately, it was a failure. Along the way, however, I was able to discover important details about the acquisition of these fragments by the British Museum and Kölner Papyrussammlung. I am extremely grateful to the following curators that made this possible by allowing me access to the archival material at their institutions, and by patiently discussing the history of their papyrus collections: Claire Breay, Peter Toth, and Claire Wotherspoon (British Library); Charikleia Armoni (Kölner Papyrussammlung); Francesca Hillier and Peter Williams (British Museum); Caronwen Samuel (National Library of Wales); Malgosia Myc (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan); Anastasia Maravela and Federico Aurora (University of Oslo); Daniela Colomo (University of Oxford); Stephanie Boonstra (The Egypt Exploration Society). Personal correspondences with Rosario Pintaudi (University of Messina) and Manuele Wasserman (the great-granddaugther of Maurice Nahman) were also very helpful.
Besides the usual anxiety that is felt when proposing new interpretations of an ancient text, I also experienced a fair degree of fear and trepidation when attempting to reconstruct lacunae in the manuscript. Certainty is impossible, and critical scholarship can easily disregard these hypothetical readings, but it is my hope that they will be accepted as the most plausible proposals offered to date. In the past five years, I have had the privilege of presenting these interpretations and reconstructions at multiple conferences, and receiving valuable feedback from numerous colleagues: Tobias Nicklas (University of Regensburg); Simon Gathercole (University of Cambridge); Jens Schröter, Christine Jacobi, and Konrad Schwarz (Humboldt University); Peter Head (Wycliff Hall, University of Oxford); Francis Watson (Durham University); Jörg Frey (University of Zurich); Joseph Verheyden (KU Leuven); Janet Spittler (University of Virginia); John DelHousaye (Phoenix Seminary); Stephen Carlson (Australian Catholic University); Stanley Porter (McMaster Divinity College). The palaeographical expertise of Peter Malik (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) was essential for determining the date of the manuscript, and the sleuthing skills of Brent Nongbri (MF Norwegian School of Theology) was inspirational.
I would like to thank the St. Joseph’s College STIR Grant and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for providing funding to complete this work, and I am honoured that Stanley Porter, Wendy Porter, and Brill accepted my research for publication in this erudite series that already contains multiple exemplary commentaries on the apocryphal gospels. The Nicklas and Freudling families, as well as the students (Judith Bauer; Judith König; Karol Kulpa), staff (Gertraud Kumpfmüller), researchers (Mara Rescio; Julia Snyder; Luigo Walt), and faculty (Harald Buchinger; Andreas Merkt; Tobias Nicklas) at the University of Regensburg, made our year in Germany exceptional. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife (Kristin) and children (Zoe, Selah, Edmund, and James) for their love and acceptance, as well as the humbling effect of their complete lack of interest in the Egerton Gospel!
Lorne R. Zelyck
St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta
Feast of St. Joseph the Worker 2019