Codex Sinaiticus
c. A.D. 350
Facsimiles
The Codex Sinaiticus, named because of its discovery at St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai, is generally regarded as the second most significant manuscript for the study of the history of the biblical text (second only to the Codex Vaticanus). Originally handwritten in the middle of the fourth century (c. A.D. 350), likely in Egypt, it was discovered at the St. Catherine’s Monastery by Constantine von Tischendorf, an archaeologist and textual critic from Leipzig in 1844. Tischendorf claims to have seen pages of the ancient manuscript in a wastebasket, readied for burning, and was granted permission to take 43 leaves back to the Leipzig University Library (where they still remain). On a later trip he was able to acquire 347 additional leaves for Tsar Alexander II of St. Petersburg, Russia, which were later sold to the British Museum in 1933. A few additional leaves were later found at St. Catherine’s Monastery.
The Codex Sinaiticus manuscript was written by at least three different scribes, and originally contained the entirety of the Old Testament from the Greek Septuagint, the entire Greek New Testament, along with the apocryphal books of 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach, as well as the non-canonical Epistle of Barnabas and 'The Shepherd' of Hermas. Numerous leaves, especially from the Old Testament were lost or destroyed prior to Tischendorf’s discovery of the manuscript in the 19th century, but the New Testament leaves were essentially intact, making it particularly important for New Testament studies.
The parchment of this manuscript is comprised of both sheepskin and goatskin. The scribes wrote the text in Greek uncial letters (all capitals with no spacing, punctuation, or breathing marks (except where some were added by later scribes), with four columns on each page (two columns in the poetic books of the Old Testament). Perhaps the greatest detraction of this manuscript is that it was amended, corrected, and altered by numerous scribes throughout the centuries, who saw fit to change letters, words, and entire sentences of text, making it difficult to determine the original.
The Codex Sinaiticus manuscript was written by at least three different scribes, and originally contained the entirety of the Old Testament from the Greek Septuagint, the entire Greek New Testament, along with the apocryphal books of 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach, as well as the non-canonical Epistle of Barnabas and 'The Shepherd' of Hermas. Numerous leaves, especially from the Old Testament were lost or destroyed prior to Tischendorf’s discovery of the manuscript in the 19th century, but the New Testament leaves were essentially intact, making it particularly important for New Testament studies.
The parchment of this manuscript is comprised of both sheepskin and goatskin. The scribes wrote the text in Greek uncial letters (all capitals with no spacing, punctuation, or breathing marks (except where some were added by later scribes), with four columns on each page (two columns in the poetic books of the Old Testament). Perhaps the greatest detraction of this manuscript is that it was amended, corrected, and altered by numerous scribes throughout the centuries, who saw fit to change letters, words, and entire sentences of text, making it difficult to determine the original.
