Lincoln H Blumell, Ancient Scripture
In January 2013 I received a MEG in the amount of $19,707.00 to work on the transcription and publication of the twenty-two page Didymus Papyrus that is housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library. I am pleased to report that this project was very successful. The papyrus has been completely transcribed, translated, annotated, and indexed, and I expect within the next couple of months to submit the piece for publication. I have already secured a publisher for this very important papyrus and the series it will be a part of is the Papyrologische Texte und Abhandlungen out of Cologne Germany.
On this project I worked with two students, Michael Trotter and Justin Barney. From January 2013 until June 2013 I provided Michael and Justin with a transcription of the text I had previously done and I had them work through the text on their own checking every reading and making sure it conformed to the papyrus. I did this in part to get a second set of eyes on the papyrus but also because it would be a great learning opportunity for them as they entered the field of Greek papyrology. Once they had gone through the entire transcription we then began to work on the translation, which began in September 2013 and extended until July of 2014. For the translation I worked very closely with Michael Trotter who has subsequently decided to do his MA thesis in Comparative Studies on the Didymus Papyrus at BYU. Michael and I met every week from anywhere from two to four hours to work on the translation (there was of course many hours spent preparing the translation outside of our meeting time). It was extremely difficult and slow at times but little by little we progressed and moved forward; in total the English translation tallies 44 pages.
To help with work on this project I arranged for a visiting scholar, Gregg Schwendner of Wichita State University, to come to BYU for part of a week in October 2013. While he was here he helped with the transcription and translation and provided some very useful directives for the project. This was a great opportunity for Michael to learn from another scholar.
To showcase our progress on the papyrus Michael and I presented a joint academic paper on it at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies in May (2014). The paper was titled: “Didymus the Blind’s Commentary on the Psalms: P. BYU Didymus and Psalms 26:10–29:1.” This was a really great opportunity for Michael because it was the first time he presented to an academic audience. He was nervous but he worked very hard on his part of the paper and it ended up being a great success and served as a great confidence booster. We then presented two separate papers at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Diego in November (2014). Michael again worked very hard on his paper and presented an excellent paper. I could see how in just six months and two academic presentations Michael had matured and developed as a student and aspiring academic.
Over the course of two years I have seen Michael Trotter develop both as an undergraduate and graduate student. The MEG has provided a genuine opportunity for me to mentor a student and it has not only benefitted Michael and his academic pursuits but it has also greatly benefited my research as Michael has developed the academic abilities to be really engaged in the field. He is currently applying for a PhD (to commence Fall 2015) and he would like to continue with his work on Didymus; I am very optimistic that he will be accepted somewhere and I am convinced that this MEG will prove to be instrumental in him getting accepted into a doctoral program!
Budget Expenditures
The following represents an itemized list of how the MEG funding was spent.
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Student Wages:
Undergraduate then graduate student (Michael Trotter) and second student; two worked from January 2013 to August 2013 after that only one worked through December 2014.
$10,800.00
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Joint Presentation at the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies (May 2014, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada)
Michael Trotter and I gave a joint research paper based on our work on the Didymus Papyrus at BYU. The title of the paper was “Didymus the Blind’s Commentary on the Psalms: P. BYU Didymus and Psalms 26:10–29:1.”
Expenditure includes conference registration, flights, hotel, per diem, and other miscellaneous expenses for two (Lincoln Blumell and student).$3,500.00
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Individual Presentations at the Society of Biblical Literature (November 2014, San Diego, California)
Michael Trotter and I each gave a paper on our work on the Didymus Papyrus:
- Lincoln H. Blumell, “Didymus the Blind as Biblical Commentator: Didymus’ Exegesis of Pss 26:10–29:1.”
- Michael R. Trotter, “The New Testament Text of Didymus the Blind in Tourah Codex V: Pss 26:10–29:1.”
Expenditure includes conference registration, flights, hotel, per diem, and other miscellaneous expenses for two (Lincoln Blumell and student).
$2,950.00
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Hosted a Visiting Scholar from Wichita State University (October 2013)
From October 15–18, 2013 Gregg Schwendner of Wichita State University came to BYU and helped with the project.
$2,000.00
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Miscellaneous Supplies and Expenses
Flash Drives, Instructional Books and Related Literature, etc.
$550.00
Postscript
I want to sincerely thank the MEG program for supporting this project and for providing it with such generous funding. THANK YOU!
Lincoln H. Blumell