Summary: Hidden under multiple layers of writing, a Syriac New Testament chapter from around 1,750 years ago was recently discovered using ultraviolet photography.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” – Matthew 24:35 (ESV)
Long-Lost Bible Chapter Found
Using new technology, a long-lost chapter from the Gospel of Matthew was recently discovered underneath layers of writing. The previously unseen biblical text was an Old Syriac translation of the original Greek, written around 1,750 years ago, making it one of the earliest translations of the Gospels found so far!
More avenues of discovery are possible now due to new technology that allows researchers to effectually peel back lost layers of text and find the original history of ancient documents, giving insight into the earliest stages of Bible translation and those that wrote them.
The recent study was published in the journal New Testament Studies and Grigory Kessel, a medievalist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, explained its significance.
“The tradition of Syriac Christianity knows several translations of the Old and New Testaments,” Kessel said in a statement. “Until recently, only two manuscripts were known to contain the Old Syriac translation of the Gospels.”
One of these manuscripts is held in London’s British Library and the other is a palimpsest, a manuscript that has been written over, that was discovered in St. Catherine’s Monastery at the traditional location of Mount Sinai. The fragments from a third manuscript were recently identified and now this latest find is considered to be the fourth textual witness.
Sinai Palimpsests Project
Because parchment for writing was a scarce and valuable commodity during this time in history, it would often be reused. Scribes would erase or scratch off older texts to recycle the paper and then rewrite over it, sometimes multiple times. These lost or erased texts are called palimpsests.
By using the new ultraviolet photography technique, researchers are able to see under the newer texts to the writings that were there before, uncovering the oldest and original texts.
The latest discovery took place in the Vatican archives during one of the investigations by the Sinai Palimpsests Project which aims to recover these hidden texts that were overwritten by scribes between the 4th and 12th centuries.
The newly discovered texts were in a manuscript first uncovered in 1953, which was later retested in 2010. Now in 2023, more fragments have been found. Using the latest ultraviolet light technology revealed that the manuscript contained three levels of text with the original dating back to the 3rd century! This makes it a double palimpsest.
Differences in the Greek and Syriac Text
The only released content of the study so far is the first lines of Matthew chapter 12, which contain some interesting but minor differences from the first Greek texts, which add to but don’t change the meaning of the passage.
In the Greek translation, Matthew 12:1 says: “At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.” In comparison, the Syriac translation adds an extra detail and says they “began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them.”
This fragment offers a gateway to the very early phase in the history of the textual transmission of the Gospels. Syriac is a dialect of the Aramaic language that was adopted as the official language of the Persian Empire and was widely spoken in western Iran, Egypt, and the entire Levant region. Syriac was common in ancient Antioch, where the Apostle Paul began his missionary journeys and where believers were first called Christians. It was the first language that parts of the Greek New Testament were translated into.
Even though an additional phrase was present in one verse, the variation proves the rule that by normal standards, ancient manuscripts of New Testament texts were extremely consistent. By examining the entire body of thousands of ancient sources, it can be seen that the copying process produced reliable versions of the original biblical documents.
Dating the Syriac Manuscript
This Syriac text is suspected to originate in the 3rd century before being copied over by a scribe in Israel in the 6th century. This makes the original inscription at least a century older than the oldest Greek manuscripts known to exist.
The oldest complete version of the New Testament we have, the Codex Sinaiticus, dates from about 400 AD. It is one of the three oldest remaining codices which originally contained the entire Bible in Greek. The other two, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus, are from the same time period, according to Christoph Markschies, professor of ancient Christianity at the Humboldt University in Berlin and president of the Brandenburg-Berlin Academy of Sciences.
“Grigory Kessel has made a great discovery thanks to his profound knowledge of old Syriac texts and script characteristics,” said Claudia Rapp, director of the Institute for Medieval Research at the OeAW. “This discovery proves how productive and important the interplay between modern digital technologies and basic research can be when dealing with medieval manuscripts.”
The Value of the Oldest Biblical Manuscripts
This amazing discovery follows a recent record-breaking sale from the Sotheby’s auction house in New York where one of the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts sold for an astonishing $38.1 million, showcasing how valuable ancient biblical texts are.
Codex Sassoon is a 1,100-year-old leather-bound, handwritten and almost entirely complete Hebrew Bible, whose writing style suggests its creator was an early 10th-century scribe in Egypt or the Levant. However, exactly when and where it was made is still unknown.
“The Bible is one of the world’s greatest treasures and holds powerful resonance for the three monotheistic religions and their billions of adherents. For thousands of years, its sacred words have been closely studied, analyzed, and meditated on,” Sotheby’s said.
“Codex Sassoon, created circa 900, is the earliest surviving example of a single codex containing all the books of the Hebrew Bible with their punctuation, vowels, and accents,” Sotheby’s explained.
“The codex is named for its prominent modern owner, David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942), who assembled the largest and most important private collection of Hebrew manuscripts in the world and had a special affinity for Bibles in particular.”
Long recognized for its importance by scholars, Codex Sassoon underwent a worldwide tour before its sale on May 16, 2023. “Codex Sassoon is undeniably one of the most important and singular texts in human history,” wrote Sotheby’s. Its sale broke the record for the most expensive religious manuscript of all time.
Conclusion
“The Syriac translation of the Bible is important on its own as one of the earliest translations from Greek. It gives us insight into the earliest stages of the text of the Bible and the communities that produced these translations,” said Garrick Allen, a senior lecturer in New Testament studies at the University of Glasgow.
It is not the first time that types of palimpsests have been deciphered, but this recent one is very special because it dates so far back in history. Many are waiting for the rest of the revelations of the translation to be released.
This incredible discovery displays the importance of ultraviolet photography and how it can help uncover hidden secrets within ancient manuscripts, providing a unique opportunity for researchers to understand the diverse nature of Christianity in its formative years. It also helps underscore the uniform nature of the text’s transmission over vast periods of time. New technology continues to shed light on historical and religious texts, enriching our knowledge of the past and helping preserve it for the future.
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TOP PHOTO: The Syriac manuscript, chapters 11 – 12 in Matthew. (credit: Vatican Library)
