2ND CENTURY BIBLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1934, Page 12

2ND CENTURY BIBLE

FRAGMENTS REPORTED FOUND Fragments of a second-century Bible ■written on papyrus, in the form of a book (and not the usual papyrus scroll), are stated to be in the possession of the Australian National Library in Vienna. They were obtained in Cairo by Prof. Hans Gerstinger, of the University of Vienna, and are said to comprise portions of the Old Testament, the Gospel of St. Matthew, and the Pauline Epistles. They appear to belong to that sheaf of early Biblical papyri of which Mr. Chester Beatty, the American collector, has the largest portion. Prof. Gerstinger, it is stated, bought the fragments from persons who are supposed to have found them in a water jar that had been buried in the cellar of a Christian monastery in Egypt. It is claimed that the fragments form the oldest document in book form, and that their presence in the monastery indicates that the Christian Church invented book form to replace the Oriental scroll. , „ The London “Daily Telegraph s Archaeological Correspondent writes: The Chester Beatty papyri, ranging in date from the second to the fifth century, anticipate —admittedly o n b' in fragments—the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus. Wide interest was caused among scholars when Sir Frederic Kenyon, who is editing these oldest of Bible texts, first, announced their discovery three yeais flK The existence of further leaves

from the same group has, Sir Frederic told me last night, been known for some time. Professor Gerstinger has already published the text of a portion of St. Matthew’s Gospel from them. "This is, however,” he said, "the first I have heard of Old Testament leaves, or portions of the Epistles, being at Vienna, though leaves from Deuteronomy and from the Pauline Epistles have come into the possession of the University of Michigan.” Sir Frederic has been working on Mr. Chester Beatty’s portion since 1931, and has already published three volumes, which include the Gospels and Acts, the Pauline Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. Another volume containing Genesis is due within a few days, and there are at least three further volumes to be published.