The Museum of the Bible has found a medieval New Testament manuscript that mysteriously went missing from the University of Athens in 1991.
According to CBN News, was written in Greek and contains four canonical Gospelscopied by a monk in the 1100s.
The Museum of the Bible and the University of Athens have agreed to display the manuscript at a temporary exhibit that runs through October 1 in Washington DC. The museum will also post images of the text on its website so anyone can study it.
“It is with great pleasure that we are announcing the return to the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens of an important manuscript, a unique Gospel book of the 12th century that went missing three decades ago from one of our libraries and whose whereabouts had remained unknown,” said Professor Antonopoulou with the university’s department of philology.
“The manuscript is a witness to the original Greek text of the Gospels and to its use in medieval times in the Byzantine Empire. Its return is of paramount importance for the unity of the manuscript collection of the university, to which it had been bequeathed by a distinguished former professor of our university and once prime minister of Greece, Spyridon Lambros, as well as for scholarly purposes and reasons of cultural heritage.”
The discovery also comes after the museum undertook a major project to analyze the origins of more than 3,000 items in its collection.
For several years, Museum of the Bible has been undergoing an intensive review of all holdings in its collection and items on loan from more than 40 lending institutions and collectors from around the world,” said Museum of the Bible Chief Curatorial Officer, Dr. Jeffrey Kloha.
“With the assistance of Thomas R. Kline, an attorney with Cultural Heritage Partners whom we engaged in 2017, our staff have painstakingly researched some 3,200 objects and artifacts in our collection and on exhibit at the museum.
“Our intent has been to verify the provenance of these items and confirm they meet our acquisition policies and museum association guidelines. If not, we follow cultural heritage practices and, in a case like this, return them to the owner so they can be cared for and studied in their original setting.”
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