Saturday, March 22, 2008
The earliest known fragment is a scrap of papyrus from around A.D. 125.
McClatchy Newspapers
DALLAS — Armed with high-tech cameras and computers, Daniel B. Wallace travels around the world to photograph New Testament manuscripts that are many centuries old. The pages are often fragile and the writing may be faded. His work assures that the treasured contents will be preserved.
His goal is to photograph 1.3 million pages of Greek New Testament manuscripts — a project he expects to take until 2020.
This passion for New Testament manuscripts led the Dallas Theological Seminary professor to create the nonprofit Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts in 2002.
“We don’t have a facility yet, but we’re working on that,” said the soft-spoken scholar. He works from his Frisco, Texas, home in a cozy, circular office that’s intended to replicate a library at Oxford University in England. He’s surrounded by rows and rows of books that reach about two stories high. There’s even a spiral staircase.
Wallace is among many scholars working on parts of one very big puzzle: Can a definitive version of what we know as the accounts of Jesus’ times and words be determined from existing fragments and partial copies, written mostly in ancient Greek?
The earliest known puzzle piece is a scrap of papyrus that’s been dated to about A.D. 125. Some nearly complete manuscripts exist from roughly 300 years after Jesus’ birth.
Wallace aims to create high-quality facsimiles of many such pieces not only to aid the work of scholars and professors, but also to preserve history for everyone — whatever their religion or interest.
Though a few other groups, such as Brigham Young University, are undertaking similar photographic projects, Wallace said his is one of the more extensive.
Warren Carter, professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, said the work of Wallace and others is crucial: “It preserves ancient manuscripts, which are the basis for contemporary translations of the Bible and ... ensures access to manuscripts for as many scholars as possible.” And it may stimulate additional study, he said.
A native Californian, Wallace’s interest in this narrow field was sparked early on. He earned an undergraduate degree in the Bible with an emphasis on Greek at Biola University, a Christian school in La Mirada, Calif. He came to Dallas for a master’s degree at the Dallas Theological Seminary, then taught in Indiana for two years.
In 1986, he returned to the Dallas seminary to pursue a doctorate.
“It took me nine years, but I was asked to teach while studying,” he said, and he didn’t want to neglect his family. In addition to teaching, he wrote a book on Greek grammar as used in the New Testament. Published in 1996, he said the book has gone through about 20 printings.
Wallace taught at DTS before he left for Indiana and again when he returned for his doctorate. He is the senior New Testament editor of the New English Translation Bible.
In May, he’ll start a sabbatical to embark on his most ambitious expedition yet.
He and a team of assistants are planning a 15-month trip to Albania, the island of Patmos, Turkey, several European and Russian cities, Mount Sinai in Egypt and several cities in the United States.
“We’ve pretty much mapped out our itinerary but are waiting for permission from a few places,” he said.
He often works with monasteries and libraries. At each destination, a team of four carefully photographs the texts. They don white cotton gloves and use a foam cradle to avoid damaging the delicate manuscripts.
“The average Greek New Testament manuscript has about 550 pages,” Wallace said. “Optimally, a team can shoot 1,200 to 1,800 pages a day, depending on the size and condition of the manuscript.”
An expedition to Albania last summer yielded new excitement: His team found a treasure trove of manuscripts. The group had expected to work with 13 known manuscripts — but instead found that the National Archive in Tirana listed 47 New Testament manuscripts. At least 17 were unknown to Western scholars.
The oldest manuscript in that collection, said Wallace, is a Codex Beratinus, written in the sixth century. A codex is the ancestor of the modern book form, and it replaced the scrolls and wax tablets of earlier times.
One scholar who will be joining him on this trip is Jeff Hargis of Carrollton, Texas. Hargis teaches part time at North Lake College and the University of Phoenix. Like Wallace, he has a fascination with New Testament manuscripts.
“I’m looking forward to being part of this,” said Hargis, whose doctorate is in religious studies from Temple University. “I believe in it very much, and I think it is a great way to make the texts more accessible.”