Featured Image Credit: Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg/Getty Images/Dinodia Photo
Topics: News, World News, History, Religion
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: News, World News, History, Religion
A manuscript dating back over 1,000 years has given rare insight into Jesus' life.
The newly deciphered text is believed to be around 1,600 years old and allegedly omitted from the Bible because there were questions over it's authenticity.
The manuscript was written on papyrus and has been stored at a library in Hamburg, Germany, as it was thought to be insignificant.
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But experts stumbled across the document while analyzing manuscripts, with one person spotting Jesus' name.
It's since been revealed that that the script contains information about Jesus Christ's early childhood - which has now been labelled as the earliest known account on the topic.
Experts have also said that the text is the earliest surviving copy of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
Speaking about the significance of the recent discovery, Lajos Berkes, a theology lecturer and one of the two men who deciphered the document, said in a press release: "The papyrus fragment is of extraordinary interest for research.
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"It was thought to be part of an everyday document, such as a private letter or a shopping list, because the handwriting seems so clumsy.
"We first noticed the word Jesus in the text. Then, by comparing it with numerous other digitized papyri, we deciphered it letter by letter and quickly realized that it could not be an everyday document."
Professor Gabriel Nocchi Macedo, the second individual to decipher the document, further said of their find: "Our findings on this late antique Greek copy of the work confirm the current assessment that the Infancy Gospel according to Thomas was originally written in Greek."
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While significant, the text is only short and is only 13 lines-long.
It's penned in Greek letters which originates from late antique Egypt, which was a Christian society at that time, New York Post reports.
As to what the script says, apparently it discusses the beginning of the 'vivification of the sparrows'. This is a story about story in which a young Jesus turns 12 clay sparrows into live birds.
It's believed Jesus was five years old at the time of the story, and it's described as the late Messiah's second miracle.
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Like this recent discovery, other facts about Jesus' life are still being made to this day.
Just last year, the site where Jesus 'healed a blind man' was unearthed after 2,000 years.
The Pool of Siloam, located in the southern part of the City of David archaeological site in Jerusalem, Israel, is allegedly the place where Jesus told a blind man that he could see and a miracle was performed in the pool.
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The site has been hailed as having 'historic, national and international significance' and will be open for the public to see.