Historic Women of Faith: The Twin “Lady Bible Hunters”
In the first of my series on Historic Women of Faith, I’d like to introduce you to the twin “Lady Bible Hunters.” Scottish twins, Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson were born in Irvine, Scotland in 1843. They were raised by their father after their mother died tragically when they were only two weeks old. Agnes and Margaret lived extraordinary lives—like Indiana-Jones-in-a-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark kind of lives. They were called “Lady Bible Hunters” because they spent considerable effort, expense, and time to travel to hunt for ancient manuscripts. And, their incredible accomplishments have been acclaimed across the world. Curious?
Father’s Irresistible Educational Challenge
Agnes’ and Margaret’s father, John Smith, served on the board of their school, the Irvine Royal Academy. Taking an active interest in their studies, he “educated his daughters more or less as if they had been boys…to argue and to reason.” And, he allowed them the freedom to explore, on foot and horseback, their hometown and the surrounding area.[1]
Valuing education, independent thinking, and the exploration of foreign cultures, John crafted an irresistible challenge to his girls. He promised to take Agnes and Margaret to visit each country whose language they learned. Both excelled at languages, and they embraced his challenge. They eventually mastered French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Their childhood education concluded with a year each of boarding school and finishing school.[2] These early travel opportunities with their father laid important groundwork for their future. In their adult years, the twins continued to prioritize language study and they learned Greek (ancient and modern), Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic, which was Jesus’s native language).
Agnes’s Crowning Achievement: Her Discovery of the Sinaitic Syriac
In February 1892, on the twin’s first trip to St. Catherine’s Monastery in Mt. Sinai, Agnes Smith Lewis entered a small dark room and discovered an ancient palimpsest. Palimpsests are recycled manuscripts in which the ink was washed so it could be reused with new text. She found a palimpsest that had been recycled and overwritten with the biographies of female saints and martyrs. Agnes discovered that the text beneath the biographies held the earliest known manuscript of the four Gospels in Syriac–a fifth-century manuscript.
Agnes Smith Lewis’s discovery is called the Sinaitic Syriac, or Syriac Palimpsest. It was the most significant manuscript find since the discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus in 1859 by Constantin von Tischendorf. Agnes and her sister painstakingly photographed its’ pages, taking approximately three hundred photographs. Once back home, they developed their film in a make-shift darkroom. Agnes transcribed the manuscript into English and published it, A Translation of the Four Gospels from the Syriac Palimpsest, in 1894. They also made other significant contributions to New Testament research.
Five Fascinating Viewpoints of the “Lady Bible Hunters:”
- “God knows the hour of our end.” This was an oft-spoken truth by Agnes and Margaret. And, this undergirded their courage when their travels took a treacherous turn. Since God and God alone knows when you will die, worrying about it was a waste.
- Don’t settle for a “butterfly existence.”[3] The twins grew up in a modest Presbyterian church in Irvine called Burgher Church. And, from these roots, they embraced the principle “that one must do something worthwhile with one’s life. Everyone, no matter how humble their station, had a God-given calling—it was just a question of finding out what it might be.”[4] Agnes dissuaded women from a purposeless life—an endless repeat of luncheon to tea to dinner party—what she termed “a butterfly existence.”
- No chaperones required. When they were twenty-three, their father passed away unexpectedly. Agnes and Margaret consoled themselves by embarking on an ambitious trip to explore the Nile. They traveled from Scotland via London to Egypt, and then on to Jerusalem. They invited a former schoolmistress to travel with them— aware that in their era women traveling without a male escort was considered unwise, unsafe, and scandalous. Travel to the East was not without risk to their health from ailments such as dysentery, cholera, and other infectious diseases. They chose a circuitous route. A combination of ferries, trains, and carriages transported them across Europe to the Danube River. From there a steamboat took them to the Black Sea. And, a steamer at Constantinople took them to Alexandria. It was a year-long journey.
- Desire and determination are necessary drivers for life. The twins desired to walk where the desert-sojourning Israelites walked. They wanted to visit Mt. Sinai. They wanted to walk the valley where Moses presented the Ten Commandments to the people, and they wanted to visit St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai. Housed in this monastery’s closely-guarded library was a collection of ancient manuscripts.[5] There were many hurdles to overcome. They needed a letter of permission from the Archbishop of Mount Sinai for entry. They had to assemble photography equipment, hire a dragoman (guide), purchase tents and portable water filters, get pack animals, and pack enough food for the journey in and out, as well as, during their stay in Mt. Sinai. They traveled to Egypt nine times. The twins determined to follow their strong interest in Bible history.
- A “Greater Providence” guides. They believed that God guided them on their journeys and that he provided for them. The first time Agnes tried to go to Mt. Sinai, her trip was thwarted. Six years later, she counted herself fortunate that she had not been able to go sooner. In the interim, she had studied Syriac, had connected with scholars at the University of Cambridge who encouraged her work, and she had more familiarity with ancient manuscripts, among other positives.[6]
Conclusion
Janet Soskice wrote about the twin “Lady Bible Hunters” in her book, The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels. A new in-color copy of the Sinaitic Syriac is available for viewing at the Sinai Palimpsests Project website. Agnes and Margaret, each a wife and widowed, were linguistically gifted, courageous travel adventurers, biblical scholars, Bible hunters, photographers, and prolific authors of scholarly works. They could have chosen to live “a butterfly existence.” Instead, they diligently studied to learn the languages of the Bible and strategically went on rigorous and dangerous travel expeditions to places with biblical significance to hunt manuscripts. Trip to trip, they prioritized finding, photographing, transcribing, translating, and preserving ancient scriptural manuscripts. Their courage, grit, drive, and determination to pursue honorable work are worthy attributes to emulate.
What surprised you about Agnes and Margaret’s life? Which of their character qualities or life pursuits resonates with you?
[1] Janet Soskice, The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospel, (New York: Random House, Inc., 2009), 9.
[2] Soskice, The Sisters of Sinai, 19.
[3] Ibid, 56.
[4] Ibid, 15.
[5] Ibid, 99.
[6] Ibid, 126, 134.
Image: Paintings of Scottish twins Agnes Smith Lewis (left) and her sister Margaret Dunlop Gibson. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons)