Posted on 04/20/2023 6:18:02 PM PDT by marshmallow
Researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) have discovered a small manuscript fragment of the Syriac translation of the New Testament, which is one of the oldest textual witnesses of the Gospels. The fragment was produced in the 3rd century and copied in the 6th century. The discovery of the fragment is an important piece of the puzzle in New Testament history.
Grigory Kessel, a medievalist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, was able to identify the fragment with the help of ultraviolet photography. The fragment was found as the third layer of text, or double palimpsest, in the Vatican Library manuscript. The discovery of the fragment makes it the fourth textual witness to attest to the Old Syriac version.
The Syriac translation was produced at least a century before the oldest Greek manuscripts that have survived, including the Codex Sinaiticus. The earliest surviving manuscripts with this Syriac translation date from the 6th century and are preserved in the erased layers, so-called palimpsests, of newly written parchment leaves.
According to medievalist Grigory Kessel, “The tradition of Syriac Christianity knows several translations of the Old and New Testaments. Until recently, only two manuscripts were known to contain the Old Syriac translation of the gospels.” While one of these is now kept in the British Library in London, another was discovered as a palimpsest in St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai. The fragments from the third manuscript were recently identified in the course of the “Sinai Palimpsests Project”.
(Excerpt) Read more at syriacpress.com ...
palimpsest ping
Isn’t there some thought that Matthew was originally written in Syriac and then translated to Greek? Amazing if this could be the original gospel text.
Yes, if I remember right, Eusebius tells us that Matthew wrote down the “Sayings” (ta logia) of the Lord in the Hebrew tongue and then people then translated it into Greek.
And “Hebrew” probably meant Aramaic here.
Most, if not all, of the Gospels were written before 100 AD, iirc.
ALL 4 gospels are referred to before 100 AD, which tells us that all 4 that we refer to, were written before 100 AD
The Synoptic gospels date to before the destruction of the 2nd temple.
The Gospel as per John was written later - probably the late 80s AD, but still before the end of the century.
The Gnostic “gospels” mostly date to the 2nd or 3rd centuries - 200 to 300 years after the Crucifixion
Thanks marshmallow!
Adding, not pinging, 'cause...
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