Dirk Obbink (nonfiction)

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Dr Dirk Obbink at the Sackler Institute. Photograph: Geraint Lewis.

Dirk Obbink (born 13 January 1957 in Lincoln, Nebraska) is an American-born papyrologist and Classicist. He is the Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek Literature in the Faculty of Classics at Oxford University and was the head of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project. Obbink is also Fellow and Tutor at the University of Oxford (Christ Church).

Controversy over "First Century Mark" and other items from the Egypt Exploration Society collection

In May 2018, Dirk Obbink and Daniela Colomo published the papyrus fragment P.Oxy. 5345 in volume LXXXIII of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri series of the Egypt Exploration Society. This fragment contained portions of six verses from the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, and was designated {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}{\mathfrak {P}}137 in the standard classification of New Testament papyri. Obbink and Colomo dated it to the later 2nd or earlier 3rd century, but rumors of its content, provenance and date had been widely discussed since 2012, fuelled by an ill-advised claim by Daniel B. Wallace in 2012 that a fragmentary papyrus of Mark had been authoritatively dated to the late first century by one of the world's leading paleographers, and might consequently be the earliest surviving Christian text.

Following publication in 2018, the Egypt Exploration Society, the owners of the papyrus fragment, released a statement clarifying both the provenance of the fragment and the role of Dirk Obbink in the circumstances of misleading information subsequently emerging on social media. The EES stated that the text in the fragment had only been recognized as being from the Gospel of Mark in 2011. In an earlier cataloguing in the 1980s by Revel Coles the fragment had been described as 'I/II', which appeared to be the origin of the much discussed assertions of a very early date. In 2011/2012 the papyrus was in the keeping of Dirk Obbink, who had showed it to Scott Carroll, then representing the Green Collection, in connection with a proposal that it might be included in the exhibition of biblical papyri Verbum Domini at the Vatican during Lent and Easter 2012. It was not until the spring of 2016 that the EES realized that the rumored "First Century Mark" papyrus that had become the subject of so much speculation was one and the same as their own fragment P.Oxy. 5345; whereupon Dirk Obbink and Daniela Colomo were requested to prepare it for publication.

In June 2019, the Egypt Exploration Society, released a further statement, following the publication by Professor Michael Holmes of the Museum of the Bible of a contract between Professor Dirk Obbink and Hobby Lobby dated 17 January 2013, for the sale of a number of fragmentary texts, one of which Professor Holmes identifies as P.Oxy. LXXXIII 5345. The Egypt Exploration Society reaffirmed their previous statement that this fragment had never been offered for sale by the EES; while offering the clarification that, in that statement, they had "simply reported Professor Obbink’s responses to our questions at that time, in which he insisted that he had not sold or offered for sale the Mark fragment to the Green Collection, and that he had not required Professor Wallace to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement in relation to such a sale."

In the July/August 2019 issue of Christianity Today, Jerry Pattengale wrote an article in which he published for the first time his own perspectives on the 'First Century Mark' Saga. Pattengale states that he had been present with Scott Carroll in Dirk Obbink's rooms in Christ Church, Oxford in late 2011, when the {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}{\mathfrak {P}}137 fragment was offered for sale to the Museum of the Bible, which Pattengale then represented. Also offered for sale were fragments of the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, all of which Dirk Obbink had then proposed as likely to be of a 2nd century date; but the Mark fragment was presented as more likely 1st century. According to Pattengale, he had undertaken due diligence in showing images of the four fragments to selected New Testament textual scholars, including Daniel B. Wallace - subject to their signing non-disclosure agreements in accordance with Dirk Obbink's stipulations; and purchase was eventually finalised, with the fragments agreed to remain in Professor Obbink's possession for research prior to publication. It was not until a gala dinner in November 2017, celebrating the opening of the Museum of the Bible, that Pattengale realised that the First Century Mark fragment had been the property of the Egypt Exploration Society all along, and consequently had never legitimately been offered for sale.

In October 2019 the Egypt Exploration Society announced that twelve papyrus fragments and one parchment fragment were being returned to them by the Museum of the Bible, which acknowledged that the fragments belonged to the EES. The Museum of the Bible stated that eleven of these pieces came into their possession after having been sold to Hobby Lobby Stores by Obbink in two batches in 2010.[13][14][15] The other two pieces are reported to have been bought from a dealer based in Israel.[16] The EES noted that the corresponding catalogue card and photograph for most of these thirteen items were also missing from the EES collection, and they were only able to identify the missing items because back-up copies of the catalogue cards and photographs had been made. The EES is continuing to check their collection for any more items that may have been taken without permission.

Since June 2019 Obbink has had his access to the EES collection removed, and as of October 2019 he is under investigation by Oxford University for removing texts belong to the EES from university premises.

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