A BIBLICAL DISCOVERY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1932, Page 17

A BIBLICAL DISCOVERY

(By "Ajax.")

jGREATEST FOR- 70 YEARS

■ In"The Times" of the 19th November Sir Frederic Keuyon, Director and Pnncipa.l Librarian of the British Museum for about 20 years, aud a special authority on Greek papyri and the text of the New Testament, announces and discusses the. discovery of a number, of Biblical manuscripts of supreme interest and importance. .Where, they were found has not been disclosed, but they must, he says, have come from the library- of a Christian, Church;.or, monastery in. Egypt. Mr. !Alfred Chester Beatty, a well-known collector of illuminated manuscripts" of both .Eastern and Western art, is the happy owner, and. Sir Frederic Kenyon is editing the greater part of the texts for him. *;• The collection is described by Sii; Frederic, as the most remarks able addition to • tho textual material pf the: Greek Bible,that has been made for many a, long day. , .

. In. order.to set .Mr. Beatty's,-great 'find in its true perspective Sir Froderio K&nyon. briefly enumerates ~ the most important discoverios of. a . similar kind that have been made in; recont times. .. .; .'. ..'"'. ...

The ball opened, he nays, in 1842 With the arrival in the British Museum of the Cureton manuscript of the Old Syriac version of the Gospels. In 1844 catne the dis-covery-by Tiscbendorf of part.of.the Old Testament TJortioh of the Codex Sinaiticus. In 1859 tha same scholar. • acquired more .of the; Old Testament and the whole of the New in-the "same < manuscript.*. .In. 1892.Mr5. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson discovered .the Sinaitic manuscript of the Old Syria? version;' and in the same ■year were published the extracts from the Gospel and Rfevelation- of Peter and the Book of Enoch, discovered' six years earlier by French excavators at Akhmin. In 1897 Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt found at Oxyrhynehus the papyrus fragment of the Sayings of Jesus, to which a second fragment was added in 1904. In 1906 Mr. C. L. Freer acquired a remarkable group of .yejlum manuscripts in Egypt, pf which, the'most-important •is the -Sth-eentury copy of the Gospels now known as W, which contains an apocryphal addition in the last chapter of Mark.

Twenty-five years after the last of those discoveries and acquisitions Sir Frederic Kenyon is able to announce

a discovery of Biblical manuscripts which rivals any of these in interest and surpasses them all in antiquity.

A few days after Sir Frederic's announcement Mr.. Jli-Idria. Bell,. Keeper of Manuscripts in tie British Muwum, ,who is himself - editing some of lir.1 Chester Beatty's treasures, described the collection in the "Observer" of the 22nd November as , .

perhaps the most important group o£ Biblical manuscripts .discovered' since the Codes Sinaiticus came to ;light in the mid-nineteenth century. . . . They take back pur knowledge o£. parts .of 'the: N«w ; Testament more than a century earlier than any other text, while for portions of the Old Testament they ko aa nnich' as two centuries further back than any,.of the celebrated' codices. ' ' ' '

ii No fewer than '19 Books of the Bible & are represented in these manuscripts, '£ namely, Genesis, Numbers, Deuterojipmy, ,Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Eze--'•■•tieV Daniel, Eeclesiastfeusj the fotir 'Gospels,: Acts;; Romans, Philippians, Colossiaris, I. -Thes'salonians,' - and Eevelation; and-there ib ■ also a considerable portion of the lost .Greek text of the apocryphal book of Enoch,.... It.-seems, . however,-there is no complete, copy ofany of-these books, the portions rang- ' .ing from the fraction of a leaf of Jore- . -miah to -44 dbuble-co>lumned ; , leaves, all more or less mutilated, of Genesis, .•comprising chapters xxiv. ( to xlyi.

Begarding the age of the manuscripts Sir rrederic'Kenyon writes:— ■■'■■'-.'

, Among' them' ;are ■ the; 'earliest r'manu-^ ■scriptsI'of.the Gre^k Bible yet Known; The exact'dating of literary hands'on' papynis is seldom possible, but approximate datings may be given, often with considerable security. The earliest of these manuscripts can be assigned with confidenceto the 2nd century of'our era, and not to a very late period in it. Most of them appear to belong to the 3rd century, and one.'substantial one to the 4th.'The Enoch is probably of ;the lalje 4th or early sth century. -, ' :, : .''■'-._ '

To mention that neither the. Codex,Sinaitipuß , -which i Tischendorf discovered,, nor the Cpdexyß of the Vatican Library which is its only rival as '.an authority;., on the'texjr of the Nevy'Testament,, is,., given an,^ earlier, d^te than the 4th century is to show what a wonderful find it is which includes , a number .of : Biblical manuscripts of tha. 3rd century arid some which can' be. assigned with to the 2nd. i - •: '■;.. *'.-■. , .. *.v." " *:■.[ ;' '•

It seems,, however,* that the earliest of the New. Testament manuscripts does not go further back than the :3rcl century, and that the most striking thing about" it does not concern the textual editor but the bibliographer.

Hitherto,'says Sit i Frederic;'Kenyon, the'available evidence has justified the assertion (whichl must admit having made more than once) that before the , 4th century the four . Gospels cannot have been known as a single volume, since they were ',wrifjteii.,.on rolls, .and the current . practice did. not admit, of rolls of'a greater length than would suffice for a. single Gbs?el. That, if true, was a not unimportant act in the Tiistory of the tradition of the New':Testarhent text. »Here, however, "5b a 'pap3?r«s codex written in: a hand which,., in my opinion; and in that of other competent pkpyrblogißts,'cannot be later:, thans .the 3rd .century; anct: it contained, when complete, not only all four Gospels'but the Acts as ..yell.'.

The charactefi'stie'bf. a eodox is, as Sir jPfederio "poiiifs butj: th&.t -it is "written in quires, like a modern book,, and not on rolls which were the usual format ".of literary work's until ■ the 4th v century. The use.of the codex form by Christian's while pagans still preferred the^ roll was known before, but this find, in. which all the manuscripts are codices, carriqs. the distinction some two centuries further back. In his " Observer "article Mr. Bell makes a very interesting suggestion., regarding the-, origin- of j, this difference between Christian and pagan practice. "

We learn,oh the. authority of Martial, he says, 'that' /vellum . (which was always.l then used 'in :a; codex form) was, surprisingly, .erioiigh,- cheaper than' papyrus. The early Christian communities at Rome, being poor "men, probably: used • vellum texts' for that reason.- In Egypt, where •vellum was scarce and-, papyrus more easily -obtainable, they seem to have used for the, Bible the same form of book to which they were -accustomed. in- another material, though the quality of the papyrus and of the handwriting Bhow'g that these were by n6 meana cheap editions. '

'- The great bibliographical interest.of the discovery is, however, a small matter in ' comparison with its textual Aspect's, but they must statfd over till "Bext'weeki • ■ . . ■ .-.-.-