Ebook: Texts and Artefacts

The essays included in this volume present Larry W. Hurtado’s steadfast analysis of the earliest Christian manuscripts. In these chapters Hurtado considers not only standard text-critical issues which seek to uncover an earliest possible version of a text, but also the manuscripts available to us themselves. Hurtado examines often overlooked 2nd and 3rd century artefacts, which are among the earliest manuscripts available, drawing fascinating conclusions about the features of early Christianity.
The volume is divided into two parts. The first addresses text-critical and text-historical issues about the textual transmission of the New Testament writings. The second part looks at manuscripts as physical and visual artefacts themselves. Whilst these essays are presented together as a republished collection, Hurtado has made several updates across the collection to draw them together and to reflect on the developing nature of the issues they address since they were first written.