1,500-year-old handwritten bible kept in Ankara, ministry confirms

[Territory]

1,500-year-old handwritten bible kept in Ankara, ministry confirms

The minister of culture and tourism on Thursday confirmed media reports suggesting that a 1,500-year-old Bible that was discovered by Turkish police during an anti-smuggling operation in 2000 is being kept in Ankara today.

According to media reports on Thursday, the Bible was seized from a gang smuggling artifacts during a police operation in southern Turkey in 2010 and reportedly preserves its originality and many traces of the period in which it originated.

The gang was reportedly convicted of smuggling various items seized during the operation, including the Bible, and all the artifacts were kept in a safe at an Ankara courthouse. The Bible, which was reportedly kept at the courthouse for years, was only recently handed over to the care of the Ankara Ethnography Museum.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay said on Thursday that the ministry has received a copy of Bible from the Ankara courthouse which dates back to 1,500 years ago and is thought to have been written in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. He said the Bible needs restoration and it will be opened to public display after this. The Turkish media reports also said on Thursday that the Vatican has requested that Turkey allow it to examine the 1,500-year-old Bible; however, the Vatican Embassy in Ankara denied the reports on Thursday suggesting that the Vatican had asked Turkey to examine the copy of Bible in Ankara.

The leather-bound Bible, which is said to be worth TL 40 million, was written on leather sheets and is now under protection as it is regarded as a valuable cultural asset.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=378854

[Territory]

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff399/cenkcenk/etnografya-muzesine-teslim-edilen-el-yazmasi-incil_4.jpg

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff399/cenkcenk/etnografya-muzesine-teslim-edilen-el-yazmasi-incil_3.jpg

[Silent Reader]

Seems like the non-extended version from the number of pages :)

[Territory]

it would be interesting to compare the modern bible of today with the 1500 year old barnabas bible.

[tercio67]

Seems like the non-extended version from the number of pages :)


it would be interesting to compare the modern bible of today with the 1500 year old barnabas bible.

It all depends on which 'flavor' of christianity the bible adhered to.

[anka]

Did they have paperclips back then? Now THAT's a discovery!

[Mackie]

It all depends on which 'flavor' of christianity the bible adhered to.

That's why the Vatican wants to send his special squad. ;-)

[tercio67]

That's why the Vatican wants to send his special squad. ;-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAn7baRbhx4

[Blue Monkey]

My God..... o.O The Turkish government has to digitalize this Bible now!

[OrangeWolf]

Is that written in Syriac?

[mokokko]

Actually its not certain its a bible or not. Assyrian church priests told that that book could be ordinary pray book. Historian Hamza Hocagil told that its a fake .

[2Sheds_Jackson]

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff399/cenkcenk/etnografya-muzesine-teslim-edilen-el-yazmasi-incil_4.jpg

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff399/cenkcenk/etnografya-muzesine-teslim-edilen-el-yazmasi-incil_3.jpg

I sincerely hope that's not a 1500 year old book being kept open like that with a couple of paper clips :cantbeli:

[Slinky]

if it survived 1500 years and the the hands of smugglers in god knows where, im pretty sure it will be just fine :-)

[jetsetter]

It appears to be written in Syriac, a dialect of Middle Aramaic. If genuine it is a great discovery. Hopuefully the Turkish authorities treat the text with the respect and care it deserves.

[Territory]

Syriacs stake their claim on 1,500-year old Bible

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The Syriac Universal Alliance penned a letter to Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay for a 1,500-year-old Aramaic Bible that remained in the state’s possession for 12 years to be handed over to them, claiming it belonged to the Syriac Christian community.

“The historic Bible bears great material significance for us. If [authorities] do not turn it over [to us], then let us open a joint museum as Turks and Syriacs in the Midyat district of [the southeastern province of] Mardin to exhibit the Bible there,” Şabo Hanna, the head of the Syriac Universal Alliance’s Culture Union Commission, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Law enforcement officials seized the historic Bible, which was written in the ancient Aramaic language using the Syriac alphabet, in 2000 in Turkey’s Mediterranean region. The Bible was then stored in Ankara’s Justice Hall where it stood in waiting for eight years before it was transferred to the Ethnography Museum. The Vatican also placed an official request to examine the scripture, according to reports.

“Many of our monasteries and churches in the region of Turabdin [Syriacs’ traditional homeland in southeastern Turkey] have been plundered. Nothing is left back. All kinds of seized artifacts [could be] exhibited in the culture museum-to-be,” Hanna said.

A group of 100 people would travel to Turkey to meet with officials, including Günay, and hold a series of talks in Ankara, he added.

Responding to a question about how they knew the Bible originated from the Syriac community, Hanna said they did not get the opportunity to examine the Bible closely but that it was written in the eastern dialect of the Syriac language.

Christian groups across Asia Minor had produced many Greek and Aramaic texts in history.



http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syr...&NewsCatID=339 (http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syriacs-stake-their-claim-on-1500-year-old-bible.aspx?PageID=238&NID=15034&NewsCatID=339)