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Bible Chapter Lost 1,500 Years Ago Found Using UV Light. PHOTO/Vatican Library
ANOTHER – For scientist has found a hidden chapter that has been lost for a long time bible text nearly 1,500 years after it was first written. The missing passages are one of the earliest translations of the Bible, according to research published recently in the journal New Testament Studies.
Ultraviolet photography was used to find chapters hidden under three layers of text by researchers, including Grigory Kessel of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The technology used is able to reveal chapters that have not been seen so far.
Claudia Rapp, Director of the Institute for Medieval Research at OeAW, applauded Kessel’s findings. “This discovery proves how productive and important the interaction between modern digital technologies and basic research can be when dealing with medieval manuscripts,” said Rapp.
Researchers say the fragment is so far the only known fourth manuscript remains attesting to the Old Syriac version, offering a “unique gateway” to an early phase in the history of the textual transmission of the Bible.
“To date, only two manuscripts are known to contain Old Syriac translations of the Bible,” said Kessel, as quoted by the Independent, Wednesday (12/4/2023).
One is in the British Library in London and the other was found in St Catherine’s Abbey on Mount Sinai. Researchers say the newly discovered text is an interpretation of the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew which was originally translated as part of an Old Syriac translation about 1,500 years ago.
“As far as the dating of the Bible is concerned, there can be no doubt that it was produced no later than the sixth century,” the scientists wrote in the study.
“Although the number of manuscripts dating from this period is limited, comparison with Syriac manuscripts allows us to narrow the possible time frame to the first half of the sixth century,” they added.
Due to the scarcity of parchment in the region some 1,300 years ago, pages were frequently reused, mostly by erasing the previous Bible text.
(esn)
