GREEK PAPYRI

Southland Times, Issue 22489, 25 January 1935, Page 7

GREEK PAPYRI

RELATING TO GOSPEL OLDEST KNOWN MANUSCRIPT LIFE OF OUR LORD (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) London, January 23. The British Museum has acquired fragments of Greek papyri from Egypt relating to the Gospel, believed to be older than any known New Testament manuscript. . , The fragments consist of four pages in a literary hand, appearing to date not later than the middle of the second century A.D. One page contains the dialogue between Jesus and the Jewish authorities, revealing striking agreements between the new gospel and St. John. The episode ends with the attempts to stone Jesus, then seize and hand him over to the multitude, but unsuccessfully, “Because the hour of His betrayal was not yet come.The Museum authorities express the opinion that the fragments are the earliest bit of Christian writing at present known, probably antedating the Chester Beatty manuscripts of the New Testament by over half a century, and carrying well into the sub-apostolic age. One of the incidents recorded on the most damaged surface, according to Mr H. Idris Bell, Keeper of the Museum manuscripts, is a “curious and unparalleled’’ incident which occurred on the banks of the Jordan. According to Mr Bell’s interpretation, Jesus asks a “strange question” which astonished his hearers, but the context is at present largely obscure. Mx Bell explains that although the manuscripts are incomplete in height and breadth, it is possible to complete the lines with a high degree of probability by the help of parallels m the New Testament and from a recogmzable sense. The Daily Chronicle declared that there is now a gospel believed to be a century older than the Codex Sinaiticus.