The Strength Of The New Testament Text Without First-Century Manuscripts

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the fragment of Mark that some people had dated to the first century. It's important to keep in mind how much evidence we have for the New Testament text even without any first-century manuscripts. That includes a lot of evidence that's seldom discussed (how the transmission of the documents would have been monitored by the authors, corroboration of the text from early non-Christian sources, etc.). See here.

Putting "1C fragment of Mark" in perspective

https://www.michaeljkruger.com/is-there-a-first-century-fragment-of-marks-gospel-apparently-not/#more-6789

Gag rule

The debacle about the "1C fragment of Mark" raises questions about the wisdom and ethics of nondisclosure agreements in scholarship. How widespread is this practice? Is there a danger that scholars will be required to sign nondisclosure agreements to function in the guild? What if a scholar signs a nondisclosure agreement, then has second thoughts or changes his mind as he becomes aware of new evidence, but is not at liberty to publicly revise his position due to the gag rule? 

This damages Wallace's credibility while giving Bart Ehrman an unmerited boost:

https://ehrmanblog.org/we-do-not-have-a-first-century-copy-of-the-gospel-of-mark/

Craig Evans put his reputation on the line as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kPgACbtRRs

Evans spearheaded a Fragments of Truth documentary. Does the "1C fragment of Mark" figure in that documentary? 

The “First Century Gospel of Mark” Fragment Seems to Be in Good Hands

Michael Holmes

Some of you may recall that Michael Holmes, a scholar of early Christian writings (recently of Princeton Theological Seminary) and the translator and editor of The Apostolic Fathers in English and The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, had been named executive director of The Green Scholars Initiative, and will be overseeing the Museum of the Bible’s research projects around the world.

Holmes recently issued this statement on the question of “How Soon Will It Be Published?”, that is, “when will we know more about the alleged First Century Gospel of Mark?”:

With regard to any ancient artifact, answering questions such as these requires one to balance several complementary and sometimes competing interests. These interests include the need: (1) to acknowledge the privacy and ownership rights of the owner of the artifact; (2) to minimize distractions for the researcher investigating the artifact; and (3) to satisfy the legitimate curiosity of the scholarly community and other public audiences …

A Timeline Regarding First-Century Mark

Here's a timeline James Snapp has put together for developments surrounding the alleged first-century fragment of Mark's gospel.

"Stop talking about a first-century fragment of the Gospel of Mark!" - Larry Hurtado

This statement sums up Larry Hurtado's opinion on all this hearsay. I agree with him. Here are his reasons to stop talking about it:

https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/a-first-century-copy-of-the-gospel-of-mark/