(ORDO NEWS) — The previous text of one of the chapters of the Bible was “hiding” under three layers of words written on an ancient manuscript. The researchers said that this discovery becomes a “gateway” to understanding the stages of the Bible’s evolution. This is reported by Business Insider.
Scientists have discovered the original version of a chapter of the Bible using ultraviolet light. It was hidden under another part of the text for over 1,500 years.
Historian Hryhoriy Kessel from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who participated in the study of the ancient manuscript, explained how exactly it was possible to discover the hidden text.
He said he used ultraviolet light to see earlier text beneath three layers of words written in palimpsest, a special type of ancient manuscript in which people wrote on top of other words.
Palimpsests were used in ancient times due to the scarcity of parchment, and words were written on it until several layers covered the hidden words underneath.
Kessel explained that the text was a previously unknown version of the 12th chapter of Matthew, which was originally part of the Old Syriac translation of the Bible about 1,500 years ago. He said he made the discovery in a manuscript kept in the Vatican Library.
For example, in the original Greek version of the Gospel of Matthew 12:1, which is most often used today, it says: “At that time Jesus was crossing the fields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck ears of corn and eat.” At the same time, the Syrian translation reads differently: “[…] they began to pluck the ears of corn, rub them with their hands and eat them.”
At the moment, this is the only known fragment of the fourth manuscript that testifies to the Old Syriac version.
The manuscript opens a unique opportunity for researchers to study the early stages of the textual evolution of the Bible and to demonstrate to believers some differences from modern translations of the text.
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