The Oldest Book in Private Hands - The ‘Crosby-Schøyen Codex’ | Christie's
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2024
- Join Dr Eugenio Donadoni, Senior Specialist in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, and author and broadcaster Professor Bettany Hughes as they present the ‘Crosby-Schøyen Codex’, one of the oldest books in existence.
Dating from the middle of the 3rd century to the beginning of the 4th century, the book is written in Coptic on papyrus and contains the earliest complete texts of two books of the Bible. It is a fundamental witness to a development in the history of the book that would not be rivalled in significance until Gutenberg’s printing press and the 20th-century revolution in electronic publishing and communication.
This manuscript, alongside other pieces from the Schøyen Collection, are being offered at Christie’s London as part of a sale spanning 1,300 years of cultural history.
📍Explore highlights from the Schøyen collection at Christie’s London from 6 - 10 June!
📅Manuscript Masterpieces from the Schøyen Collection | 11 June | London
For more information: www.christies.com/en/auction/...
In Philadelphia, it's worth fifty bucks.
Trading places
Lol
Awesome
Fascinating
These belong in a museum
Museums could acquire them if they really want them. Maybe you could purchase them and donate.
How, seriously, is this coming up for sale?
A gazillionaire passed away and the heirs didn't want conservatorship over an exceedingly fragile and "priceless" relic they had no non-monetary interest in.
@@mulemule Probably from the emptied vatican library.
If someone has multiple heirs then property is sold, rarely can one buy the others out. You think it should have been donated somewhere? Why? If you inherit something worth a fortune you are going to donate it and keep on working? NOBODY does, I am in the business myself and it shocks people to learn many of my items are sold to me by museums who got them free.
@@mulemule Exactly. I am in the trade and it is shocking how many things today young people even just throw away. But people will ask me "why didn't the family keep this and that?" and my answer is which of the sixteen great-grandchildren should have got it to start with? You can't chop up property like a house and divide it up, you sell it and divide the money. And as references the first, incredible historical pieces are thrown away every day now by people who will tell you "we thought it was too personal" or "we don't support warfare" so dad's Silver Star earned at Bastogne goes in the trash.
@@2Sugarbears No, it's not from "the emptied vatican library", it's from the collection of Martin Schøyen, which is going up for sale.
The Codex was discovered in 1952 at the base of a cliff of Jabal Abu Manna, 12 km east of the Nag Hammadi library buried in a jar in the sand.
It was owned by Hasan Muhammad al-Samman and Riyad Jirjis Fam, then Phocion J. Tano in 1952. It passed through the hands of Sultan Maguid Sameda before acquisition by the University of Mississippi in 1955 via donation by Lucius Olen and Margaret Reed Crosby (hence gaining the designation of Mississippi Coptic Codex I). UMiss possessed the codex til 1981, which then passed through Hans P. Kraus (1981-1983), Vinsor T. Savery (1983-1988), and then to Schøyen after an auction at Sotheby's on 12 June 1988.
Is that the earliest letter from Peter?
What’s the earliest for the second letter?
The second was a later forgery, added for dogmatic purposes.
@@wolfgang757 I believe you but when did it first appear? When is the earliest church father’s writings about Second Peter?
I know St. Jerome included it in his translations but I don’t know?
@@wolfgang757 I've looked into all the theory surrounding these claims a lot and honestly they don't hold any water to anyone well versed in the Patristic sources. I have more faith in the judgement of authenticity by those who lived right afterwards (or during the same time, in some cases (St. Polycarp was, by a few years, contemporary of St. John, being taught by him)) than any analysis (which does not even have great claims by itself) conducted 2000 years later.
They're really pulling out all the stops. Must be expecting a pretty penny!
Check out the Online Collection of the Chester Beatty Museum, Dublin.
Christies has put a sale estimate on the book at 2 million to 3 million pounds.
Good commentary, but more shots of the objects. We don’t need to keep seeing the two experts after they’re introduced-we know they’re there. 😂
I agree. I had to pause the video to look at the text. I don’t read Coptic but I was intrigued to find some Greek words in the Coptic text.
My thoughts also.
@@CartoType - Ditto
We need to define book.
Agreed. It might be the 'oldest book' (But what is a book?). There are far older written human testimony. Egyptian hieroglyphs/papyrus are eons older. What about scrolls? It's just a sales ploy to lure in a silly rich man.
It's technically a codex. What we call books.
In private hands!
Rich people doing rich people things.
Interesting that you would dall Jonah complete. It's obviously not a "complete" story. It's the shortest book of the Bible and has no resolution or segue to any other book. It is very obviously a fragment.
Sad in a way that they are so rare due to the chaos that descended soon after their creation
The book of Enoch?
Well, its age and context is very interesting and raises questions about authorship as well as content. Back then these christian authors could write whatever came to mind. It was all largely a blank page. All you had to say was it came from god in a dream and people lapped it up. The evolution of the bible is the best example of this.
Old stories about old stories passed down by Word of mouth? 🌍🙏🌎. Amen.
Purple. 🤫
No mention that 2 Peter is a forgery?
It has thus far been preserved in private hands. Private collectors can protect and preserve.
This is a wonderful opportunity to see these pages and to hear Dr. Duadoni's commentary. I would have appreciated less precious time spent on the enthusiastic gushing of Professor Hughes, not to mention the camera time spent focusing on her, rather than the work itself.
She's a presenter of history. Watch another video showing this stuff if you don't like her.
The oldest complete Hebrew Bible text is the Masoretic text of circa 1000 C.E. the oldest part collection of texts is the Dead Sea scrolls. And it's the original bible, 1st testament in Hebrew!
Wrong. The original sources are in Greek
There is no such thing as the "First Testament" more correctly called the Old Testament by Christians in Judaism.
The Torah had nothing to do with Christianity until "Christians" used it as the first part of their new bible. That happened in 325 CE aka AD.
@@stephanieyee9784 Respectfully: I'm Jewish. For me it's not just the first testament, it's the *only* testament. Any way you slice it, Judaism came before Christianity and Jesus was a Jew!
The Sasson codex is from the early 900s. The earliest Mikraic texts are a pair of silver scrolls that contain some verses, dated to the 7 century b.c.e. But yes, the dead sea scrolls are the earliest known partial bible, 3rd century b.c.e..
@@notbill08 Not remotely true. Judaism is a split branch from the religion in the time of Christ just like Christianity and it evolved and changed during that time just as much as Christianity did.
Lol, theyre so naiively certain that theyre "complete" texts, rather than just "most extensive"
Didn't see PhD or Dr with your name. I'll go with their summation.
That's a bit harsh. @@henkmagnetic3103
@@henkmagnetic3103 If you assume that a Phd or Dr makes you better informed, you need to spend more time around academics. Phds are often completely daft.
That would make good kindling for my campfire.
Let me guess, you have a red hat with some writing on it that you buy once a month.
@@pumpthewater419 Let me guess, you still live with your parents.
Wife and I both thought we heard our kid crying in their bedroom at 0:46 lol
There’s nothing there
it is the Bible as we know it today, there were many parts that did not make it into the final book accepted as a canon.
Lmao
Nice dialog and important manuscript. But I disagree that Christianity had not been fully formed by then. I like Bettany, but she missed it on that one. It was not Constantine and the council of Nicaea that made Christianity.
Note: “The God Jesus” mosaic found in 2005 in the “oldest church in Israel” ca 230-285 A.D.
during Megiddo Prison excavation; prayer hall in Christian home, probably Roman officer’s
(Note: Council of Nicaea 325 A.D. much later)
It's the consensus of academics
@@br2485 It depends on what one means by "fully formed." There are still theologies and sects being formed. However, the basics of the gospel and Christian faith have been around since the first century.
@@br2485 No it isn't. How could you believe academics have a consensus on this matter
id pay 30 bucks for those boxes of fairy tales
I don’t think it should go into private hands. It should go to a museum or library where it will be protected.
Museums and Large "research" or "academic" Libraries do bid on items like this, just ones with less a hefty price.
Sometimes the buyer will gift them to a museum.
Are you daft? Where do you think it’s been the whole time? A private collection. So now let’s give it to a publicly funded museum? In what way is that better? Do you see evidence of it not being protected?
@@skunkwerx9674 No I’m not daft! You must be. Anything can happen in private hands. It needs to be carefully protected.
@@d.l.l.6578 Museums and other public institutions frequently lose and ruin important artifacts.
People's dogma becomes a bit tiring. How strange to feel the right to impose one's faith or atheism to affirm or decry the value of this artifact. It's age alone, makes it remarkable. It adds little to the understanding of the time or progression of religion in the region. I wish we understood more about how it has managed to survive so well and so long. I'm sure there is a real story to be told there, with implications worth consideration.
Jesus wrote this?
No, dear.
They said Peter about 20 times...
Sorry Jesus could not write off course let alone Greek.
Are the rich getting poorer!? AHAHAHA AHAHAHA LOL
Let's hope it goes to a true believer. 🙏
Or at least someone who pretends to be convincingly.
let’s hope this goes to a library and gets filed under “fiction”
@@stocktonnash We who believe don't stand on your beliefs or non beliefs, are you so uncomfortable and uncharitable as to be full of score for ours? You sound most unhappy.
@@zargonfuture4046 Google What happened to the children of Tuam. Google what the church did to the innocent.
Seriously? They have original books of the bible and they talk about the binding? Who had it all these years?
On the Christie’s website, you’ll find a detailed history of this book’s discovery and ownership over the years. It was once owned by the University of Mississippi, who later sold it to buy the papers of William Faulkner. Faulkner trumps Bible!
We’ll, the video is about the ‘book’ not the ‘content’
@@tobagostreetpolicestationc561 Vatican obviously had a "leak".
It was buried in a clay jar in Egypt until it was found in 1952.
It isn't 'original'.
too bad it's a bible
Of all the manuscripts that survive from the ancient world, the vast majority of them are texts from the Bible.
It still just seems like a made up story forced onto people. I like how they added that it kinda just succeeded as a religion since the book was so advanced and easy to read and transport. Not cause the religion is actually valid.
It is still a made up story.
Just stick to Harry Potter as per it you're "offended", levels and all that
@@veronica_._._._ you have to be mentally challenged
Very few ideas are more contagious than the hope for eternal life and and the fear of eternal damnation.
@@bartolomeothesatyr it usually makes people create fake stories to feel something and have some sort of hope
There are no "original" texts. An original would be considered an "Autographa". The Jews "which Jesus was if he existed" were far from monotheistic. I suggest watching Christopher Jon Bjernes videos on the subject on CJBBooks he has a TH-cam channel.
Its referring to the original texts on which the Catholic canon was based on obviously not the ever evolving Jewish faith which continued to mutate well after the death of Christ.
@@tpower1912 catholic Canon lol which one
It's more than insulting that these people describe society moving from polytheism to monotheism, and that the codex is the oldest existing bible. It's shockingly Christo-centric.
It is not a coincidence that the oldest known texts are two books of The Bible.
Given the topic, how would _you_ describe the period they're addressing?
You're shockingly me -me -me-ocentric.
We'll get over your bizarre victimhood tho, yup forgotten already
"Christo-centric" lmao welcome to the west. first time?
@@historyofnetworktv- the oldest known texts are waaaaaay older than the Bible!
It’s funny how they act like having books of the Bible is special, I can guarantee they don’t believe any of it.
Atheist here, if you suggest they’re of a like mind to myself, we can appreciate the age and the key part of such thought into development of western civilisation, without believing in what sounds like your favourite of the many alleged sky fairies.
An ancient scroll of Homer would be equally interesting
@@sjl197🙄
"I can guarantee they don’t believe any of it" - that's because they're smart.
@@malcolmjcullen funny that scholars will tell you how accurate the Bible is as a historical document but to believe anything else about it. Makes sense?
They respect the history but they don’t believe.
Smart people.
Most ancient texts will contain things that you wouldn't believe. Sometimes that's what makes them so interesting.
Fake. They have forgers create stuff like this for a big profit.
have some respect. the forgers name was Peter.
Lol 😂!!!! Oldest book ? Go look at the oldest mention of christos in Ancient Greek literature. 😉
'In private hands'... reading is hard.
Fake
Said the anonymous internet expert.