Oldest Chrisitan Bible- The Codex Sinaiticus
4th Century Holy Bible Now Available to Scholars
Jul 19, 2009
The Codex Sinaiticus was written in the the fourth century and contains the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament. The Old Testament found here is the version know as the Septuagint. This was the version adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians. The Codex itself has been heavily annotated by early correctors.
It is hard to overstate the importance of the Codex Sinaiticus as there is only one other nearly complete version of the Christian Bible, the Codex Vaticanus, of a similarly ancient date. Any older versions only contain small portions of text. Therefore the significance of the Codex Sinaiticus for early Biblical interpretation and the general history of book-making is invaluable.
Codex's Importance to Biblical History
The manuscript is important because of the many layers of revisions that were made through the years. Some were written by the original scribes in the fourth century while others were as late as the 12th century. The scribes' annotations and corrections ranged from the alteration of one letter to the insertion of whole sentences.
During the fourth century a consensus was developing over what material would become part of the canon for Christian communities. The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the earliest complete collections of such canonical books, providing for further insight into the foundations of Christianity. As scholars come to better understand the base text of the codex and its subsequent corrections, a clearer picture of ancient Christianity will come into focus.
Further points of interest are the inclusion of books not included in the Hebrew Bible and regarded by Protestants as apocryphal such as Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 and 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach. At the end of the New Testament in the Codex Sinaiticus are the apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas.
Controversial History of the Codex Sinaiticus
The complete text was once found exclusively in the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt. However a German scholar named Constantine Tischendorf, came to possess certain portions of the codex which he brought to Germany and Russia in the mid 19th century. Some controversy exists over whether he took, was loaned, or purchased the text, but much of it eventually found its way to the British Library.
Today, the Codex Sinaiticus is shared by four owners, the Monastery of St. Catherine, the British Library, the University Library in Leipzig, Germany and the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. On March 9, 2005, a Partnership Agreement was signed for the conservation and publication of all surviving pages and fragments of Codex.
Those who found this article interesting may enjoy Oldest Image of St. Paul Discovered in Rome and Stigmata: Mystics and Devout Who Bore The Wounds of Christ.
Sources:
- CNN.com
- Members.Bib-Arch.org
- CodexSinaiticus.org
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