Physical Evidence of Early Christianity

When studying early Christianity, literature tends to take center stage. Critical editions of texts rule. So much so that knowledge about the physical remains of early Christianity, apart from a few celebrated examples, tends to be overlooked. This collection of links regarding the papyrology, epigraphy, and archaeology of Christianity in the first four centuries AD is presented here with a minimum of editorial comment to facilitate the reader’s exploration of this data.

1. Paleography and Papyrology

http://www.pappal.info/
https://archive.org/stream/handbookofgr … 9/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/greeklatin00 … 3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/cu3192402449 … 9/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/griechischep … 3/mode/2up
http://g.christianbook.com/g/pdf/hp/1565630378-ch01.pdf
http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/article_071.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyrhynchus_Papyri
http://theosophical.wordpress.com/2011/ … us-papyri/
https://archive.org/stream/oxyrhynchusp … 7/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/oxyrhynchusp … 3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/oxyrhynchusp … 5/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/oxyrhynchusp … 9/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/oxyrhynchusp … 4/mode/2up
http://books.google.com/books?id=nPVHbS … 90&f=false
http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Tyndale/st … OxyPap.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=nPVHbS … 04&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=gsoFMT … 22&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=oWyej_ … 22&f=false
https://www.academia.edu/1135088/Grenfe … d_Straight
http://bibletranslation.ws/manu.html
http://people.uncw.edu/zervosg/Papyrolo … papyri.pdf
http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/v17/TC-2012-PR-Royse.pdf
https://www.academia.edu/3667498/Early_ … laeography
http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2013/ … -analysis/
http://scribalhabitsofpapyrus46.wordpre … liography/
http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blog … sment.html
http://vridar.org/2013/03/08/new-date-f … pyrus-p52/
http://books.google.com/books?id=Z35H7P … 52&f=false
http://people.uncw.edu/zervosg/papyrolo … misuse.pdf
http://www.biblical-data.org/P-46%20Oct%201997.pdf
http://larryhurtado.files.wordpress.com … apyri1.pdf
http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/books/titles.pdf
http://people.uncw.edu/zervosg/Papyrolo … raries.pdf
http://www.skypoint.com/members/waltzmn/

(The rest of this collection of links, below, does not regard paleographical methods of dating manuscripts.)

2. C-14 Radiocarbon Dating of Manuscripts

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostg … ating.html
http://uanews.org/story/ua-radiocarbon- … as-genuine
https://peterkirby.com/nag-hammadi-carbon-dating-myth.html
https://peterkirby.com/gospel-of-judas-radiocarbon-age-results.html
http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/C … ospels.htm

3. Papyri from the persecutions of the mid-third century

http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/VEx … stian.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_Oxyrhynchus_3035
http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.oxy;43;3119
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2 … 3086054777
http://books.google.com/books?id=w59JAA … li&f=false
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POxy_1464
https://archive.org/stream/oxyrhynchusp … 1/mode/2up

4. Papyri from the persecutions of the early fourth century

http://religion.princeton.edu/main/facu … 20JECS.pdf
http://books.google.com/books?id=oUkzAQ … 73&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=t9eWOh … 01&f=false
http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?e=d … 6b201ce785
http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.oxy;31;2601
http://books.google.com/books?id=96I3AA … on&f=false
http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?e=d … fe40685706
http://papyri.info/ddbdp/bgu;16;2673
http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?e=d … 1d0b664c73
http://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.oxy;33;2665
http://books.google.com/books/about/Gre … oSAQAAIAAJ

5. A non-theological fragment of Julius Africanus dated to the mid-third century

https://archive.org/stream/greeklatin00 … 2/mode/2up
http://mq.edu.au/pubstatic/public/download/?id=45134
http://www.bibliotheca-classica.org/sit … kahane.pdf
http://books.google.com/books?id=9Ngkld … fo&f=false

6. Epigraphy and Archaeology (general)

http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/e … _habit.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=0-ovhY … es&f=false
http://books.google.com/books/about/Ant … tI9Cpyl3kC
http://www.atheistnexus.org/forum/topic … aeological
http://www.bibleinterp.com/opeds/tsa368001.shtml
http://www.religion.ucsb.edu/faculty/th … r-Tuna.pdf
http://guides.lib.cua.edu/content.php?p … id=1436064
https://archive.org/stream/christianarc … 1/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/christianepi … 7/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/trattatodiep … 3/mode/2up
http://edh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/inschrift/suche (Latin database)
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/main (Greek database)

7. Inscriptions from Phyrgia and Lykaonia

http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk/monuments/MAMA-XI-082.html
http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk/monuments/MAMA-XI-044.html
http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk/monuments/MAMA-XI-085.html
http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk/monuments/MAMA-XI-122.html
http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk/monuments/MAMA-XI-095.html
http://mama.csad.ox.ac.uk/monuments/MAMA-XI-164.html
http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/8411/4747‎
http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptio … okid%3D612
http://books.google.com/books?id=CNHgAM … ry&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=lXpGAA … os&f=false
http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/article_074.htm

8. Inscriptions and Art from Rome

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/ac … l?RC=54382
https://archive.org/stream/christianepi … 0/mode/2up
https://www.academia.edu/4299182/Jewish … _catacombs
https://www.academia.edu/4295346/Radioc … us_in_Rome
https://www.academia.edu/4299091/Furthe … us_in_Rome
https://archive.org/stream/monumentsofe … 6/mode/2up
http://books.google.com/books?id=PWdzlU … 22&f=false
http://depts.drew.edu/jhc/AbrahamsenOrante.pdf
https://archive.org/details/romasotterraneao00nort

9. Inscriptions from Rome (argued to be Valentinian)

https://www.academia.edu/2702572/A_Seco … Via_Latina
http://books.google.com/books?id=vOoxGm … na&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=3XxxkE … sm&f=false

10. Alexamenos Graffito from Rome (early third century or before)

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/enc … ffito.html
http://www.textexcavation.com/alexamenos.html
https://www.academia.edu/4735706/The_Horse_Head_Demon
https://www.academia.edu/2069395/The_Pa … quarie_Uni

11. Crucifixion gems

http://classics.mfab.hu/talismans/cbd/815
https://www.academia.edu/1787622/The_Crucifixion
https://www.academia.edu/1788713/The_Co … _Antiquity
http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2011/08/earl … ixion.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=ddCAxg … em&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=BVzVUQ … em&f=false
http://www.carotta.de/subseite/texte/ar … kos_en.pdf
http://ifpeakoilwerenoobject.blogspot.c … art-2.html
http://rogerviklund.wordpress.com/2011/ … n-english/
http://bedejournal.blogspot.com/2004/07 … ified.html
http://hypotyposeis.org/weblog/2006/08/ … image.html
http://hypotyposeis.org/weblog/2006/08/ … n-gem.html

12. Inscriptions from Ostia

https://www.academia.edu/1992190/Late_A … _Augustine
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2008/to … m58633.pdf

13. Inscriptions from Crete and Greece

http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147076.pdf
http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/146824.pdf
https://www.google.com/search?q=christi … 3&ie=UTF-8

14. Dura Europos (ca. 256)

https://www.academia.edu/1619001/New_Te … Baptistery
http://books.google.com/books?id=swtI9C … em&f=false
https://archive.org/stream/MN41439ucmf_ … 3/mode/2up
http://brbl-legacy.library.yale.edu/pap … d=DPg%2024
http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/article_072.htm

15. Megiddo (recent discovery, significance debated)

http://home.planet.nl/~slofs018/Megiddo.htm
http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_d … mag_id=111
http://earlychristianwritings.com/info/ … s-2008.pdf

16. Inscription of Abercius (Christian inscription ca. 200)

http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/article_073.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=56AN2e … os&f=false
https://archive.org/stream/christianins … 4/mode/2up
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/abercius.html
https://archive.org/stream/diegrabschri … 5/mode/2up

17. Inscriptions of Diogenes, Moundane, and Hedia

http://books.google.com/books?id=93mfDk … 22&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=CNHgAM … on&f=false

18. Epitaph of Julius Eugenius (of Maximinus Daia’s persecution ca. 311)

http://earlychristianwritings.com/info/ … graphy.pdf
http://books.google.com/books?id=j2dAY4 … us&f=false

19. Legal Inscription about Chrestians (?) under Septimius Severus (193 – 211)

http://edh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/ed … 16&lang=en

20. Funerary Inscription from Palmyra in 135 (questionable)

http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2013 … ed-135-ad/

21. Pompeii and Herculaneum in the first century (dubious)

http://books.google.com/books?id=vOoxGm … ii&f=false
http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pau … shwick.htm

The inspiration for this collection comes from interaction through online forums with Peter R. F. Brown, also known as mountainman, Kookaburra Jack, or Leucius Charinus. Some of these links are from his website Revisionist ideas in Ancient History: the Gnostic Gospels were authored as a reaction to Nicaea, which starts from the “postulate” that Constantine with the help of Eusebius and his “forgery mill” was the inventor of the Christian faith and author of its earliest texts.

While I find this thesis unlikely simply from the nature of the literature supposedly stemming from a single homogeneous origin in the fourth century, let it not be said that interacting with an idea that seems bunk is fruitless. While an ardent advocate rarely changes his mind, there is much that I’ve learned from this little activity of which I personally was unaware, and now I get to share it. Let the reader decide.