Photographing Five New Testaments Fragments in Cambridge

The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) sent a team to Cambridge, England, to photograph New Testament manuscripts there. This work is needed because most of these manuscripts have only been microfilmed, and the microfilm quality is pretty bad. For one thing, black and white photographs don’t capture several of the meaningful markings on a manuscript. A later scribe would often use a different color of ink to make ‘corrections’ to a manuscript; liturgical markings would usually be in red ink; non-ink markings would be in a different color. Microfilm picks up none of this. High-resolution digital photography is the way to go. Digital photography is also needed because it can be duplicated without deterioration, accessed via the Internet, and the quality is now significantly better than 35 mm images. Many libraries are beginning to recognize their need to digitize their collections. Unfortunately, budgets are tight and such projects are often postponed until funding becomes available. CSNTM does its work for free, enabling these libraries to get excellent quality images without cost. >>>