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At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat (Matthew 12:1, ESV).
In this Interruption, we are going to learn a new word.
It’s “palimpsest.”
Palimpsest, pronounced “pa luhmp sest,” is an obscure word that serious Bible scholars immediately recognize. If you don’t know this word, realize that it’s the goal of Interruptions to make us feel guilty about things that we don’t know.
And thus, stimulate our brain cells to learn.
But before we elevate our Biblical scholarship, please understand that the Bible was inspired by God and written by humans over a timeframe of 1,500 years. After writing each book of the Bible, God supernaturally preserved each book by also using humans.
We can mess things up, but God doesn’t.
When reading the Bible, we can be confident that the content of God’s Word is the same as it was thousands of years ago.
Let’s get back to palimpsest. Technically it is an ancient manuscript in which the original writing has been erased to make room for a later writing.
Recently a double palimpsest was found containing Matthew 12:1.
Yep, today, not only do we learn about a single palimpsest but also a double palimpsest—or original writing scratched out to make room for new writing, then this new writing scratched out to make room for another new writing.
Let’s add another word to our developing scholastic repertoire, not only palimpsest but also scratchings!
Why was all this writing and scratching needed? Why didn’t the ancients go to their printer and grab a few new sheets of paper from the tray? Because a significant portion of old Bible manuscripts were written on parchment (prepared animal skins), which were more durable and couldn’t fit in the paper tray of printers.
We should also consider that in the ancient economy, a single sheet of parchment cost the equivalent of $55 per page today.
That’s why the ancients did a lot of scratching.
Recently a scholar using ultraviolet light on a palimpsest located in the Vatican discovered Matthew 12:1 underneath two layers of writing—a double palimpsest. Dated back to the third century, it’s perhaps the oldest known translation of a New Testament verse.
What’s the significance?
The Matthew 12:1 verse is a translation of the original Greek. It’s dated about 250 A.D. And a translation going back that far means the Greek manuscript it was translated from goes back even further, probably within a few years of the Gospel of Matthew’s actual writing.
Let’s compare this to Homer’s Iliad, considered to be the first major work of European literature. Written in 750 B.C., with the earliest fragment of this writing from about 350 A.D., or 1,100 years after it was written.
The Bible—and any translation of it read today—has better attestation of its authenticity than any other book in the ancient world. God has inspired and preserved His Word for us today.
And all this confirmation from a scratched palimpsest!