AND HISTORICAL RESEAKCH UPON THE NKW TESTAMENT. 147 



the text of the Gospels Las impressed the foremost New 

 Testament scholars of the day. This is by no means strange. 

 The Palimpsest contains all Four Gospels, with the names 

 Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John at the top of almost every page. 

 Its age is a point of prime importance. One indication of this 

 is its relation to the Diatessaron composed from the Four 

 Gospels in the period 150-172. It is said by Syriac scholars to 

 contain a number of readings, or turns of expression, which are 

 peculiar to this Palimpsest, and the natural inference is that 

 Tatian, who was of Greek parentage but born in Assyria, 

 composed the Diatessaron in its final form in Syriac from these 

 Syriac Gospels found in the Palim/psest. Professor Adolf 

 Harnack, in a notable article published in the Preussische 

 Jahrhilcher, May, 1898, after speaking of the discovery of the 

 Apology of Aristides by Professor Kendel Harris, and of the 

 Diatessaron of Tatian, says : — 



" But of still greater value was the find which we owe to a 

 learned Scotch Lady, Mrs. Lewis. . . As the text is almost 

 completely preserved,"^ this Syrus Sinaiticus is one of the most 

 important witnesses ; nay, it is extremely probable that it is the 

 most important witness for our Gospels." 



A very elaborate and learned article in the Churcli Quarterly 

 Reviev: (London) for April, 1903, after considering the discus- 

 sions of Hjelt, G William, Zahn, and Burkitt on the dates of the 

 four oldest Syriac versions of the Gospels, places them in the 

 following; order as to ao-e : — 



1. The J^Qwiii Shiaitic Paliinpsest ; 2. Diatessaron ; 3. Cureton- 

 ian ; 4. Peshitta. If the Lewis Palimpsest is older than the 

 Diatessaron, Harnack is certainly right in his estimate of the 

 value of this discovery ; for it shows us all Four Gospels already 

 translated into a different language from that in which they 

 were written. 



One of the scholars named above, Professor Arthur Hjelt, 

 of Helsingfors University, has made a recent visit to the 

 St. Katharine Convent to clear up remaining doubts about 



^ Seventeen pages of what seems to have been a total (»f 301 pages of 

 this manuscript were missing, and have never been recovered. The 

 Lewis Sinaitic Syriac manuscript is thus found to contain all the four 

 Gospels except these seventeen pages, and such passages as Mark xvi, 

 9-20 ; John v, 4, and vii, 53 to viii, 11, omissions found in the oldest 

 Greek MSS. These omissions are regarded as amoug the evidences of 

 the very early origin of this version. 



L 2 



