Earliest gospels acquired by Vatican

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From discovery.com: Earliest Gospels Acquired by Vatican.

The world’s oldest known copy of the Gospel of Saint Luke, containing the earliest known Lord’s Prayer, and one of the oldest copies of the Gospel of Saint John have been acquired by the Vatican, according to reports from Rome.

A nonsectarian New York nonprofit, Pave the Way, helped facilitate the acquisition.

Now stored in the Vatican’s Library, the documents are for the first time available for scholarly review. In the future, excerpts may be put on display for the general public.

Collectively known as the Bodmer Papyrus XIV-XV, the documents date to 175-225 A.D. and consist of 51 leaves from a manuscript that originally consisted of 72 leaves folded in the middle to form a single quire, according to Father Richard Donahoe, rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham, Alabama, who also helped with the acquisition.

"The papyrus authenticates that which has been passed down over the millennia," Fr. Donahoe told Discovery News.

He believes it is even possible the texts may have been copied from the original gospels.

Many of the earliest Biblical texts are [continue]

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