The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-04-20

SEINE Rich Treasures Of the Past
brought Ca Light
Ma

SEINE Eich Treasures Of the fsss
brought ts Light.
Lipplncott's Magazine.
The "nnd" which has most dszzled the
eyes OF the world-the congregation oil
murnmied Pharaohs at Deirel- Bahiri-and
that which IL even more significant To
scholars-the more recent discovery OF
great collection Of manuscripts at Medinet-
ri Fayum-.stir the Imagination to con-
ceiye what possibilities are just before
Us. The Fsyum manuscripts are
all in fragments. TO be sure, but
there are $3.50 of them; on papyrus
leaves. on paper. on parchment, on
leather. in eleven different languages, oil
daies covering thousand wears, and the
latest OF them thousand years old. They
include what Glbbon would almost have
given all the rest Of his library TO possess
a bile OF impe, ial edicts from SO A. ID. To
Constantine, and then down the Byzantine
line To A. ID. GAL. They include fragments
OF Homer and Thueydides OF the second
century; heretofore the oldest known man
uscrlpi of Thucydides was of the eleventh
century.
They include Scriptural fragments in
Greek from the fourth to the seventh cen
".
Greek writing on the story OF the iord's
snpper-oniy few words-over which the
learned world held It's breath for a time.
Was IL a part OF that gospel OF Gnosties. OF
which we know only by the abusive lam
guage OF their orthodox enemies? Or was
il from that Gospel OF the Hebrews"
which Is known to have been currelt in
Egypt in the second century? Or was il
/. A. l.a
longei-for ,yvraageiipgt the original Cos
pei which critics say must have preceded
our four existing Gospels Perhaps IL was
not any one OF these; but II might have
been.
Four or five years ago our scanty store
OF primmyal Christian literature was sud
denly enriched with the most precious
writing of Christian antiquity outside OF
the canon OF the New Testament-a writ
ing not less ancient. perhaps, than some OF
the canonical books themselves-''fhe
Teaching OF the Twelve Apostles" This
invaluable little manuscript turned up
where il was not expected. Thirty years
before. French explorer reported from
that very place. the library OF the Convent
OF the Holly Sepulchre" at Constantinople,
that there was nothing OF much value, ex.
eept To recent history.
But even rs We write. the story comes
that the same Greek bishop, Bryennios,
who found The Teaching of the Twelve, F"
has found one of the great desiderata for
which Christian scholarship has been
hungering for centuries. The earliest
mention OF the Gospel OF Matthew relates
that this disciple wrote 1.-The sayings" of
our Lord in Hebrew. And Jerome. the
translator Of the Bible into Latin
declares that this Hebrew Gospel of
Matthew was still kept in the library
at Casarea, and that he had seen and
transcribed from a copy of IL preserved by
the "Nazarene" Christians at Berea. If
only We could find this Hebrew Matthew.
what questions it would settle-and what
questions II would raise
Aud now comes a rumor, provokingly
vague, that Bryennios has found this very
thing. The Library of the Holy sepul-
cher" will prove to have been we'll named
II out of IFS age-iong silence and darkness
shall come the resurrection of two such
dead and buried treasures.