Baylor University Press is to be congratulated and heartily thanked for this new title, to be available on August 15, 2015.

Lincoln H. Blumell and Thomas A. Wayment, Christian Oxyrhynchus: Texts, Documents, and Sources. Baylor University Press, 2015. 778pp. ISBN: 9781602585393.

I’ve not yet seen a table of contents, but the descriptions of the contents are impressive. Here is the description from Baylor Press’ web site:

Blumell and Wayment present a thorough compendium of all published papyri, parchments, and patristic sources that relate to Christianity at Oxyrhynchus before the fifth century CE. Christian Oxyrhynchus provides new and expanded editions of Christian literary and documentary texts that include updated readings, English translations—some of which represent the first English translation of a text—and comprehensive notes.

The volume features New Testament texts carefully collated against other textual witnesses and a succinct introduction for each Oxyrhynchus text that provides information about the date of the papyrus, its unique characteristics, and textual variants. Documentary texts are grouped both by genre and date, giving readers access to the Decian Libelli, references to Christians in third- and fourth-century texts, and letters written by Christians. A compelling resource for researchers, teachers, and students, Christian Oxyrhynchus enables broad access to these crucial primary documents beyond specialists in papyrology, Greek, Latin, and Coptic.

Work like this is sorely needed. So often we grab papyri for their readings and ignore their milieu. We ignore the environment in which they were written, copied, and used. And we ignore how they were actually used. Here’s to hoping Blumell & Wayment help us toward better understanding of these valuable materials and their impact on our understanding of early Christianity.