Scientists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences managed to find an ancient chapter of the biblical treatise, written more than 1.5 thousand years ago.
According to New Testament Studies, the discovery was made through the use of ultraviolet rays, which helped reveal parchment in the Vatican library, hidden under three layers of later texts. This chapter is one of the earliest known translations of the Gospel.
The discovered list turned out to be an Old Syriac translation of the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and to date only three examples of such Old Syriac translations have been found. One of them is kept in the British Library in London, another was found by scientists in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and another was discovered as part of the “Sinai Palimpsest Project”.
Experts are confident that the found parchment dates back to no later than the 6th century, and is the same age as the oldest complete manuscript of the New Testament, which is called the Greek Codex Sinaiticus. Earlier dates only refer to palimpsests, which are reused parchments where other writings were written over the pages of biblical texts. However, the use of modern research methods has helped scholars discover and reconstruct these texts.
The Vatican Library houses one of the largest and richest collections of documents in the world, including manuscripts, printed books, maps, photographs, medals, numismatic collections and other valuables. It contains more than 1.1 million books and documents, including many rare and ancient items.