The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-12-16
OLD PAPYRI FOUND
ANCIENT DOCUMENTS EXHUMED
FROM EGYP1'S SANDS

of Play by Menander Brought t.
| Light at Oxyri1chus. Which Proves q
Veritabie Treasure House of Old Time
Lore, Which It viii Take Years to
| Tra.siate-Piece of the Bible Nesriy
100 Years Old
New York, Dec 15.-The Herald says:
| By far the oldest New Testament manu-
script yet recovered has just been found
in the desert sand. Of Egypt, together
with portions of an original poem by
| Sappho and part of play by Menander.
While excavating at Oxyrhncus, in
Egypt, during the last summer, B. P.
GrenfeI and A. S. Hunt, Of the Egypt
Exploration Fund, unearthed a number
of rolls of papyri, that were Immediately
sent to Queens College, Oxford, there to
await their return and translation.
This work is now going on, and has just
resulted in the astounding discovery
that among the papyri are sheets con-
tanning nearly the whole OF the first
chapter OF the Gospel of st. Matthew.
This is the oldest and most important
record of the New Testament ever
brought to light. It carries the date Of
the writing Of that portion OF the Bible
back to within one hundred and fifty
years of when Christ Himself actually
walked the earth. It is the creates dis
covery OF the kind that has ever been
made At last the world has absolute
proof that the Christians VINO lived dur
ing the Apostolic age had in their pos
session the same gospel that we use to-
day.
The trGnslators have also found that
other rolls OF the newly recovered papyri
contain no les valuable writings than a
leaf of the Acts of ST. Paul and Thecia;
portions of an original poem by Sappho
and number of lines Of play by Men
ander The story of this great find and
its influence upon the religious and lit
erary world is told in the following ar
ticles to the Herald by the Rev. DR..
Camden NJ. Cobern, James S. Cotton, NJ.
A, and Mrs. Marie N. Buckman. the well
known Biblical, literary and Egyptian
scholars.
LEAF OF BIBLE.
Rev. Camden NJ. Cobern writes: A
leaf of the New Testament; the Oldest
leaf known to be in existence. The very
words hold US spell-bound. It seems al
most incredible as I write it, but it is
actually tue ahat in this discovery we
now possess leaf from the New Testa-
ment between seventeen hundred and
eighteen hundred years old.
Even more than this. / can state on
the authority OF Sir Edward Mounde
Thompson, of the British Museum, the
great authority on ancient manuscripts,
that the papyrus from ST. Matthews s
Gospel contains the same authorizations
and other msrk. of age which he mad
previously noticed in the .Logia," and
therefore it must be regarded as leaf
from a book which had been in use at
least fifty years at the time wnen this
copy was made.
| Thus we are able to affirm, on the
! highest authority, that we now possess
| a leaf from the New Testament which
was used in Egypt within the limits OF
two generations OF the lifetime OF st.
John. and il proves to us also that the
| New Testament that was in use in those
ancient days was the same as we have
today, for, or the authority OF, DR.. w. NJ.
| Flinders PetTie, the director of the expe-
dition can state that the text written
upon this leaf is the same text as that
which is written in our own Greek Tes-
| taments s-
/ DIR. Thompson gays that as the papy-
| rus shows the same contractions as the
Logia. the same observations made con-
cerning the Logia will also apply to IL.
But this gives us astonishing results,
for 1t practically puts in our hands a
leaf copied from the New Testament
| that was used in the days OF Polycarp
| and by the noble body of confe,sors and
martyrs who themselves may have lis
tened to the preaching Of st. John.
The Importance of this discovery can
be seen at once when 1 state that DR..
Thompson declares that while the man.
u.cript was evidently written about 200
A. D., because Of the contractions used
and because of the form OF the papyrus,
''it would be a moderate computation 20
| carry back the data Of the composition
of the book fifty years earlier, and thus
to fix the latest limit in the middle OF
the second century.
what, then, is the appearance OF this
| leaf. torn from a New Testament LOO
years ago,and which, because of its ab-
| breviations, must have come from q
work which had been we'll known for al
least half a century? Does it bear any
resemblance to a leaf torn from on,
| New Testament? This is an important
and far reaching question, and an
glad that / am in a position TO answer IL
| for I can say on the authority OF DR.
Petrie that the most ancient leaf con
tains the same Greek text as that wiut
/ which we are acquainted. That means
| that even the slight variation noticed
| in the Syriac Mount Sinai Gospels is not
found in this Oldest Greek New Tesla
| ment manuscript. II is only one leaf
| the first leaf in TIE book-but Il prove
that the Christians vino lived within IN.
lifetime OF the apostolic age had in t:lsi
possession the same Gospel which W
| have today,
I particularly desire 70 call attention
| 70 the new light which tni. discover
| throws upon the Logia- Professor Har
mock and al the other critics who hav'
written upon these Sayings of Jesus
| have made mush OF the similarity o
these Sayings" to the Gospels, and thi
similarity hs. been explained in variou
ways Some nave thought they we-
mere echose of the Gospel sentences, an
others have been equally sure that the
stood behind the Gospels and repre-