"First-Century Mark" is not first century

THAT FRAGMENT OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK that was rumored to date to the first century has now been published in a volume of Oxyrhynchus papyri. The editors date it to the late second or early third century. That's still pretty early for a New Testament manuscript, but first century it is not. The story of the fragment is complicated. For details see the two recent posts at the Evangelical Textual Criticism Blog:

“First-Century Mark,” Published at Last? [Updated] (Elijah Hixson)

Dan Wallace responds on (formerly) ‘First-century Mark’ (Peter Gurry)

I noted the announcement of the existence of this Mark manuscript here. I was skeptical of the first-century date then and I remained skeptical all along. (See here and follow the links back.) Looks like I was right. Again.

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