Pap Dodge: Christian Askeland Finds the “Smoking Gun”

I was interested by the post on Alin Suciu's blog: " Christian Askeland Finds the “Smoking Gun” posted on April 24, 2014. It seems to add fuel to the argument that the original purchaser of the so-called "Gospel of Jesus Wife" on the no-questions-asked antiquities market in fact bought two modern fake papyri (done no doubt on genuine blank pieces of ancient papyrus), one of which was prematurely published as genuine by a Harvard scholar. There was a Gospel of John fragment bought with the published fragment in a rare dialect but which reportedly can be shown to have been copied from a modern published text:

"The fragment contains exactly the same hand, exactly the same ink and has been written with the same writing instrument. One would assume that it were part of the same writing event, be it modern or ancient. … "

As 'Zwinglius Redivivus' (Jim West) succintly notes ('There Is Just No Doubt That The ‘Jesus Wife’ Fragment is a Fake' posted on April 24, 2014)

It’s past time to call a spade a spade and for King and other supporters of this fraud to admit they were duped. Otherwise their credibility as scholars will take a beating. It’s easy to say ‘ I fell for a clever hoax’ but it’s hard to say ‘I overlooked evidence right in front of me in order to stand by my initial assessment’. The jig is up.

I doubt though that any of this will give pause for thought for those involved in the no-questions-asked market in dug-up antiquities. Obviously it offers all sort of scope for dodgy activities, including fraud and laundering.

Vignette: Smoking gun found.