.- Pope Benedict XVI expressed his gratitude and profound satisfaction upon receiving a papyrus containing one of the earliest known transcriptions of the New Testament. According to an L'Osservatore Romano article, the Holy Father spent time examining the famous Papyrus Bodmer 14-15 this week.
The famous papyrus contains one of the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament, which dates back to the beginning of the 3rd century. It includes fragments from the Gospel of Luke (including chapter 11, where the Our Father is found) and the first fourteen chapters of John.
On Monday the Pontiff met with met with Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican librarian and archivist, as well as the papyrus’s donors, the Frank Hannah family.
Up to now the papyrus had been preserved in Cologny, near Geneva (Switzerland), at the headquarters of the Bodmer Foundation, which owned the document. Now it will be kept at the Vatican Apostolic Library.
The Holy Father expressed his gratitude and profound satisfaction for the privilege of receiving this important New Testament manuscript, which is of great historic, spiritual and critical value.
