Show A DISCOVERY of an old gospel older and st mark A vienna correspondent of lh london times hayg prof kara bacek has been good enough to show me the papyrus which ha lately been discovered el fadum manuscripts am la alleged to bo the fragment of a gospel older than those of st mat thew and st mark it is a very small fragment measuring three and a half centimeters in length and four and one third in width and contains seven lines having words of these ninety sixtan be plainly deciphered but nine are indistinct some lines aro mutilated at the beginning and end and it Is supposed that from ninety two to ninety eight letters are missing the deficient of letters can be reckoned by comparing lines three four and seven with the oth era the seventh contains but four leaves the writing is in greek and dr G bickell of the university of in ns bruck who discovered and deciphered the fragment concludes from the form of the letters and the abbreviations that it was written in the third century but from the style of the composition ho infers that it dottes originally from the first century and this is also alic opinion of dr adward garbark Har bark editor of the of leipzig here is the translation of the fragment line for line As already reported its parallel is to be found in matthew v 30 to 34 and mark siv v ag to 30 1 but after supper as they went out 2 you will all take offense this night 3 according to the scriptures 1 I will smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered 4 then peter 5 and if all not I 1 G he eaid to hims 7 the cockbill cock will crow twice and before that thou denv me thrice the omission of the worda to be found both in matthew and mark but after I 1 am risea again I 1 will go before you into gallee is noticeable dr bickell reviewing the fragment in the fur Catho lische theologia The ologie a periodical printed att innsbruck Inns bruck for private circulation lays stress upon the importance of the manuscript as being the earliest fragment of a written gospel not canonical indeed but yet no pseudo graph or heretical composition dr Bic knells views are set forth and approvingly commented upon in an article by dr harnack Har nark which appears in the last number of the of leipzig dr harnack Har nark who is a fervent boman catholic distinguished for his greek scholarship remarks that so far as he can judge dr bicknell has taken no liberties with the text having only added five letters which it could be plainly guessed were the missing ones but which simply mended broken words without altering the sense of a line the antiquity and genuineness of the fragment are he argues beyond dispute |