WACO, TX — Dirk Obbink, a world famous lecturer in papyrology and former visiting Distinguished Professor at Baylor, is accused of stealing some of the world's oldest bible fragments and selling them to Hobby Lobby.
Papyrology is a study that focuses on ancient papyri. Obbink was formerly the head of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project and director of the Imaging Papyri Project at Oxford, in addition to being a visiting Distinguished Professor of Classics at Baylor the last several years.
According to the Washington Post, officials from the Papyri Project released results of a three-month investigation into Obbink's actions. The professor is accused of taking and selling at least 11of the world's oldest Bible fragments to the Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby and main contributors to Museum of the Bible at launch.
The Green Collection, named after the President of Hobby Lobby, is one of the world's largest collections of biblical antiquities and rare print and historical items related to the bible. Baylor has had the collection on display at its campus and as of 2011, was the primary academic partner for the Green Scholars Initiative.
The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) said in June they identified 13 texts from their collection, all with biblical related content, including 12 on papyrus, that were being held by the Museum of the Bible (MOTB).
"The MOTB has informed the EES that 11 of these pieces came into its care after being sold to Hobby Lobby Stores by Professor Obbink, most of them in two batches in 2010," according to the release.
Director of the Museum of the Bible’s Scholar’s Initiative Michael Holmes also says Professor Obbink, who was involved in the original publication of the fragment, appears to have sold a papyrus that belonged to the EES to Hobby Lobby in 2013.
According to Baylor Magazine, students there have participated in the practice of attempting to uncover ancient biblical fragments from Egyptian artifacts in an exercise.
There's also an account of Professor Dirk Obbink and Jeffrey Fish of Baylor, both affiliated with the Green Collection, dissolving ancient masks with students at a conference at Oxford. In 2011, Scott Carroll in his role as director of the Green Collection reportedly also performed an exercise with Baylor students where they dissolved exterior coverings of Egyptian artifacts to uncover ancient biblical texts.
"The goal, the students were told, was to remove fragments of the bible."
Green also provided scholarships for Baylor students to travel to the UK and other universities, as part of the Green Scholars Initiative, in order to learn more about how to "use their convictions as they rise to positions of influence as legal scholars, litigators, policy makers and judges."
This isn't the first time Hobby Lobby has come under fire.
Hobby Lobby was forced to forfeit 5,500 artifacts concealed as "ceramics" and "samples" and illegally shipped to Hobby Lobby stores -- and had been warned by lawyers and the Department of Justice that the artifacts carried the risk of being looted from archaeological sites in Iraq. They also had to pay a $3 million fine to resolve the action the Justice Department brought against Hobby Lobby.
An anonymous group has also asked Brigham Young University for an investigation into another alleged tie between a professor of ancient scripture and Hobby Lobby, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.
Obbink owned an actual castle in Waco, Texas near Baylor University for a while, until he sold it to famous TV-couple Chip and Joanna, who are in the process of renovating it.
Obbink is accused of taking items from Oxford’s Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project, which includessome of the oldest bible fragments in the world, such as a second-century fragment of the Gospel of Mark found in a garbage dump in Egypt. The fragments include also included parts of Genesis, Psalms and an ancient copy of the Ten Commandments from when Green was reportedly building his private collection early on.
Catalogue cards and photographs of the texts were also removed from the Oxford collection.
In a Baylor release, Baylor Professor Jeffrey Fish discusses viewing second-century fragments found in the Green Collection in 2012:
"In your work on documentary papyri you won't always have that flash of, 'Wow, this is important,' but you can nevertheless work on the texts skillfully and faithfully," Fish told students. "Sometimes the importance of what we are doing with materials from The Green Collection is immediately apparent. In other cases we can't see how it fits into the larger picture, but perhaps someday someone will."
In addition to the documentary material, scholars are mentoring students in the process of editing some of the earliest fragments of the New Testament. "Some of them date to the second century, which puts them among the earliest we have. It's remarkable," Fish said.
Jeffrey said that among other discoveries are fragments of copies of some of St. Augustine's commentaries on John's gospel and the Psalms, as well as an assemblage of verses from Psalms 3 written in a 10th-century Carolingian handwriting but annotated by a later theologian "in a robust 14th-century hand."
The bible museum says the items were acquired in good faith and are working to return them to the Egypt Exploration Society. The EES then plans to once again store them on the Oxford Campus, according to the Post.
