They are not known ever to have left the monastery although, as the surrounding area was occupied by Muslims from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, it is possible that they may have remained hidden in a cave for centuries, and then rediscovered. The Gospels are housed in Ethiopia's Abba Garima Monastery. 1100 or later on the basis of palaeographic analysis.
Western scholarship had previously believed both gospels to date from c. As such, they represent amongst the earliest versional witnesses to the early Byzantine text-type of the Gospels, and are the oldest surviving Ethiopian manuscripts of any kind known to modern scholars. Together, the two manuscripts provide the major witness to the Ethiopic version of the Gospels and have been applied as proof texts for the creation of critical editions of the Ethiopic Gospels by Rochus Zuurmond ( Gospel of Mark, 1989 Gospel of Matthew, 2001) and Michael G. 390–570, while counterpart dating of samples from Garima 1 proposed a date of c. Monastic tradition holds that they were composed close to the year 500, a date supported by recent radiocarbon analysis samples from Garima 2 proposed a date of c. Garima 2, the earlier of the two, is believed to be the earliest surviving complete illuminated Christian manuscript.
The Garima Gospels are two ancient Ethiopic Gospel Books. Early illuminated Christian manuscripts Evangelist portrait of Mark from Garima 2, likely the earlier of the two Garima Gospels
