Medievalist Gregory Kessel managed to find the oldest translation of the gospel chapter when he examined documents in the Vatican book depositories. According to Gismeteo, the find was hidden in one of the oldest translations of the Gospel, whose age is more than 1700 years.
The chapter came to light through the Sinai Palimpsests research program. Experts participating in it restore once erased or rewritten texts in the range of the 4th-12th centuries. n. e.
Restoration of the lost scriptures today is possible thanks to the use of fluorescent light radiation, as well as light with different wavelengths.
Scientists have already deciphered 74 documents using this technique, but the latest discovery deserves special attention: it concerns a translation made a century earlier of the oldest known Greek translations, including the Codex Sinaiticus.
According to Kessel, this is an ancient Syriac translation. It was made in the 3rd century and then rewritten in the 6th century. The document contains more details than the Greek version of the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. For example, the Greek version tells how the hungry disciples of Christ pick spikelets in the field and eat them. In the Syrian version, it is specified that they do not just chew the ears, but first rub the grains in their palms.
According to medieval specialist Claudia Rapp, Kessel’s discovery demonstrates the productivity and importance of the interaction between advanced digital tools and fundamental approaches to the study of medieval manuscripts.
Source: Rosbalt
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