Codex Sinaiticus

It sometimes seems to be an oxymoron when we talk about discoveries pertaining to ancient scripture. If it is so old, how can we "discover" something new.

Well, beginning last July (2009), anyone with access to the Internet can look at one of the oldest and most complete biblical manuscripts in the world. The document is called "Codex Sinaiticus" and can be found at its own website: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/

A little historical background: This hand written book with a binding was found by Constantin Tischendorf (1815-1874), a professor of theology at Leipzig, in the monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai. On a visit in 1844 he found some leaves of the Old Testament manuscript, and in a later visit in 1859 he saw the New Testament segment. The codex, written in Greek, probably dates from the 4th century, and most scholars believe that it was written in Egypt.

Tischendorf arranged for the Czar of Russia to buy the document, and so it was acquired by the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg. It was sold in 1933 to the trustees of the British Museum.

Codex Sinaiticus is considered a most authoritative text, and quite early. It was instrumental in the "Revised" versions of the scripture which were begun in 1881. This was because it pre-dates manuscripts on which many modern European editions were based before that time.

One of my personal treasures is an 1870 edition of the New Testament, in English, with comparisons between the Authorized Edition of the time with materials from the then newly discovered manuscripts, edited by Tischendorf, (pictured above.) As you might imagine, this little book was very controversial in 1870!

WELL, HERE IS WHERE WE GET TO THE "NEWNESS." Prior to this year, if one wished to see the ancient manuscript in total one would have to travel to four countries, because portions of the document are at The British Museum, the National Library of Russia, St. Catherine's Monastery and Leipzig University Library. Now all of the pages are photographed and may be examined at the above website - moving from page to page over the Internet. The project is online, and there will be further developments as time goes by. This is truly phenomenal.

So on this cold January morning, from my office in Rock Island, I was able to log on and look at the text for next Sunday in a 1600 year old manuscript! This really democratizes biblical research and makes what was very obscure immediately accessible. Wow!