Scientists have found a hidden chapter of the Bible more than 1,500 years ago

Scientists found a The “hidden chapter” of my text wrote before More than 1,500 years old through an application UV light on manuscript. According to what was published by the magazine New Testament Studiesit’s a palimpsest and it was Masked behind two layers of writing.

The use of this light has become very popular because it allows messages that are not there to be detected by the naked eye, but remain imprinted on the paper, no matter how many times it is reused.

The page contains chapters 11 to 12 affiliate Gospel of Matthew – A disciple of Jesus who was a tax collector-, with more detail than the current standard Bible text, according to daily Mail.

Researchers have not yet revealed the complete translation written in the language Old Syriac. as commented Gregory Kessela medieval scholar from the Austrian Academy of Sciences who co-discovered “the translation of Syriac Christianity knows several translations of the Old and New Testaments. Until recently, only two manuscripts were known containing the Old Syriac translation of the Gospels.

In the Greek version of Matthew 12, the first verse says: “At that time, Jesus passed through the fields on the Sabbath day, and His hungry disciples began to gather ears of grain and eat”; While the Syriac translation says:[…] They began to pick nails, rub them with their hands and eat them.

The remaining verses have not yet been revealed, so it is possible that new parts will be revealed.

The initial text was written vis III century But they were erased by a scribe in Palestine, a common practice because paper made from animal skin was in short supply. Later, it was transcribed in the eighteenth century. opinion.

Anyway, the manuscript was actually discovered by a group of researchers at 1953 And discovered in 2010. Later 2020were digitized and included in the Vatican Library, although the existence of this chapter was only now known.

Two of the texts known to be ancient Syriac translations are distributed throughout the world, one of which is in The British Library in London and the other in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai – The oldest in continuous operation -. Meanwhile, a third character is framed Tarus Sinai project It’s also in the library there.

This is why Kessel’s discovery is considered “Fourth Textual Witness” It was celebrated by the director of the Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Claudia Raab: “This discovery shows how productive and important the interaction between modern digital technologies and basic research can be when it comes to medieval manuscripts.”.

For his part, Dr Garrick Allen, Senior Lecturer in the Study of the New Testament at the University of Glasgow said, daily Mail That this fact can Provide a clearer idea of ​​the first translations of the Bible and the groups that produced them. Professor Hugh Houghton, of the University of Birmingham’s Department of Theology and Religion, added: “As so few manuscripts survive from the first centuries, we welcome all the pieces to reconstruct the puzzle of the history of the text.”

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