Among the materials utilised to reinforce the cover of Codex VII from Nag Hammadi there are three inscribed papyrus fragments containing definite dates: a receipt dated 341 A.D., another of 346, and a deed of surety dated to 348. This provides a clear and unambiguous terminus a quo for the manufacture of this codex, although the fixing of a more precise date remains problematical. We do not know how long a receipt would be retained before it was discarded for use as scrap. As it happens, there is one case among the fragments from the cover of this codex in which the recipient of a letter has used the verso for a letter of his own. Neither however is dated, so that we do not know the interval between them. They therefore provide no help in this respect.

Of those who in the 19th Century applied the historical method to the study of the New Testament and the early church none were more important than Ferdinand Christian Baur and Joseph Barber Lightfoot. My intention in this paper is to compare them and the outstanding contributions they made to our knowledge of the period with which they dealt. I do this in the hope of recalling for our profit some of the history of New Testament study and of making the point that New Testament study is, or ought to be, a field for international cooperation rather than international rivalry. At first I hoped that my method, of considering what each of these great men made of a particularly obscure piece of New Testament history, might lead not only to deeper understanding of how historians work but also to a fresh consideration and evaluation of the piece in question; it has proved impossible to go so far within the space available. My underlying concern is, however, with the problem of early Christian history. My title I borrow from the Latin version of a tract by Lucian, Πως δείἱστορίαν συγγρ⋯φειν. Lucian will, to my regret, occupy a smaller part of the paper than I originally intended, but having borrowed the title I cannot omit him altogether.

Il est fait allusion aux Juifs de Rome en deux endroits du Nouveau Testament: dans l'Epître aux Romains et dans les Actes des Apôtres. Le plus explicite de ces deux textes est le passage final des Actes (28. 16–31), consacré aux deux années durant lesquelles l'Apôtre Paul séjourna à Rome sous garde militaire. Et il est intéressant de remarquer que dans ce passage Luc oublie complètement la communauté chrétienne, qui devait pourtant exister et être très vivante, comme le prouve la longue Lettre précédemment adressée par l'Apôtre à cette même communauté. L'attention se concentre seulement sur les Juifs de la Ville. En outre, déjà dans Rm. les termes 'Iουδαιος (11 fois) et 'Iσρα⋯λ (11 fois aussi) étaient plus caractéristiques que dans tout autre écrit paulinien, en même temps que certains thèmes typique en rapport étroit avec la problématique suscitée par la position du Judaïsme à l'égard du nouveau message évangelique. Il est certainement permis d'apercevoir là un signe d'attention spéciale de la part de Paul non seulement à l'égard du peuple d'Israël en général, mais en particulier envers cette communauté chrétienne de Rome, qui était d'origine juive, sinon envers les Juifs romains eux-mêmes.

For the members of this Society one need not belabour the significance of Origen's NT quotations both for the history of the NT text in general as well as for the local texts of Alexandria and Caesarea in particular. Indeed his erudition, prolific writings and long residence both in Alexandria and Caesarea combine to give him a unique place in the history of this discipline.