How an American Coal Miner Acquired Sacred Biblical Papyri

The Chester Beatty Library was once one of Dublin’s best-kept secrets. I often found myself the only visitor when I went there as a student. The library was tucked away in the leafy Dublin suburb of Ballsbridge, on Shrewsbury Road, amidst foreign embassies and the wealthiest homes in the city. Going there was like a pilgrimage. As I passed through the doors, time dropped away. Whole eras were evoked by choice pieces in the library’s galleries. But the greatest lure for an apprentice archaeologist like me was the Chester Beatty Papyri, a collection of Greek biblical manuscripts dating as […]