NEW SCRIPTURAL MANUSCRIPT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3409, 31 August 1885, Page 3

NEW SCRIPTURAL MANUSCRIPT.

A Vienna correspondent has been allowed by Professor Karabaeek to inspect tho papyrus which has lately been discovered among the El Faynm manuscripts, and which i 3 alleged to be tho fragment of a Gospel older than those of St. Matthew and St. Mark. It is, ho says, a very small fragment, measuring throo and a half centimetres m length and four and one-third m width, and contains sevon lines, having 105 words. Of thesoninetyb\x can bo plainly deciphered, but nine are indistinct. Tlie writing is m Greek, and Dr G. Bickell, of tho University of Innsbruck, who discovered and deciphered the fragment, concludes, from tho form of tho letters and tho abbreviations, that it waa written m tho third century ; but from the style of tho composition ho infers that it dates originally from the first century, and this is also the opinion of Dr Edward Harnack, editor of the Thcologischc Literature Zeituny, of Leipsic. This is the translation of tlie frngmont, line for line. Its parallel is to be found m Matthew 2G, versos 30 to 34 ; and Mark 14, verses 20 to 30 : — 1. " But after supper, as they went out. 2. " You -will all take offence thia night. 3. " According to tho Scriptures, ' I will smite tho shepherd, and tho snoop will be scattered.' 4. " Then Poter spake, 5. " And if all, not I. (i. "He said to him, 7. " The cock will crow twice, and before that thou shalt deny Mo thrice." Tho omission of tho words, to bo found both m Matthew and Mark, "But after I am risen again I will go beforo you into Galileo," is. noticoablo. Dr Bickoll, reviewing tho fragment m the " Z«itßchriftfur Catholischo Theologie" — a periodical printod at Innsbruck for private circulation — lays stress upon the importance of tho manuscript, as being tho enrliest fragment of a written Gospel — not canonical, indcod, but yet no pseudograph or horeticol composition.