Help finding an ancient Christian library with copies of Homer

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Joseph D. L.
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Help finding an ancient Christian library with copies of Homer

Post by Joseph D. L. »

I remember reading years ago of an ancient library (not Nag Hammadi) consisting of both Gnostic and Homeric texts but I can't remember what or where i read it. Any thoughts or suggestions?
perseusomega9
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Re: Help finding an ancient Christian library with copies of Homer

Post by perseusomega9 »

Oxyrhyncus papyri?
The metric to judge if one is a good exegete: the way he/she deals with Barabbas.

Who disagrees with me on this precise point is by definition an idiot.
-Giuseppe
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Joseph D. L.
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Re: Help finding an ancient Christian library with copies of Homer

Post by Joseph D. L. »

That’s it. Thank you.
StephenGoranson
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Re: Help finding an ancient Christian library with copies of Homer

Post by StephenGoranson »

Oxyrhyncus is now a collection, but is made up of discards from many sources. So not necessarily a "Christian library with copies of Homer."
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DCHindley
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Re: Help finding an ancient Christian library with copies of Homer

Post by DCHindley »

Actually, I think one of the many trash heaps dug up in the 19th century did include a collection of rolls that were believed to have been part of someone's personal library. Off the top of my head they dated to around the 4th century CE, which certainly could contain fragments of Homer's works, and there could have been a letter or two nearby that used Christian terminology. I'll have to look ...

I did find this:

The Journal of ... Vol. 8, No. 3/4... The Library of ...
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The Library of a Greek of Oxyrhynchus
Frederic Kenyon
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
Vol. 8, No. 3/4 (Oct., 1922), pp. 129-138
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.
DOI: 10.2307/3853690
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3853690
Page Count: 10

It should be out of copyright, but there is a paywall to this copy. It is hard to tell if he was talking about a collection of fragments believed to be contents of some Greek's personal library, or describing the kind of books that such a library probably contained. Still looking ...

Here is a link to the book at archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dl ... /page/n175

Am still reading it ... He was describing what Greek & Latin works of literature were found, and when they rose and fell in popularity n the first 6 centuries CE.

What I was thinking of was a scholarly work on whether the DSS represented the contents of a "library," but there has been a lot said on the subject. I think what I read was a book by Larry Schiffman (sp?) arguing against the concept that the DSS were the remains of "the" library of the Temple of Jerusalem as proposed by Norman Golb.

DCH
StephenGoranson
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Re: Help finding an ancient Christian library with copies of Homer

Post by StephenGoranson »

My comment about Oxyrhynchus was not meant to deny Homer in any Christian library. Origen certainly read Homer. So, maybe, his library in Caesarea.
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