Brent Nongbri
An award-winning author, Brent Nongbri is a specialist in ancient Greek and Roman manuscripts. He has taught at Yale University, Oberlin College, as well as universities in Australia, Denmark, and Norway and worked in manuscript collections across Europe and North America. With over a decade of archaeological experience working on Roman era sites in Italy and Israel, he is well versed in the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean world. Raised in Texas, Nongbri is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and earned his doctorate at Yale University.
Presenter at
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXIX, November 7th and 8th, 2026
Determining the Ages of Early Christian Manuscripts
One of the ongoing challenges to the study of ancient Christianity is the fact that we don’t actually know with certainty how old the earliest surviving Christian manuscripts actually are. Since the nineteenth century, the standard method for estimating the age of manuscripts has been the analysis of handwriting, a subjective enterprise that is not always reliable. More rigorous scientific tests also have drawbacks. Radiocarbon analysis is destructive and not always as precise as we might hope. But there are recent developments in this area that are exciting and promising. And there are also other (non-destructive) methods that have not been fully explored. This talk will bring us up to date on the questions surrounding the dates of early Christian manuscripts and present new research on one of the most important New Testament papyri.
