The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-06-26
Interesting Egyptian Discoveries.

The Lon Ion Times, of a recent
date, gives the particulars of the large
and important discovery of papyli
in Egypt, made during the last win
ter by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt,
of Queens College, Oxford, working
on behalf of the Egypt exploratio n
fund at Behnesa, the ancient Oxyr-
rhyncus. Papyri is kind of SCI d
very abundant in the valley of the
Nile, of which the ancients made the
paper ormaterial on which they wrote.
The site of the old town where the
papyri was found. says the Times,
is about one and one-fourth miles
long by half mile broad and is sit
uated on the little-explored edge of
the western desert, between Fayum
and Minya, had remained almost I'M
touched by dealers and antiquity
seekers and offered to the excavators
what is in Upper Egypt now almost
thing of the pasta practically
virgin field. Very few remains of
buildings we're discovered, the place
having been long used as quarry,
both for stone and for bricks, but
many of the ancient rubbish mounds
yielded rich store of papyri, while
in three mounds the quantity of rolls
found together was large enough to
warrant the assumption that part of
the archives had been thrown there
at different periods.
The papyri is described as ranging
from the Roman conquest to early
Arab times, each century being
largely represented, and are, for the
most part, written in Greek, with
sprinkling of Latin, Coptic, and Ara
bic. As the excavators had not time
for deciphering, very little is yet
known of their contents; but Mr..
Grenfell's chief hope in digging ON
the site of Oxyrrhyncus-the pros
pect of finding early Christian docu-
ments-would seem to have been to
some extent realized. Among the
papyri discovered at the very begin
ming of the excavations was a leaf
from third century papyrus book
apparently containing collection of
Logia, or sayings of Christ. Some of
those found in the fragment are not
in the Gospels, while others exhibit
several Emergencies from the text of
the parallel passages in the Gospels.
The age, character and value of
these Logia are likely to be the sub
ject of considerable speculation, but
there is no foundation for the entirely
unauthorized and inaccurate reports
connecting this discovery with tt e
Logia which Papias states were col
lected by st. Matthew. 1t is hoped
that when the papyri comes to be ex-
amined in detail, further discoveries
of early Christian records will be
made, as we'll as of fragments of lost
classical literature.
The major part of this collection,
consisting of one hundred and fifty
large and complete rolls, has been
retained by the authorities of tie
Gizeh Museum, but the rest of the
collection is now on its way to Eng
land, where it will be Systematically
examined, and the results published.
The discovery is regarded as one of
the most important finds of recent
exploration, and if it should prove
that the Logia are authentic, it may
prove of considerable value to stu
dents of the New Testament. But it
is not likely that anything of intrinsic
importance will be added to the rec
ord of what we now have of the say
ings of Christ as recorded in the
Christian Gospels.