A 1,750-year-old New Testament document was found in the Vatican Library.
Eyes are therefore not only on the small state because of Easter.
Vatican City — At Easter, the Vatican and Pope Francis play a particularly important role for many Catholics.
Thousands of believers make a pilgrimage to the Vatican to experience the blessing "Urbi et orbi" live at St. Peter's Basilica.
However, it is not only Catholics who are looking at the small state in Rome.
A researcher discovered a 1,750-year-old fragment of the New Testament in the Vatican library.
It is the oldest Bible document that has been found so far.
Sensational find in the Vatican: researchers discover remains of a fourth Bible manuscript - 1750 years old
It was a researcher from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) who found the 1,750-year-old translation of the New Testament.
The two pages are almost entirely the 12th chapter of Matthew, medievalist Grigory Kessel, whose work appeared in the journal New Testament Studies, said on Thursday (April 6).
The fragment is the only known remnant of a fourth manuscript that attests to the old Syriac version.
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A researcher discovered a 1,750-year-old New Testament fragment in the Vatican Library.
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It offers unique access to the very early tradition of the gospel texts, as the OeAW announced.
According to the OeAW, the Syriac translation was written at least a century before the oldest surviving Greek manuscripts.
Among other things, the chapter deals with behavior on the Sabbath.
“At that time Jesus was walking through the cornfields on a Sabbath.
His disciples were hungry;
so they tore off ears of corn and ate from it.
The Pharisees saw it and said to him: Look, your disciples are doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath,” says the piece, as reported by fr.de.
Vatican: 1,750-year-old Bible document discovered in the Vatican library
The text was discovered using ultraviolet photography and was hidden in a twice-rewritten manuscript.
The translation took place in the second or third century.
A scribe in Palestine erased the original book of the Gospels, which was inscribed with the Syriac text, about 1,300 years ago, according to the Academy.
Capital city | Citta del Vaticano |
head of state | Pope Francis |
head of government | Fernando Cardinal Vergez Alzaga |
official language | Italian and Latin |
Resident | 801 (as of 2020) |
Parchment was scarce in the desert in the Middle Ages, which is why manuscripts were often reused.
According to the OeAW, only three manuscripts containing the Old Syriac translation of the gospels were known until recently.
The small manuscript fragment that has now been found can be regarded as the fourth textual testimony.
Pope Francis has recently been struggling with health problems and was even hospitalized.
(vk/dpa)
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