Researchers have found a hidden chapter of the biblical text dating back to the 6th century AD. The fragment is a translation of the Gospel into Old Syriac, writing edition of The Independent.
Historians led by Gregory Kessel of the Austrian Academy of Sciences used ultraviolet light to read the chapter hidden under three layers of later text. Reusing the same pages over and over again was common practice in the early Middle Ages due to a shortage of parchment. At the same time, the old text was erased.
Scientists claim that the discovered text is an Old Syriac translation of chapter 12 of the Gospel of Matthew.
“Until recently, only two manuscripts were known to contain the Syriac translation of the Gospels. One of these documents is in the British Library in London, and another was found at Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai,” says Dr Kessel.
The discovered text does not present major discrepancies with the canonical version of the Gospel, although it contains details hitherto unknown. Thus, in the traditional version of the Gospel of Matthew, it is said: “At that moment Jesus was going through the fields sown on the Sabbath day; His disciples got hungry and started ripping their ears off and eating. In the Discovery Version of the Bible in Old Syriac there is a clarification: “…they began to pluck their ears, rub them with their hands, and eat.”
As for the dating of the manuscript, historians attribute it to the 6th century AD. “Despite the limited number of manuscripts dated to this period, comparison with other documents narrows the possible period to the first half of the 6th century,” the scientists explain.
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