(ORDO NEWS) — The ancient chapter of the biblical treatise, written more than 1.5 thousand years ago, was found by scientists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
According to New Testament Studies, the discovery was made through the use of ultraviolet rays, which helped reveal parchment in the Vatican library, hidden under three layers of later texts.
This chapter is one of the earliest known translations of the Gospel.
The discovered copy turned out to be the Old Syriac translation of Matthew 12, and only three examples of such Old Syriac translations have been found to date.
One of them is kept in the British Library in London, another was found by scientists in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and another was discovered as a detail of the Sinai Palimpsest Project.
Experts are confident that the found parchment dates from no later than the 6th century, and is the same age as the oldest complete manuscript of the New Testament, which is called the Greek Codex Sinaiticus.
Earlier dates refer only to palimpsests, which are parchments reused with other writings written over the pages of biblical texts.
However, the use of modern research methods has helped scientists to discover and restore these texts.
The Vatican Library houses one of the largest and richest collections of documents in the world, including manuscripts, printed books, maps, photographs, medals, numismatic collections and other valuables.
It contains over 1.1 million books and documents, including many rare and ancient copies.
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