THE FINDING OF A "FIFTH GOSPEL"

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1935, Page 25

THE FINDING OF A "FIFTH GOSPEL"

Three dirty fragments of papyri found in a bundle of equally dirty and tattered papyri received at the British Museum last summer may prove to be a fifth Gospel, says the "Daily Express."

The fragments are believed to be the oldest pieces of New Testament manuscript ever found, and are being hailed as discovery of the highest- importance.

There are two pages, each about four incjies long and three inches wide, and a smaller fragment about an inch and a half long and three-quarters of an inch deep. They are dark brown with age, but the Greek characters can be plainly read.

Two letters forming the Greek character "IH,1 'occurring twice in the text, gave the clue to the enormous importance of the papers, said an official of the museum.

"That abbreviation," he explained, "sometimes was used for the sacred name, Jesus. As soon as Mr. Bell, the keeper' of * the "museum's manuscripTs;: noticed it, he realised the bit of manuscript might be Gospel." '

Mr. Bell has conservatively placed the date of the manuscript as the middle of the second century. There is no means of discovering where exactly in Egypt it was found, as it came to the museum in a miscellaneous collection purchased through dealers.

"There is an old tradition that there was originally an Egyptian Gospel," said the museujm official, "but we have not sufficient justification for saying that this is it

"The writer of Luke's Gospel testified that 'many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,' so it is reasonable to assume that there were more Gospel manuscripts than those of which we know.

"Most Bible scholars assume that the four Gospels in our New Testament contained material from early books which have been lost."

One of the new fragments records an episode on the banks of the Jordan where Jesus' hearers are "amazed" by the question he asked. On the other side is a referenc to certain people tempting Jesus with a question, the text of which is not clear.

The other leaf contains striking parallels \vitb. John's Gospel; There is an account of the cleansing of a leper which closely follows an incident described by the. other evangelists.

Museum officials now are wondering if some day they shall come across the rest of their "new Gospel." From now on all bundles of Greek papyri will be examined with more than casual Interest