For at least the past five years, reports have
circulated about the contents of palimpsests (recycled manuscripts) that were
discovered in 1975 at Saint Catherine’s monastery. National
Geographic, Smithsonian
Magazine, The
Atlantic, ScienceBlog,
Ancient-Origins,
and the BBC have all
told readers that major research is underway that involves ancient
manuscripts and expensive manuscript-reading equipment.
Now the Sinai Palimpsests Project has a website, and visitors can easily get some sense of the scale of the work that
is being done with the (relatively) newly discovered manuscripts. The manuscripts at Saint Catherine’s include all kinds of compositions: ancient
medicine-recipes, patristic sermons, poems, liturgical instruction-books, Old
Testament books, and much more.
Fifteen continuous-text Greek
manuscripts are among the newly discovered palimpsests. All but one of these New Testament
manuscripts have been given production-dates in the 500s or earlier.
Also among the new
discoveries:
● Syriac manuscripts of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and some of the Pauline Epistles from the 400s and 500s.
● Various
New Testament books (including all four Gospels) written in Christian
Palestinian Aramaic (formerly known as “Jerusalem Syriac”) from 500-700.
● A substantial
manuscript of the Gospel of John in Caucasian Albanian (a virtually extinct
language).
● A Latin
copy of Mark in insular cursive from the 700s (implying a link between
some manuscripts at St. Catherine’s monastery and some manuscripts subsequently
used in Ireland
So many of
the palimpsests have been assigned production-dates in the 500s that it is
tempting to surmise that what we are looking at here is part of a library that
was donated to the monastery on the occasion of its official founding by
Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 530.
Here is a
list of most of the New Testament materials that are among the texts being
studied by scholars associated with the Sinai Palimpsests
Project and the Early Manuscripts
Electronic Library. Some materials
are from the New Finds; some have been in the monastery’s library for a long
time. In this list, a “page” = a single
side of a two-sided leaf. Dates are approximate
unless based on a colophon. Yellow-highlighted texts are Greek New Testament materials.
● Arabic 514. The copyists who made this manuscript recycled
Six pages of the Protevangelium of James in Syriac,
54 pages of the Gospel of Matthew,
Eight pages of Acts,
Four pages of Hebrews,
Eight pages of Colossians,
88 pages from the Gospel of John
(chapters 1-8, 12, and 17-21),
Six pages from First Timothy,
Two pages from Second
Thessalonians,
Two pages from Ephesians, and
Two pages from the Gospel of John
(chapters 5 and 6) in Syriac.
The texts in these recycled pages are all in Syriac, and all
have been assigned to the 500s.
● Arabic 588. The copyists who made this manuscript
recycled
Eight pages from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, in Syriac.
500s.
11 pages from the Protevangelium of James, in Syriac. 500s.
● Arabic NF 28. The copyists who made this manuscript of the
Four Gospels in Arabic (Kufic script) in 850-900 (16 folios intact) recycled
20 pages of Exodus in Greek. 500s.
12 pages of Genesis in Greek. 500s.
● Arabic NF 8. The copyists who made this manuscript of
the Four Gospels in Arabic (Kufic script) in 850-900 recycled
18 pages
from a copy of Recipes for different
diseases, a Greek medical text. 400-600.
12 pages
from a copy of Hippocrates, De diaeta
I-IV, a Greek medical text. 500-600.
Four pages from a copy of Hippocrates,
De morbis popularibus (Epidemiae), in
Greek. 500-600.
Eight pages from a copy of Hippocrates,
Letters, a Greek medical text. 500s.
56 pages from a Greek copy of the Gospel of John. 500s.
18 pages from a Greek copy of the Gospel of Matthew. 500s.
Four pages from a Greek copy of Genesis. 500s.
12 pages from a Greek copy of Exodus. 500s.
Four pages from a Greek copy of Ecclesiasticus. 500s.
13 pages from a Latin copy of the
Gospel of Mark (in insular cursive minuscule script). 700s.
Two pages from a Latin copy of Revelation
(in half uncial script). 500s.
One page from a Latin copy of the Gospel
of Luke (in Latin majuscule). 500s.
[115v of Arabic NF8 shows Greek
letter from underwriting.]
[124r of Arabic NF 8 shows Greeks
letters from underwriting in blank space.]
[The last page of Arabic NF 8 shows
Greek letters from underwriting in blank space.]
● CPA NF
● CPA NF
● CPA NF
Two folios from the Gospel of Luke (ch.
18) in CPA. 600s.
Four pages from the Gospel of Luke
in CPA. 400-700.
Two pages from the Gospel of Luke in
Georgian. Late 900s.
● CPA NF
● Georgian 10. The copyists of this Georgian Apostolos (266
folios from 1000-1100) recycled 16 pages of a lectionary (Jerusalem
● Georgian 49. The copyists of this Georgian Menaion (119 folios from the 1200s)
recycled
Four pages of the Gospel of
Matthew, in Syriac. 500s.
Six pages of the Gospel of Mark, in
Syriac. 500s.
Four pages of the Gospel of Matthew,
in Syriac. 500s.
Six pages from the Life of Saint Pelagia, in Syriac. 500-700.
Ten pages from the Gospel of Mark,
in Greek. 500s.
Two pages from the Gospel of John, in Greek. 500s.
Two pages from the Gospel of Luke,
in Syriac. 800s.
Two pages from the Gospel of
Matthew, in Syriac. 800s.
● Georgian NF
75 pages of the Gospel of John in
Caucasian Albanian. 600-800.
90 pages of a lectionary, mainly
from the New Testament, in Caucasian Albanian.
600-800.
Some pages of the Pauline Epistles in
Georgian (Asomtavruli script). 600s.
12 pages of the Pauline Epistles in
Armenian (Erkatagit script). 700-900.
● Georgian NF
Two pages
of the Gospel of Matthew, in CPA. 500-700.
Eight pages
of a liturgy with New Testament readings, in Greek (minuscule). 800-1000.
Two pages of the Gospel of John, in Greek (majuscule). 500-600.
Two pages of the Gospel of Matthew, in Greek (majuscule). 500-600.
Two pages from the Gospel of Luke, in Greek (majuscule). 500s.
Two pages of a New Testament
Lectionary, in CPA. 500-700.
[Greek lower writing is visible on
57r and 57v of Georgia NF 19.]
● Georgian NF
66 pages of
the Gospel of John in Caucasian Albanian.
600-800,
41 pages of
a New Testament lectionary in Caucasian Albanian. 600-800.
Eight pages
of the Pauline Epistles, in Armenian. 700-900.
Two pages
from Hebrews, in Armenian. 800-1000.
Four pages
from the Gospel of Mark, in CPA. 600-800.
● Georgian NF
● Georgian NF
● Greek 2053. The copyists who made this Greek manuscript of
Excerpts from Scripture (Acts &
Epistles) (34 folios) in the 1200s recycled 16 pages from a Greek Synaxarion. 800s.
● Greek 212. The copyists who made this collection of
lections from the Greek New Testament (including Resurrection-readings) in the 700s or 800s)
(114 folios) recycled many pages of a Greek Psalter. 700s.
● Greek NF M 98. The copyists who made this Greek liturgical
manuscript in the 1200s (2 folios) recycled four pages of the Gospel of Luke in Greek. 975-1025.
● Greek NF MG 29.
The copyists who made this Octoechos manuscript in the 800s
recycled many pages
(mostly fragmentary) from the Gospel of Matthew in Greek. 550-600.
● Greek NF MG 32.
The copyists who made this Greek
Martyrologion (21 folios) in the 800s recycled eight pages of a
Gospels-lectionary in CPA. 400-700.
● Greek NF MG 99.
The copyists who made this Greek
liturgical manuscript in the 800s recycled
12 pages from First Corinthians,
in Greek. 425-475.
Two fragments from Colossians, in Greek. 425-475.
Four fragments from Philippians, in Greek. 425-475.
Two fragments from Romans, in Greek. 425-475.
● Syriac 2A. The
copyists who made this Syriac manuscript of the Four Gospels in the 500s (180
folios) recycled
14 pages from
the Gospel of Mark, in Syriac. 425-475.
22 pages from the Gospel of Luke,
in Syriac. 425-475.
Four pages from the Gospel of John,
in Syriac. 425-475.
● Syriac 30. The copyists who made this Syriac manuscript
of saints’ biographies in 779 (181 folios) recycled
Eight pages of the Gospel of
John, in Greek. 500s.
44 pages of
the Gospel of Mark, in Syriac. 450-600.
69 pages of the Gospel of Matthew,
in Syriac. 450-600.
98 pages of
the Gospel of Luke, in Syriac. 450-600.
72 pages of
the Gospel of John, in Syriac. 450-600.
 |
| Syriac 5 - Something else is there! |
● Syriac 5. A Syriac manuscript of the Epistles of Paul
(198 folios). 500s.
● Syriac 7. St. The copyists who made most of this Syriac
lectionary in the 1000s (73 folios) recycled
Four pages
of Hebrews, in Armenian (erkatagir script).
800s.
Four pages of the Gospel of
Matthew, in Greek. 500s.
● Syriac NF
Two pages
of the Gospel of John in CPA (early script).
500-700.
16 pages of
the Gospel of Mark in CPA (early script).
500-700.
20 pages of
the Gospel of Matthew in CPA (early script).
500-700.
18 pages of
the Gospel of Luke in CPA (early script).
500-700.
● Syriac NF
Eight pages
of the Gospel of John, in Syriac (Old Estrangela script). 450-550.
Eight pages of the Gospel of Luke,
in Syriac (Old Estrangela script). 450-550.
One page from Ephesians, in Syriac
(Estrangela script). 500s.
Two pages from First Thessalonians,
in Syriac (Estrangela script). 500s.
Two pages from Titus, in Syriac
(Estrangela script). 500s.
Six pages from Philemon, in Syriac
(Estrangela script). 500s.
Two pages from Hebrews, in Syriac
(Estrangela script). 500s.
● Syriac NF
● Syriac NF
Four pages
of the Gospel of Matthew, in Syriac (Estrangela script). 500s.
Six pages
of the Gospel of Luke, in Syriac (Estrangela script). 500s.
Two pages from the Gospel of John,
in Syriac (Estrangela script). 500s.
● Syriac NF
● Syriac NF
Six pages
of the Gospel of Matthew, in Syriac (Estrangela script). 500s.
Eight pages of the Gospel of Mark,
in Syriac (Estrangela script). 500s.
18 pages of the Gospel of Luke, in
Syriac (Estrangela script). 500s.
Four pages of the Gospel of John,
in Syriac (Estrangela script). 500s.
● Syriac NF
● Syriac NF
14 pages of
the Gospel of Matthew in CPA. 550-700.
66 pages of the Gospel of Mark, in
CPA (calligraphic script). 550-700.
● Syriac NF
● Syriac NF
Stay tuned for more news about the Greek texts hiding in the lower writing of the palimpsests at Mount Sinai!
5 comments:
I am following this with great interest James. Thanks again!
This sounds so amazing.
Very neat! Staying tuned.
Have you seen The Shepherd Of Hermas yet in Syriac?
only just now discovered this story. It is fascinating. such a treasure trove of history
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