| Show ANCIE BIBLE occasionally scholars are excited over the discovery of some ancient manuscript of unusual interest particularly ticul doul I 1 arly to la this the case came when some biblical record la is found which supposedly antedates any of the existing manuscripts manuscript because in the ever raging ragine contest with rationalism orthodox theology fears the abe result of the bringing to ligat of ow ew readings that possibly sibly may disturb doctrinal loc trinal founds do s should their genuineness be established since the beginning of this thin year rumors have been abroad of the discovery in a monastery monae tery on mount of a parchment coutair ing the gospels I 1 in a the by syriac rise language and the be opinion is now expressed that thai the text to i probably identical with the original one of which it is supposed our four Gs gospels are only a translation A an n account of the be discovery of the precious manuscript to Is given in the now new york world two english ladies mrs lewis and mrs mr gibson ro resolved solved to visit the historical mount sinai sinah at alter ter an eventful journey they arrived at the mo astery aster y of st catherine where lo in 1859 found his bis valuable codex it is well known that thin monastery to is a treasure house bouse of early literature and mrs lewis who hall armed herself with a camera and letters of introduction tro from the he greek archbishop obtained permission to take pictures of the ancient writings there here preserved concerning the library in the jonap monastery and the work of copying manuscripts by means of the kodak mrs lewis saye we worked for seven eleven hours in the library beginning at 9 am the manuscripts were very much scattered some greek ones being in the show library and the arabic partly there and partly in a little room halfway up a dark stair the syriac ones and those BUD supposed posed to be the most moat ancient are partly in this little room and partly in a dark closet approached p broached through a room almost as al dark a rk there they repose in two closed boxes and cannot be seen without a lighted candle Galek teon gave us every facility for photographing he spent hours holding books open for us or deciphering pages of the septuagint the fact that the english should be so anxious for a correct version of the sacred writings as to have sheets of paper printed on purpose for scholars to collate them with all the extant manuscripts filled the monks with a profound respect we had photographed pages of the syriac cole codex book same rime in which mr rendel harris found the apology of at aristides we had albo alao taken the wnm of a syriac palimpsest of pages ioto into which no eyes but our own had tor lor centuries looked its J leaves eaves were moate mostly all glued together and the least force separate them made them crumble crum some half dozen of them we hold held ovi ovy the steam of a kettle the writing beneath is ia red partly syr sy lac iao and partly greek the upper wih ing of this palimpsest bears its own dati dat A D it is all the lives of women saints the underwriting must become be some centuries earlier it is syriac gospels Gos pelO and something in greek not yet deciphered A palestinian aramaic MS of which we photographed four pages 40 J the second example ot of its kind known to exist that in the vatican library having been hitherto considered unique some borne time after toe the ladies return tp Eng england lanu some of the photography were inspected by mr burkitt and lit pronounced them to be a copy of tho the cureton syriac learned scholars sit at once became I 1 interested n te rested and a second party was wae formed to go to allou mount nt ind and through the good offices of the oo eo authorities they were ena bled tr to copy the precious document rev camden N coberg of ann ana artor arbor mien speaking of the callaw manuscript says gay a no one can tell exactly when it was written it is variously estimated from to A D DA but bat tile age of 0 the manuscript doll does not settle the age of the text A syriac version ot of the gospels did dia not exist later than the middle ot the second century and probably much earlier and the very greatest greek and ana syriac scholars are agreed that our MS MB is either that chit primitive syriac gospel with some slight modifications or else elee it to is a child a legitimate of that earliest ano and most IW 10 portana version which even it if it could not be traced back any further that AD A D would yet date within fifty years of the death of john i e no near to the crucifixion as we orle are to george washington and the revolutionary war further than this the professor long before the gospel were written the gospel was wae spoken that was tile the method of teaching leaching la in those days and there cannot be a shadow of doubt that tle me burden of at the first teachers teacher ot of chris tho the gospel which they bey preached boNi before ille the gospel was written was the accounts of the acts and words of jesus he concludes that jf if this biaas manuscript is not the earliest version of the new Tt testament it in ia at least lead a descendant of it and is valuable ablo because it Is ia written in the very land and in the very language in which our oar lord and the apostles talked from the accounts so BO tar far published it does not appear perfectly clear why the be discovery of this manuscript in syriac should cause any more stir thala thab it it had been in greek and equally ancient beveral byrias versions are already known to scholars scholar this the is supposed to have been made by translators sent by the jude and A Ab garus king of Edessa to palestine this contains all the canonical noti leal books of the old testament and a ad ai all of thi now new except 2 pet 2 aud abil 3 julian jude judeann and the revelation Be the text differ from all the ahlet fam alies of manuscripts and both tradition and internal evidence go to t prove that tbt it belongs belong to 0 o the first cont century lit in A ak what does this thin newly found syriac manuscript differ from the Pe shito abito it Is in ia further known that a syrian bishop in the ath century translated the now new testament into auriac this version was wag revised by his successor another syriac version it thought to belong to the fifth or tenth seventh century it in ie known as aa the jerusalem version ver aion i t tho the main importance of these theme and all other ancient versions and manuscripts of the sacred acred writings writing is in the waldence vla ence they furnish of trio the identity jo IB essential points of our bible with that of the earliest earli eat church but this to Is pretty well established it is not denied that biblical texts in the past ages occasionally were modified to gulp the changes that took place in theological concept conceptions ious but critics have succeeded marvellously in ing the text to nearly its origin 4 1 pur ity the discovery of now new manu mann 4 scripts may possibly reveal readings which if genuine will shatter the ac cepter notions of modern orthodoxy but even if the he original writings of the apostles and evangelists were die dia covered they would not contradict anything in the bible as we have it today which is undoubtedly genuine P modern theolo y however is not always built on the scriptures but on from the scriptures these r inferences may be in danger from now new discoveries the sacred records hem themselves selves are sate mate |
