New NASA technology reveals ancient texts

Because paper and parchment were scarce in biblical and classical times, scribes often wrote newer messages over older documents.

Called palimpsests, from a Greek word meaning “rubbed again,” these might have a surface writing in, say, Medieval Latin and underneath it much older messages in Greek, Syriac (a form of Aramaic), Arabic and other languages.

The library of the St. Catherine Monastery at Mount Sinai in Egypt contains several thousand documents, many of which are palimpsests. Until now, because of their brittleness, many of these documents could be read only in part and others not at all.

Enter NASA technology. Led by Michael White, director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquities and Christian Origins at the University of Texas, scholars from several universities are beginning to decipher these ancient writings.

The NASA super cameras, developed originally for military surveillance and scientific surveys and adapted for work at the St. Catherine library, now can reveal in amazing detail not only smudged or damaged surface portions but also the earliest and most intriguing strata of the palimpsests. Incredibly, these cameras even make it possible to read documents wholly or partly destroyed by fire.

And what has the Texas-led team discovered so far? Among other things, an extremely ancient portion of the Gospel of John, perhaps dating from the second century and which contains wording missing in the conventional biblical text. With similar NASA technology, White’s team of students and scholars has uncovered with surgical precision walls, rooms and artifacts from the oldest synagogue in Europe at Ostia, the ancient port city near Rome.

Still in its infancy, this combination of linguistics, archaeology and NASA technology promises to expand our knowledge of the biblical world. Exciting stuff indeed.

Harold Raley is a linguist, professor and writer who lives in Friendswood. He can be reached at haroldraley(at)sbcglobal.net.