Scientists were able to read the hidden text of the Bible thanks to ultraviolet light
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A chapter of the Bible that was hidden for more than 1,500 years was read using ultraviolet light. This is reported by Science Alert. Using ultraviolet radiation, scientists have found an old version of a Bible chapter that was hidden under another part of the text. Historian Hryhoriy Kessel of the Austrian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery in the journal New Testament Studies. A fragment of the Syriac translation of the New Testament in ultraviolet According to Kessel, he used ultraviolet irradiation to see the earlier text under three layers of records on the palimpsest. This is a type of ancient manuscript that people wrote in multiple layers, but often left traces of the original text. Palimpsests were used in ancient times due to the scarcity of parchment. The text described in Kessel’s discovery is a long-unknown version of chapter 12 in the Book of Matthew, which was originally part of the Old Syriac translations of the Bible about 1.5 thousand years ago. The discovery was made in a manuscript kept in the Vatican library. “The manuscript offers researchers a ‘unique way’ to understand the early stages of the Bible’s textual evolution and shows some differences from modern translations of the text,” the study said in a release. For example, in the original Greek version of Matthew 12:1, which is currently the most common, it says: “Then Jesus was walking through the fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples were hungry and began to gather ears of corn and eat.” However, a recently discovered Syriac translation is slightly different. It says: “They began to gather ears of corn, rub them in their hands and eat them.” Read also: The Bible and “The Lord of the Rings” are the most popular books in the USA
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