Early copies of the New Testament are very rare. The oldest, nearly complete copy dates to the 5th century and most substantial manuscript fragments come from no earlier than the 3rd century. Obbink was a decorated scholar who studied these earliest iterations of the Bible and headed the Papyri Project from 1998 to 2016.

In February 2012, speculation spread that the oldest known biblical fragment had been discovered and examined by a small and tight-lipped group of scholars and artifact dealers. Those who had seen it couldn’t say much about the so-called “First-Century Mark.” They all described the text as the first few verses from the Gospel, which was allegedly recorded in the first 100 years after the birth of Jesus. The lucky few who claimed to have laid eyes on the rare and invaluable artifact said they were bound by nondisclosure agreements to keep secret the identity of the Mark’s owner.