Recent research in Egypt / by W.M. Flinders Petrie.

  • Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), 1853-1942.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Recent research in Egypt / by W.M. Flinders Petrie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/8 (page 575)
    disciple among tbe gospel writers, certainly wrote far later, when all his ways had changed from the days of his fisher life on the Sea of Galilee. Hence there appears no rival to the obvious position of Mat- thew as the first recorder of the sayings of his Master compiled in the Sermon on the Mount. The leaf of Matthew’s Gospel is of great interest in the literary his- tory of the Gos])els. Hitherto we have had no manuscripts older than the second great ecclesiastical settlement under Theodosius. Now we have a piece two ages earlier—before the first settlement of things under Constantine at the council of Nicma. Here, in the middle of the third century, we find that the beginning of the Gospel, the most artificial, and probably the latest, part, the introductory genealogy and account of the Nativity was exactly in its present form. This gives us the greatest confidence that the Gospel as we have it dates from the time of the great persecutions. Such are some of the astonishing and far-reaching results that Egypt has given us within three years,past. All the most important ages of history seem to suddenly stand out with a vividness and clearness which has hardly any parallel in the history of discovery. What may not three years more show us? Dendera, Kena, Cairo, Egypt.