Mummy mask reveals oldest gospel in the world

(Photo: Professor Craig Evans)

The discovery of a fragment of the Gospel of Mark, believed to be the oldest known biblical text, could provide more insight into the life of Jesus, according to researchers.

Mark is considered the earliest gospel. It's also the shortest.

There's one problem with it, however. Although it's the scripture written closely to Jesus' existence, it doesn't contain a lot of information about the Messiah's life. It avoided that narrative concerned with Jesus' birth and doesn't shed much light on the events following his death.

The Gospel of Mark also has some differences when it comes to significant places from the other gospels, like Jesus' interaction with his cousin, John the Baptist.

Questions about the events in Jesus' life could soon be answered once the findings on a papyrus discovered to contain texts from the Gospel of Mark are published sometime this year.

Craig Evans, professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College, is part of the research team that discovered a fragment of the gospel in a mummy mask. Based on their work, it could be the oldest known copy of a gospel, which they dated back to 90 A.D, LiveScience reports.

It isn't an unusual place to find a piece of text because ancient people who could not afford mummy masks made from gold and jewels would opt for a cheaper alternative, like papyrus. But since papyrus was also expensive, people would look for used paper—ones that had been written on—to create masks.

In this particular case, the papyrus used contained texts from the New Testament.

This could be the very first time that a first century fragment has been discovered. Despite scepticism from other scholars, Evans claimed that this is legit. His team used carbon dating, handwriting analysis and comparison to other documents found in the same mask to accurately gauge when the text was written.

A non-disclosure agreement prevents Evans and other experts involved from providing further information about the study, so this means the public will have to wait until the findings are published this year.

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