7Q5
7Q5
Dead Sea scroll fragment
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 7Q5 is the designation for a small Greek papyrus fragment discovered in Qumran Cave 7. It contains about 18 legible or partially legible Greek letters and was published in 1962 as an unidentified text. The editor assigned the fragment to a date between 50 BCE and 50 CE on the basis of its handwriting.[1] In 1972, the Spanish papyrologist Jose O'Callaghan argued that the papyrus was in fact a fragment of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verses 52 and 53. While most liberal theology scholars have been unpersuaded by this argument, a vocal minority continue to support the identification of the fragment as a part of the Gospel of Mark.[2][3] More important is that the vast majority of papyrologists support the identification of 7Q5 as part of Mark’s gospel. This is objectively demonstrated by 1991 symposium in Eichstatt and is recorded in a book of the minutes and presentations of the meeting by B. Mayer.[4] A handful of the universally acknowledge world famous papyrologists such as Orsolina Montevecchi, Sergio Daris, Herbert Hunger and others have come out with papyrological support of identifying 7Q5 as part of the Gospel of Mark that was written in the 50s CE[5][6] In order to refute this on empirical grounds it is not sufficient to merely claim that leading papyrologists disagree but show objective/external evidence to the contrary such as peer reviewed journals where leading papyrologists are on record saying they disagree with the identification of 7Q5 as Mark’s Gospel. This does not exists! World Renowned Papyrologists and general sentiment in favor of the identification at the 1991 symposium is documented. Most summaries show those who oppose the identification are from a different discipline (biblical scholars mainly from the liberal perspective) and the proponents are actual papyrologists of Ancient Greek manuscripts.[7]