Oldest Gospel Manuscript: Secret Gospel of Mark or the Dead Sea Scrolls?

New technology has allowed for the recovery of previously unattainable ancient papyrus manuscripts. Among the finds is a fragment of the canonical Gospel of Mark. This fragment is preliminarily dated to around 90 C. E. The find is set to be published sometime in 2015. 

We have heard this type of thing before. The 1950s saw allegations of evidence for a Secret Gospel of Mark, though that turned out to be a hoax. The same time period also saw allegations that ancient biblical manuscripts had been found in the Dead Sea area; we now refer to these documents as The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). Though certain claims about the DSS turned out to be false, (ahem, DaVinci Code), this latter discovery in the Judean Desert turned out to be legitimately game-changing and a continuing source of exciting new research.

This newest find sounds more like the DSS than Morton Smith's Secret Gospel of Mark. Assuming that there are no further delays in publication, P52 may soon be dethroned as the earliest extant New Testament manuscript. Until then, it is too early to draw any reasonable conclusions about the latest find. The James Ossuary controvery suggests that conclusions are rarely definitive, even once the data has been made public.