A fragment of the Gospel of Mark dating to AD 80 has been discovered with the remains of an Egyptian mummy.
This could be powerful ammunition for Christian apologetics, or a complete waste of papyrus. Let’s review the evidence.
So far, pride of place for the earliest New Testament manuscript is a fragment of the Gospel of John displayed at the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Practically all scholars support a date c.AD 120, meaning that this fragment is within a generation of the original writing of the gospel.