The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-06-16
THE NEW FOUND GOSPELS,

1t is not often that the Biblical injune-
ton to search the Scriptures" has been
carried ont in the face of such difficult
ties as must have attended the recent
discovery of the palimpsest containing a
Syriac text of the gospel by Mrs. Lewis,
in the convent of ST. Katharine, on
Mount Sinai. What those difficulties
were Mrs. Lewis explained. to rep1en-
tatiYe of the st. James Gazette, who
gives the following account of the con-
versation:
What is palimpsest?" I INQUIRED; :
for the slight figure clad in deep mourn
ing, and the soft voice that welcomed
me, urged me to confession of abject
ignorance.
"A pallmpsest is manuscript whose
original contents have been partially
effaced that the Yellum might be written
upon again. This was frequently done
in ancient days when vellnm was scarce
but the Syriac gospels we have just dis
covered are case in point. The thick
black writing you see in the photograph
was written over the gospels in IT'S, and
is series of lives of female saints,
signed John Elhaban.' 1t was only by
observing the word 'Evangellum,' faint
ly inscribed at the top of the page, that
OWNED the possibility of the sub
writing being text of the gospels-a
guess which upon examination proved to
be correct.
"How did you obtain access to the old
documents, Mrs. Lewis?'
well, you see, but for that difficulty
this discovery might have been made
long ago. The treachery of Tischendorf
who failed to return the MSS loaned
him by the Monks, has rendered them
very suspicious of the strangers who de-
sire to examine their library. Then an
other obstacle was encountered by for
mer travellers. They were almost all
unacquainted with modern Greek, the
language spoken by the Monks, which
my sister and smoke fluently, as we'll as
Hebrew and Arabic. Prof. Palmer had
seen this text of the gospels, but had
not been permitted to examine it; and
Prof. Rendel Harris had been unable on
his visittp 1880 10 do moro than trans
scribe the Apology of Aristides' which
he had unearthed in the same convent"
This was, suppose, your first visit
to Sinai?'
"Oh, no! 1 was there last year and
succeeded in winning the confidence of
the Monks, who allowed me to take over
lOOO VI PoCoJ L hdit
letters of introduction to the archbishop
of Sinai, who lives in Cairo, and curious
ly enough, little book l had written
years ago in nv travels in Greece, had
been translated in Greek and had fallen
into the Monks hands, and, as l hap
pened to have written about the native
places of some of them, they held out to
me cordial right hand"
"Do they all appreciate the Importance
of your discovery?'
Eyes, indeed. They are most intelli-
gent-not the ignorant anchOrites, as
most travellers suppose. The bursa of
the convent writes articles for the Athe-
MAN reviews. For hours together they
would hold out the palimpsest that l
might obtain good negatives. When 1
had made certain of my discovery / sent
word to Prof. Harris, who came out &C
companied by his wife, all first-rate
Syriac scholars. We divided the day in
to three watches-from IL to o'clock
and were 40 days at it-all working.
During the last weeks we used to start at
5 a. M, and work as long as the light
lasted, sleeping in tents in the convent
garden so as to be independent of their
regulations"
"a very different atmosphere from
this, no doubt" 1 interpolated grimly.
81 can scarcely describe the purity
and brightness of the air and the bril-
liant sunshine which helped us so much
to decipher the faint half-obliterated
whiting Indeed, if the light had been
less favorable our task would never have
been accomplished. Another expert
ment assistedIus. had obtained at the
British museum harmless chemical
preparatinn for bringing out old writ
ing. At first was afraid the Monks
would not permit me to use it, but after
they had seen it employed on another
MS. without detriment they consented"
chow do you account for the pres
ence of the MS. there?"
DOUBTLESS when so many of the con-
vents which existed in that region were
destroyed by the Turks, it was taken
to st. Katharine's for safety, as it was a
fortress built by the Emperor Justinian
in the fifth century,