The Palimpsests of Sinai: Christological Readings in Christian Palestinian Aramaic Gospel Fragments

Abstract

The palimpsests preserved at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai contain an important body of erased Christian Palestinian Aramaic Gospel material. Recovered through modern multispectral imaging, these fragments provide evidence for both the history of biblical translation and the Christological memory of Palestinian Melkite communities between Late Antiquity and the early medieval period. This article examines how the identity of Jesus is expressed through translated titles such as Messiah, Lord, Son of God, and Son of Man, together with passages concerning his authority, incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection. It argues that the fragments do not preserve an alternative or isolated Christology. Rather, they reveal the reception of canonical Gospel traditions within a distinctive Western Aramaic, liturgical, and monastic environment shaped by close dependence on Greek exemplars. The study also considers lectionary use, public proclamation, manuscript revision, parchment reuse, and the gradual disappearance of Christian Palestinian Aramaic as a literary language. The Sinai fragments are presented as both textual witnesses and theological artefacts that recover a Palestinian Christian voice confessing the crucified and risen Christ through a nearly lost Aramaic tradition.