The oldest manuscript describing Jesus’ childhood was found in Germany. This was reported by Arkeonews.
Research has shown that the manuscript was created 1,600 years ago. It represents the oldest surviving copy of the Gospel of Thomas. It describes events from Jesus’ childhood, such as clay figurines turning into living birds. Until now, the oldest version of this Bible was believed to be an 11th-century manuscript.
For decades the papyrus fragment was stored in the Hamburg State and University Library. It was thought that the document could be a Greek letter or a shopping list. In the new study, scientists deciphered the inscriptions (13 lines containing about 10 letters each) and compared them to other early Christian texts. Judging by the sloppy handwriting, the manuscript may have been written by a schoolboy or an aspiring monk.
“We first noticed the word ‘Jesus’ in the text. “We then decrypted it by comparing it with many other digitized papyri and quickly realized that this could not be an ordinary document,” the scientists said.
Previous scientists dug An ancient labyrinth used for ritual feasts in Crete.