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Researchers discover a hidden chapter of the Bible written 1,500 years ago using UV light
A long-lost chapter of the Bible erased more than 1,500 years ago has been rediscovered beneath three layers of text using ultraviolet (UV) light—and it’s one of the oldest translations of the Gospels.
The manuscript is chapters 11 through 12 in Matthew and is one of only four manuscripts found in ancient Syriac manuscripts.
While it describes scenes written in Matthew’s Greek chapter, the text translates more details that experts say “provide a unique gateway to the very early phase in the history of the textual transmission of the Gospels.”
Scientists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences found the manuscript in the Vatican library, which, when exposed to UV light, illuminated the hidden text erased by a scribe in ancient Palestine.
This process has become popular among scientists hoping to uncover secret documents, as the hidden text absorbs the light and glows bluish.
The team believes the parchment was reused for the Apophthegmata patrum in Greek, translated as “Sayings of the Fathers.”
The Desert Fathers were early Christian hermits who practiced asceticism in the Egyptian desert.
They did so around the 3rd century and eventually formed the basis of Christian monastic life.
The Apophthegmata patrum is a collection of over 1000 of their stories and sayings and dates from the late fifth and early sixth centuries.
The hidden Bible chapter was discovered by a so-called palimpsest Grigory Kessel, who said it is one of the earliest translations of the Gospels, made in the 3rd century and copied in the 6th century, on separate surviving pages of this manuscript.
“The tradition of Syrian Christianity has different translations of the Old and New Testaments,” Kessel said in an email rack.
“Until recently only two manuscripts were known to contain the Old Syriac translation of the Gospels.”
While researchers haven’t revealed a full translation of the newly found chapter, they shared some of their findings.
Scientists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences found the manuscript in the Vatican library (pictured)
While the original Greek of Matthew chapter 12, verse 1 says, “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath through the fields of wheat; and his disciples became hungry and began to pluck ears of corn and eat,” says the Syriac translation, “[…] started plucking the ears, rubbing them in their hands and eating them,” the team said in a statement.
The Syriac translation was written at least a century before the oldest surviving Greek manuscripts, including the Codex Sinaiticus – the fourth-century Christian manuscript of the Greek Bible.
“The earliest surviving manuscripts containing this Syriac translation date from the 6th century and are preserved in the erased layers, called palimpsests, of newly written parchment leaves,” researchers shared.