Scientists using ultraviolet photography say they’ve found an old version of a chapter of the Bible hidden under another passage of text for more than 1,500 years.
Historian Grigory Kessel of the Austrian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery in an article in the journal. Studies in the New Testamentearlier this year. Studies in the New Testament is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by Cambridge University Press.
According to Kessel, he used ultraviolet photography to see the earlier text beneath three layers of words written on a palimpsest, a type of palimpsest old manuscript that people used to overwrite other words, but often left traces of the original writing.
Palimpsests were used in antiquity due to the scarcity of parchment. Words were repeatedly written on the material until several layers covered the words hidden underneath.
The text described in Kessel’s discovery is a long-unpublished version of chapter 12 in the book of Matthew, which was originally part of the Old Syriac Bible translations about 1,500 years ago, Kessel said a press release. He said he made the discovery in the manuscript kept in the Vatican Library.
The manuscript offers researchers a “unique approach” to understanding the earliest stages of textual development of the Bible, the press release says, and features some differences from modern translations of the text.
For example, according to the press release, the original Greek version of Matthew 12:1—which is most commonly used today—states: “Jesus was walking through the cornfields on the Sabbath day; and his disciples became hungry and began to hunger.” Gather the ears of corn and eat them.
However, the newly discovered Syriac translation is slightly different. It says: “Began to pluck the ears of corn, rub them in his hands and eat them.”
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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