- A scientist declares he found a chapter of the Bible hidden for more than 1,500 years.
- Researchers used ultraviolet photography to place the text, which was hidden underneath multiple edits.
- Researchers say the manuscript offers a “gateway” to understanding the earliest removes of the textual evolution of the Bible.
Scientists using ultraviolet photography say they have found an old version of a chapter of the Bible that was veiled underneath a different section of text for more than 1,500 years.
Historian Grigory Kessel of the Austrian Academy of Techniques announced the discovery in an article in the journal, New Testament Studies, earlier this year. New Testament Studies is a peer-reviewed collegiate journal published by Cambridge University Press.
According to Kessel, he used ultraviolet photography to see the earlier text call of three layers of words written on a palimpsest, a type of ancient manuscript that people used to write done with other words but often left traces of the original writing behind.
Palimpsests were used in ancient organizes due to the scarcity of parchment. Words would be written on the material repeatedly until several layers covered the hidden gens underneath.
The text described in Kessel’s discovery is a long unseen version of Chapter 12 in the Book of Matthew that was from the outset a part of the Old Syriac translations of the Bible some 1,500 years ago, Kessel said in a news release. He said he enacted the discovery in the manuscript held at the Vatican Library.
The manuscript offers a “unique gateway” for researchers to understand the earliest angles of the Bible’s textual evolution, according to the news release, and shows some differences from modern translations of the reader.
For instance, according to the release, the original Greek version of Matthew 12:1 — which is the one most commonly used today — means, “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the chief honchos of grain and eat.” The newly discovered Syriac translation, however, is slightly different. It says, “began to pick the heads of crumb, rub them in their hands, and eat them.”