ANCIENT BOOK OF PSALMS

ANCIENT BOOK OF PSALMS

ABC News International published an article today announcing the finding of midieval book of Psalms. You can access the article here.

As a Bible history enthusaist, I revel in findings such as this supposedly 800-1000 year old copy of the book of Psalms. If this dating is accurate, this book was owned by an Irish, Catholic, Christian sometime between 1oo6 and 1206 AD. This is well before the Reformation and smack dab in the middle of the Renaissance period. The Catholic church reigned supreme during this period and therefore, it is no surprise that this copy of the Psalms is written in Latin.

In all probability this book was owned by a monastary or perhaps by an individual monk who translated and bound it himself. This is most probable for several reasons. One, a book like this would have been well outside the price range of the common man in those days. The vast majority lived in abject poverty. This argues for monastic ownership. Two, binding materials were extremely expensive and time comsuming to produce, therefore, velum bindings were almost always extremely thin. But the binding on this codex is said to be "leather velum, very thick, wallet in appearance." This means the production of this codex was a special project and argues for individual ownership. Three, monks would have been the only people educated enough to read and write at a level of proficiency capable of producing a work like this. The vast majority were completely illiterate during this time period. This once again argues for monastic origin.

We won't know much more about this treasure for a good long while since the pages are stuck together due to 800 to 1000 years of emersion in an Irish bog. The only reason we can know as much as we do now is becasue the book was found open to Psalm 83, which gaves archaeologists a look at the text. Perhaps as studies continue and pages are separated, a date and name will be discovered! Then we will know for certain what we can now only speculate. Regardless, this is an exhilerating discovery and one that I look forward with great anticipation to hearing more about.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shane Morgan