Scientists have made a historic discovery in the Vatican Library. A 1,500-year-old and still unknown chapter of the Bible was hidden under three layers of text.
No, this is not the beginning of a new installment in the Da Vinci Code saga. According to a study published in the journal New Testament Studies and picked up by the Independent, scientists have discovered a text hidden in a manuscript in the library of the Vatican, seat of the Catholic Church.
1,500 years old, this still unknown chapter of the Bible was covered by three layers of text. A common practice at the time when parchment was a scarce commodity. Scientists have used ultraviolet light to unlock the mysteries of this document. “This discovery proves how fruitful and important the interaction of modern digital technologies and basic research can be in medieval manuscripts,” says Claudia Rapp, Director of the Institute for Medieval Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
A rare text
In detail, this text would be the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. An extremely rare work: “Until recently, only two manuscripts were known that contained a translation of the Gospels into Old Syriac (note: old version of an Aramaic dialect),” explains Grigory Kessel, Austrian researcher.
After comparing it with other texts from that period, this chapter was dated by the scholars: “Despite the limited number of manuscripts from that period, the comparisons made with Syriac-language manuscripts allow dating of “Potential Scripture” to the first half of the 6th century “, adds the researcher. A piece of history that only technology could bring to light.