SSEC Christmas Party 2024 and update on the Papyri from the Rise of Christianity in Egypt (PCE) Project
On Monday 11th November 2024, SSEC joyfully celebrated Christmas with a presentation on the near-complete Papyri from the Rise of Christianity in Egypt project. The project has brought together more than 400 papyrus and other documents (like mummy labels), which in some way relate to Christianity in Egypt before the death of Emperor Constantine in 337CE.
Dr Michael Zellmann-Rohrer, post-doctoral fellow at Macquarie University, has been employed, through generous donations, to finish the editing of the Papyri from the Rise of Christianity in Egypt project. This project, which has been more than fifty years in the making, has been supported by SSEC since its inception. To make a donation toward the publication of this project (indexing is the next step) please go to “Make a Donation” (and please indicate that it is for the “Papyri from the Rise of Christianity in Egypt project [SSEC]”).
The story of Papyri from the Rise of Christianity in Egypt as told by Emerita Professor Alanna Nobbs
After Loeb had finished publishing the volumes of Select Papyri, they were looking for a companion volume on Christian papyri. Dr Alanna Emmett (later Nobbs) was fortunate to be in London at the time consulting with her PhD co-supervisor in 1968-9. This was prior to her appointment to Macquarie University from January 1970. Alanna returned to Australia with this project in tow, which was to be prepared by a team of three: Edwin Judge, Bruce Harris, and herself (See Photo 1). The proposal they formulated was accepted. Garth Thomas (now deceased) did quite a bit of preliminary bibliographical searches. This team established that there was a substantial number of possibly or probably Christian texts, even at that stage. Many more have appeared since. One reason it seemed profitable exercise was that the earlier editors of Oxyrhynchus Papyri had been keen to identify classical or biblical texts, but not Christian ones. They were attracted to biblical, apocryphal texts, and patristic ones as they hoped to find a lost gospel or something similar. What’s amazing is that in those pre-computerised days scholars had to rely on their memories and so developed enormous capabilities, which is unimaginable nowadays. A few years later, at the University of California at Irvine, a project was announced the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG). The team at Macquarie University sent over all the unidentified fragments of possible Christian patristic texts to Irvine. This was seen as a contribution to the Christian Papyri project. Then Stuart Pickering was employed by an ARGC grant (the precursor of ARC) to identify as many of the Christian papyri as possible published in collections across Europe and US. However, in the mid 70s Loeb ran out of money for the Christian Papyri project and cancelled it. This was a great blow to the team.
So having got this far with the project a proposal was put to Cambridge University Press to publish the work on the collected Christian papyri with them. By this stage the number of possible documents was so vast that it was decided that the collection would finish at 337CE with the death of Constantine. This of course created another problem which was the palaeographical dating of the papyri. Nevertheless, the team pushed on through the years. As an editor of this project, Judge spent many hours checking and correcting the manuscript. Since his retirement, others have had to take over. The biggest difficulty is securing the money to complete the project. But once again the legacy of Professor Judge continues to contribute to this papyri project. Prof. Judge and the team fostered the development of community engagement with the department and in particular the study of early Christianity. Currently, the project has received two generous bequests. And now a postdoctoral fellow [Michael Zellmann-Rohrer] has been appointed to tie up the loose ends (See Gallery below).
Photo 1. Prof. Edwin Judge, Alanna Emmett (later Nobbs), and Bruce Harris working on the PCE. Photo from Northern District Times, 1974.
As prepared by Dr Lyn Kidson for a presentation on the contribution of Emeritus Professor E. A. Judge at SNTS, Melbourne 2024, but then delivered in part by Professor Nobbs on the night.
Video of the talks about the project can be requested by emailing our SSEC secretary sssec@mq.edu.au
Photos of the Night (Gallery)
Michael discussing the criteria for selection for papyri as ChristianDr Michael Zellmann-Rorher and Prof. Alanna NobbsDr Rachel Yuen-Collingridge (another diligent editor) and Dr Michael Zellmann-Rorher.
