Called by some an “Indiana Jones,” Daniel Wallace to detail new discoveries made with the help of an Eden Prairie pastor           

By John Molene

It might be a bit of a stretch to call Dr. Daniel Wallace the “Indiana Jones” of our generation, as the Rev. Jac Perrin of Eden Prairie Assembly describes him.

A bit of a stretch, perhaps, but only a bit.

“When he is not trekking through the stacks of ancient European libraries looking for lost treasures, Dr. Wallace teaches at Dallas Theological Seminary,” said Perrin, who will host Wallace for a series of events in Eden Prairie April 19 and 20. “He is one of the top New Testament scholars of our day.”

Wallace is a professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, where he teaches Greek grammar and syntax, textual criticism, early Christology and elective courses in various New Testament books.

His “Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament,” has become a standard textbook in colleges and seminaries. He is the senior New Testament editor of the NET Bible. Wallace is also the Executive Director for the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts.

In additional to a lengthy list of scholarly articles (www.bible.org/author/php?author_id=1#), Wallace is also well known for his efforts to locate and photograph early Christian texts. He founded The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, an institute with an initial purpose to preserve scripture by taking digital photographs of all known Greek New Testament manuscripts.

Wallace is scheduled to speak at both a lecture to local scholars, and at two services at Eden Prairie Assembly April 19 and 20. On Saturday, Wallace will give a lecture to scholars and other interested parties at a free luncheon at Eden Prairie Assembly, 16591 Duck Lake Trail. On Sunday, Wallace will speak at the 8:30 and 11 services, and also at Sunday school.

Wallace will focus on a recent discovery and tell of his plans for the coming year.

“Every year one or two biblical manuscripts are discovered tucked away in some remote library somewhere in the world,” said Perrin. “Last year, however, 16 millennium-old Bibles were found in the State Archives of Albania by a scholar many consider to the ‘Indiana Jones’ of our generation.”

Wallace is visiting Eden Prairie in large part because Perrin played a key role in the discovery of the Albania manuscripts.

Working on his doctoral thesis on ancient Biblical manuscripts, Perrin said he spent two years trying to get in contact with someone in authority in Albania.

“I tried the minister of culture, the president, the American embassy, the Albanian embassy and got nowhere,” Perrin recalled.

Perrin’s luck changed when he contacted two Assembly of God missionaries who were working in Albania. Through them, he was able to hire native Albanians who were able to track down the manuscripts he was looking for and put him in contact with officials at the library of the National Archive.

“That opened up the door,” Perrin said.

The upcoming ‘Christianity Today,’ issue is to include a 20-page spread dealing with Wallace and what many in the scholarly community are calling the discovery of the century, Perrin noted.               

“This is material that really wasn’t accessible to the scholarly community for last 1,000 years,” Perrin noted. “This stuff was really off the radar. It’s not going to change the bible, but it does provide a different form to the Gospel of John. There are 16 new manuscripts and many of them are gospels. One thousand years ago, they wouldn’t have put the Bible into one single book. Most [manuscripts] were circulating in the form of gospels, or gospel and acts.”

The discovery in Albania has many biblical scholars excited.

“They’ve always known stuff was over there, but nobody was able to get to it,” said Perrin.

Writing in a paper for the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM), Wallace wrote: “As of June 2007, 13 Greek New Testament manuscripts were known to exist in the National Archive in Tirana, Albania. Western scholars had tried for decades to gain access to them. There were few success stories. A large part of the reason was due to the fact that Albania is a former police state. Only two of the manuscripts had ever been photographed, both with microfilm decades ago. Things changed dramatically in July.”

Among the finds discovered n Albania were four manuscripts from around the year 1,200, including a different version of the Gospel of John.

“We  can compare these manuscripts and see trends we’ve never see before,” Perrin noted.

While the manuscripts are obviously a fascinating find to Biblical scholars, they eventually can shed new light on topics of interest to the average Christian.

“It helps to further refine the quality of the Bible that the average pastor uses,” Perrin said. “While it’s mostly dealing with spelling, and idioms, there are some very interesting theological differences in some parts, such as Chapter 4 in John.”

“When I’m looking at it, it tells me a lot about church history. It tells about Christ’s compassion for the underdog who stood up to the educated elite.”