Ancient Manuscripts of the Bible . Many others besides students
of biblical texts and ancient MSS. were thrilled a few days ago by the news of the discovery of 190 new leaves of Greek biblical papyri, fragments of the Old and New Testaments, and a portion of the lost Book of Enoch, the apocryphal work quoted in the Epistle of St. Jude. Probably they were found in Egypt, but we only know that Mr. Chester Beatty, whose collection of MSS. is known by his generous loans of his treasures, possesses them, that they were tenderly separated in Berlin, and that Sir Frederic Kenyon has studied them and told us about them in The Times. Most are of the third century, but the earliest are of a not late date in the second century and so are actually the earliest known. When ignorant people airily doubt the " authenticity of the Bible," we wish that they could realize how far the age and wealth of bible codices exceeds anything of the kind in classical texts which they readily accept as " authentic." The Times published a photograph of one leaf, giving a passage from Romans xi, much more legible to the inexpert than many an English deed of the sixteenth century. Such treasures, witnessing to Christianity and to its scholarly treatment eighteen centuries ago, abound with romance and awe.
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