Recovery of ancient Greek, Roman texts holds immense promise

In the last weeks, developments have taken place which may forever change our understanding of history, and perhaps even our understanding of fundamental elements of Christianity.

I don’t mean Cardinal Ratzinger’s election as Pope Benedict XVI. I’m talking about a collaboration of Oxford scholars and Brigham Young University scientists to decipher a collection of ancient Greek and Roman texts.

Over a century ago, hundreds of ancient texts were discovered in what amounted to an ancient Egyptian landfill. The works were vast enough that they could increase the number of known Greek and Roman works by 20 percent. One problem: the texts, written on papyrus, were almost wholly illegible. They’d been significantly darkened and decayed over nearly two millennia.

Classics scholars at Oxford recently teamed up with the BYU scientists to work toward understanding the ancient works, called the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. The sheets of papyrus, upon which the works are written, are placed between glass and exposed to the infrared spectrum. The faded, 2,000-year-old ink responds visibly to the infrared light, and the exposed documents can be photographed for reading and study.

It’s an amazing scientific and historic breakthrough, and will undoubtedly increase our knowledge and understanding of Greek and Roman civilization and writing. This month, scholars employing this technology unearthed previously unknown works by such influential Greek authors as Sophocles and Euripides, the fathers of tragedy.

The scholars and scientists have only scratched the surface of the 400,000 documents and scraps. It is believed that even greater texts are included in the collection, possibly even lost gospels of early Christianity. If so, the Oxyrhynchus Papyri will be the most significant discovery for Christianity since the early Gnostic gospels were discovered at Nag Hamadi in 1945.

Almost every aspect of our culture has been built upon the culture of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Philosophy, architecture, our appreciation of drama – all trace their roots to aspects of ancient societies.

Understanding more about ancient culture through these texts might allow us to better understand our own customs. Furthermore, if lost gospels are indeed among the texts, they may shed light on the life of Jesus and early Christians; a fascinating prospect during a time of change in the Catholic Church.