Greek New Testament Manuscripts in Albania

Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts: Greek New Testament Manuscripts in Albania (HT: Presbyweb)

As of June 2007, thirteen (13) Greek New Testament manuscripts were known to exist in the National Archive in Tirana, Albania. Western scholars had tried for decades to gain access to them. There were few success stories. A large part of the reason was due to the fact that Albania is a former police state. Only two of the manuscripts had ever been photographed, both with microfilm decades ago. Things changed dramatically in July. …

…It turned out that as many as seventeen more manuscripts that had been presumed lost for many years also were at the National Archive. Western biblical scholars had lost track of the manuscripts, though the presumption was that they had been relocated to the National Archive….

…Not one of the seventeen formerly lost manuscripts has yet been positively identified with an INTF number, although nine of them are considered possible. That, in itself, is very good news. CSNTM will be working with INTF and with the Albanian government to try to determine whether the lost manuscripts have been found.

This was not the only good news of the day, nor even the most momentous. The catalog revealed several other Greek New Testament manuscripts that had never been catalogued by western scholars. Simple arithmetic told us this: There were forty-seven Greek New Testament manuscripts listed in the National Archive catalog, while the K-Liste noted only thirty in Albania (and seventeen of these had been presumed lost). Thus, Tirana was housing at least seventeen manuscripts unknown to western scholarship and as many as thirty-four! Since the dawn of the 21st century, an average of two or three Greek New Testament manuscripts is brought to light each year. A cache of 17 to 34 manuscripts is a remarkable find, regardless of the age and pedigree of the manuscripts. …

For the Word document with the whole story, click here.