This discovery has provided a "unique gateway" into how the Bible has changed over time. (AP Photo/Chris Gardner)ASSOCIATED PRESS





By Claudia Dimuro | cdimuro@pennlive.com
A scientist has discovered a new chapter of the Bible.

This chapter was reportedly hidden under some other text in a very old manuscript kept at the Vatican, a discovery which remained overlooked for roughly 1,500 years.

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Popular Mechanics reports how medievalist Grigory Kessel of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) managed to unearth this ancient Syrian chapter — an unseen interpretation of Chapter 12 of the book of Matthew — thanks to UV technology.


According to a paper published in the journal New Testament Studies, the chapter was beneath three layers of text on something which is known as a palimpsest, which, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased.”

Business Insider explains that palimpsests were used way back when due to how scarce parchment used to be, hence the reason why different texts are stacked on top of one another.

This ancient iteration of this chapter, explains Fox News, is suspected to be one of the earliest translations of the Gospels, “first created in the 3rd century and copied in the 6th century.”

“The tradition of Syriac Christianity knows several translations of the Old and New Testaments,” says Kessel via press release. “Until recently, only two manuscripts were known to contain the Old Syriac translation of gospels.

This new (so to speak) text thus, says Kessel, offers a “unique gateway” to further historians’ understanding of the Bible’s changes over time.

This text will be studied further.