Here is a list of projects currently in process and in need of funding:
Expedition: The Bodleian Library, Oxford
The venerated library at the University of Oxford is one of the oldest in Europe and houses the largest collection of pre-1500 printed books and parchment manuscripts. They have at least 105 Greek New Testament manuscripts.
Our team has completed the examination of the first 50 manuscripts, and we need funds to complete the digitization phase of the project.
Project: AI for Manuscript Transcription
Textual Criticism has the primary goal of reconstructing the original text of the New Testament by comparing and contrasting the contents of many individual manuscripts. To do this, scholars need a reliable transcription—a searchable digital file—of each manuscript to be used.
CSNTM proposes to train an AI model to read the text of ancient Greek manuscripts and put that text into digital, searchable form.
The primary output of this project will be a sophisticated tool made available to New Testament scholars to study the text more fully. Your investment in this cutting-edge scholarship will help demonstrate the reliability of the New Testament in unprecedented ways.
Project: Dan Wallace Video Series
The viability of the New Testament text is under attack by some high-profile personalities using the power of the Internet, video platforms, and social media. Dan Wallace and CSNTM are uniquely positioned to answer the lies of radical skeptics and to restore confidence in the New Testament Text using evidence and reason.
CSNTM proposes to launch a video series featuring Dr. Wallace in extended, lay-level conversation with guest scholars on important issues and recent developments in New Testament studies. The style and tone will be similar to “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which engages guests in casual conversation.
Startup cost includes hiring or contracting a producer and/or media firm to help with scheduling, editing, promoting, and then launching the series.
Expedition: New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
In 2022, CSNTM began a multi-year collaboration with the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to digitize a collection of 1,842 microfilm rolls containing New Testament manuscripts in multiple languages, and to digitize a collection of historic papers from the International Greek New Testament Project (IGNTP) dating back to the 1950s.
This trove of manuscript and historic material is of great interest to researchers today.
CSNTM Text & Manuscript Conference
Every 2 years, CSNTM hosts a gathering of international New Testament scholars in Plano, Texas to advance the field of New Testament textual studies. Conferences like this take place in Europe, but are not accessible to scholars based in the United States due to the cost of international travel. To our knowledge, the CSNTM conference is the only one of its kind in North America.
Attendees of a recent conference described it as “life-changing.”
Project: The Biblion Conference
Faithful Christians are under assault. Radical skeptics have recently targeted non-academic Christians with aggressive marketing for teaching that positions the New Testament as a collection of forgeries that have been hopelessly corrupted, and therefore completely unreliable witnesses to the life and teaching of Jesus.
CSNTM proposes to host larger, in-person events called “The Biblion Conference” in venues around the United States. This 2-day gathering will present the content of the lecture series in plenary sessions featuring high-profile guest presenters and in breakout sessions. The conference will include a display area for vendors.
Project: Biblion Course Development
Many Christians love the Bible and endeavor to order their lives by its teaching, but very few know how the text of the New Testament has been faithfully preserved through the centuries. Consequently, they and their children remain susceptible to the false claims of radical skeptics and aggressive atheists, whose most recent efforts have targeted unsuspecting Christians for fleecing.
Over the next 2 years, CSNTM proposes to develop new courses for the Biblion Lecture Series to better equip non-scholars with knowledge of the New Testament, to build confidence in the reliability of the New Testament, and to inoculate non-scholars against the false claims of radical skeptics.
