THE FOUND FRAGMENT
Around 7 years ago
– June 2013 to be exact – a papyrus fragment was found in Oxford
University.in an old, old Hebrew Bible from the 1800’s.
There’s more. The Bible was at the bottom of a box of
what is considered “Sacred Trash” because it was bought up from the Cairo
Geniza – a large very dusty room that had well over 280,000 fragments of Hebrew
writings.
Jews can’t throw away anything in Hebrew – so let’s bring
it to the Geniza – which many synagogues
have off to the side – a big locked and difficult to access catch all room . Treasures and surprises have been found in
these Genizas – especially in the Cairo, Geniza.
A big surprise was that the papyrus fragment was in Greek
– and it wasn’t part of the old Hebrew Bible – it was found in.
Questions: what is it? How old was it? Is it valuable?
Oxford was the
perfect place for the discovery – with lots of scholars
The first step was to photograph it – and get key
scholars – first class – world class – experts to translate it. Other specialists were asked to date it with Carbon-14
technology – but that would take at least a month. 5 different separate labs
were asked to do that research – being very careful on how much of the fragment
was cut.
In the meanwhile, the document just had one liners on it
– phrases and sentences scattered and inked onto the papyrus. At first conjecture someone said, “This could
be from St. Luke – his notes – that he gathered
to pull together his gospel.”
Others said, “No way!’
Someone said, “Just listen to what this one page fragment
says in Greek.
It’s obvious. Some of it is from Isaiah 40 – but as Luke
quotes him near the beginning of Luke 3: 4 to 18. Listen to the whole fragment:
THE ACTUAL TEXT
“He must increase. I must decrease.”
“Beloved son!”
“A voice in the wilderness.”
“Lower the mountains – fill the valleys”
“Straighten out the crooked roads.”
“Smooth the roads.”
“See the salvation of our God.”
“Clear the threshing floor!”
“Gather the wheat into his barn – but burn the chaff.”
“Gather at the river. Repent. Wash in the Jordan.”
“Put an ax to the roots.”
“Be good trees – produce good fruit.
“Prepare the path or way or the road of the Lord.”
“I baptize with water, but someone is coming after me –
who is more powerful than me. He’ll baptize with fire – with the Spirit – a
fire that will never go out.”
“I couldn’t even do or undo his sandal straps.”
NEXT CAME THE THEORIES WHAT IT IS
Someone said, “If they come up with 5 labs saying it’s
first century, then we got something here.”
“If it’s much later, I’d guess it’s notes of a preacher –
doing a first draft of a sermon on John the Baptist.”
Further questions followed:
“But why was it in a Hebrew Bible?
“Where was it sitting in that Hebrew Bible?
“It’s over there, someone said.”
Upon further examination this papyrus fragment was on
Isaiah 40 in the Hebrew Bible – which
connects it with Luke 3.
Good. That’s the clearest detective finding we have so
far.
Can’t wait till we get the carbon 14 test results.
Someone said, “Whose Hebrew Bible was it? How did it get to Egypt? Does Hebrew and Greek tell us anything?”
Someone else said, “The beauty of it all is that John the
Baptist was bridge between the Old and
New Testaments.”
THE 5 CARBON-14 TESTS CAME IN
The carbon 14 tests put the papyrus fragment in question
from sometime around 500 AD.
Not bad.
Next. How much do you think this
fragment is worth?
Obviously, more research is needed.
