Lincoln Blumell has made a discovery of a new manuscript of the Greek New Testament in the Cadbury Research Library of the University of Birmingham. His discovery brings the number of extant papyrus fragments of books of the New Testament to 128.
Papyrus was the earliest medium used for copying the writings of the early Jesus movement books; extant fragments date from the late second or early third century and the seventh century CE. Blumell’s discovery can be dated on palaeographical grounds to the fourth century, and represents the earliest New Testament papyrus in the Birmingham collection. Blumell made his discovery while cataloguing the papyri in the Birmingham collection.
Prof. Blumell defended his dissertation on Christian letters in Upper Egyptian site of Oxyrhynchus” in 2009, subsequently published as Lettered Christians: Christians, Letters, and Late Antique Oxyrhynchus (New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents, vol. 39). Leiden and Boston: E.J. Brill, 2012. He is currently a professor of religion at Brigham Young University and is a frequent contributor to journals that specialize in papyrology. With Thomas Wayment, he is about to publish a sourcebook of documents from Upper Egypt entitled Christian Oxyrhynchus: Texts, Documents, and Sources (Second Through Fourth Centuries). Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press 2015).