How, then, did King explain her failure to investigate provenance amid multiple warnings from colleagues? Why didn’t she do a single scientific test before launching a publicity blitz for the papyrus? Why didn’t she consult a senior Coptic papyrologist, as Roger Bagnall suggested, after the peer reviewer questioned the fragment’s handwriting? Why did she soft-pedal the implausible eighth-century date, seek to sidetrack Depuydt’s rebuttal, refuse to release provenance documents, and bar reporters from contacting other scientists? If this wasn’t “marginalizing the parts one doesn’t like,” what
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