Scientists find hidden chapter of Bible missing for centuries

Scientists have found an old version of a Bible chapter that was hidden underneath a section of text for more than 1,500 years.

Grigory Kessel, a historian at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, discovered an extended, unseen version of Chapter 12 in the Book of Matthew which he found at the Vatican Library earlier this year.

He said he used ultraviolet photography to see the earlier text under three layers of words written on a palimpsest, an ancient manuscript that people used to write over other words that left traces of the original writing behind.

The manuscript shows some differences from modern translations of the text.

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For instance, according to a press release about the discovery, the original Greek version of Matthew 12:1 said: "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat."

The new translation, on the other hand said: "began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them."

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