The Bozeman courier., 1927-12-30
DISCOVERS new
BIBLICAL DATA
English Expert Finds Life
of John the Baptist
Among Documents.

London.-New Biblical discoveries.
including a new jeremiah ApOcryphOn,
new life Of John the Baptist and
some uncanOnical psalms have been
made by DR.. Rendel Harris, the welt
known Biblical expert.
Doctor Harris has been working In
association with A. Mingana of the
Rylands library at Manchester in an
Intensive study of early Christian
documents in Syrias. All of the dOcu-
ments which were collected by Doctor
Mingana will be preserved in the Ry-
lands library. The present transIa-
tiOns. which will be published shortly.
are accompanied by facsimile repro
ductiOns of the texts.
/. Among the manuscripts which Doc
tor Mingana collected and translated
with Doctor Harris were two Arabic
translations of the works of SerapiOn.
Apparently SerapiOn wrote in Greek,
but the Greek texts have long been
lost. The most interesting of the
SerapiOn finds was his biography Of
the life Of John the Baptist which he
elabOrates from the canOnical gospels,
but be tells more of Johns childhood.
It was a troubled one, for not long
after his birth Herod, alarmed by the
visit of the wise men, began a syste-
matte murder Of male children in
Bethlehem.
Answer of Zaeharias.
"And Elizabeth" the translation
shows. "teared that her child might
] be killed like them, and she took him
Immediately to Zacharias in the tenn
pie and she said to him. My Lord, LEI
US go with our son John to some other
countries in order to save him from
HerOd the unbeliever.' But Zacharlas
answered and said to her, 4 must not
leave the service of the temple Of the
Lord to go to a foreign land the In
habitants of which worship idols An(
! she said unto him, What should / d.
in order to save my infant child?' AnC
! the old man answered and said unt'
.Pher, Arise and go to the wilderness o
Ain Karin and by the will of God yOl
will be able to save your child
'NOw when Zacharias had said good
by to Elizabeth and his son John, b
had blessed him and made him a prizes
!. and afterwards delivered him to hi
mother. F.. Then she took the chill
and went into the wilderness in whic
no soul lived"
ZachariaS was slain by HerOd's so
-dierS. hut John wandered in the deser
with Isis mother, where
- "GOd prepared for him lOcusts an
Wild honey as food in accordance wit
what his mother was told about hil
not to lei any unclean food enter b
mouth
AFTER five years the piOus an
blessed old mother Elizabeth passe
away, and the holy John sat weepin
over her, as he did not know how
shrOud her and bury her, because {
the day of her death he was only seve
years and six months old"
Tells Of 5eheadinu.
a. OF the beheading of John, the tran
latiOn continues: "When the head
John was brought before HerOdias Il
eyes of the holy John were open al
his ears were hearing as in his lif
time. The adultress spoke with ire b
fore the head as follows: 30 accurs
one who was not ashamed to look
the king in the face and answer hi
l shall cut off the tongue which us
to say to the king that it was unla
: full for him to marry HerOdias, /
" brothers wife. AS to the hair Of 20
head and your beard, l shall pluck
e out and place it under the feet of I
bedstead.' But the head of the bless
John let the locks of its hair rise fro
= the dish and 1t few to the middle
: the cOnvivial room before the XII
:" and his high officials. In that ve
V moment the roof of the house "
= opened and the head of John few il
> the air."
Doctor Harris describes the life
John as translated as "a curious m