My latest article in New Testament Studies has been extensively discussed in mainline and academic media following a major article about it in The Telegraph Sept. 17 by Olivia Rudgard, Social and Religious Affairs Correspondent, “Bible passage used to stop women become ordained ‘added later’, academic claims” (see link below).

On Sept. 26 I had a great live interview about the NTS article on the Natasha Hall Show on CJAD 800AM, Montreal’s number one news-talk radio station.

The former religion editor of BBC talked with me about it for over two hours minutes after the call from The Telegraph, and asked if I would participate in a film he is directing on women in the early church.

Larry Hurtado’s blog states, “Over the last couple of decades Payne has been involved in adding to his acute observations about certain scribal features of Codex Vaticanus in particular, which he argues (cogently to my mind) are evidence that the copyist/scribe of this manuscript knew of some significant textual variants, and marked these places in the margins. I was intrigued at Payne’s observation that Vaticanus has scant punctuation in the Gospels, but abundant punctuation in the Epistles. Payne infers that this likely results from the copyist of Vaticanus using a Gospels codex for the Gospels and a separate Epistles codex for the Epistles (Vaticanus is one of the earliest ‘pandects,’ i.e., an entire Christian Bible in one book/codex). The Gospels archetype likely didn’t have punctuation (for whatever reason), whereas the Epistles archetype did. And so the copyist of Vaticanus simply copied each into his manuscript. He didn’t edit or add punctuation to the Gospels, but just copied. That suggests a copyist/scribe committed simply to copying, producing as accurate a copy as he could. And that agrees with some other recent studies about other copyists as well.”

Professor Eldon Jay Epp, renowned NT textual critic at Harvard Divinity School, authorized me to quote his response, “Though not yet attending to details, a quick browsing revealed a compelling case for your analysis, especially of 1 Cor 14:34-35. Your more precise discussion and new detailed evidence are impressive. Though I have not kept up with this issue, the point about the gaps indicating added text is new to me and a telling piece of evidence.”

Fred Schroeder, Professor Emeritus of Classics, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, authorized me to quote his assessment, “You seem successfully to have proved that the words in Corinthians enjoining silence on the part of women should be athetized and to have established an early date for the Vaticanus gospels.”

Bruce Prior, the editor of Codex Washingtonianus, wrote, “After centuries of scholarly confusion it is now clear that the passage 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 was not composed by Paul. Somebody added it later, although quite early in the manuscript tradition. I cannot think of any biblical passage which has caused more harm to Christians than those two interpolated verses. Finally in the early 21st century we can lay the passage to rest. My friend Dr. Philip B. Payne of Edmonds WA has been working on the problem for some years. He summarized his preliminary findings in a lengthy chapter of his groundbreaking volume, Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters (Grand Rapids: Zondervan).”

I have received thanks for the article from David Parker, Daniel Wallace, Paul Canart, Antony J. Forte, Walter Moberly, Kevin Giles, Chris Stevens, Fred Long, Rick Hess, Vic Copan, Sandra Glahn, David Sanford, Harold Netland, Walter Hansen, and others.

There have been hundreds of comments to repostings of The Telegraph article in various web sites. So in spite of some (perhaps inevitably) snarky comments and misrepresentations, I am blown away. I never imagined that this technical article would reach the masses to this extent. But sometimes even when you pick your audience, you can’t control the results.

The one truly sad piece of news is that Paul Canart, the senior paleographer at the Vatican and most famous scholar on Codex Vaticanus, who invited me to examine the original Codex Vaticanus and who has jointly published with me about the original in distigmai in Vaticanus both in Novum Testamentum and Le manuscrit B de la Bible, passed away the same day the article was published online by New Testament Studies. Because I quote from his many emails to me repeatedly in the article, his voice continues to speak to scholars all over the world even after his gracious soul is with the Lord. I like to think that he must be pleased and pray that God is, too. He strongly supported the value of the article and encouraged its publication. links:

The Telegraph “Bible passage used to stop women become ordained ‘added later’, academic claims” Olivia Rudgard, Social and Religious Affairs Correspondent, 22 September 2017
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/22/bible-passage-used-stop-women-become-ordained-added-later-academic/

Scot McKnight Jesus Creed blog: Philip B. Payne, Six Ground-breaking Discoveries: A Summary of “Vaticanus Distigme-obelos Symbols Marking Added Text, Including 1 Corinthians 14.34-5” New Testament Studies 63 (2017) 604-625 © 2017 Payne Loving Trust

Its links are: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2017/09/18/1-corinthians-1434-35-authentic-no/#6GJqv8vKe68xPsAf.99

Is 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 Authentic? No.

reposted at: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/15727276-is-1-corinthians-14-34-35-authentic-no
Larry Hurtado’s blog post Paul and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is at:
Paul and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35
The link for the free download of the article from New Testament Studies is:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A5FC01A6E14A2A1CF1F514A9BF93C581/S0028688517000121a.pdf/vaticanus_distigmeobelos_symbols_marking_added_text_including_1_corinthians_14345.pdf