Last modified on May 29, 2025, at 15:18

Codex Sinaiticus

An image of Codex Sinaiticus
The Codex Sinaiticus,[1] or ℵ (aleph), meaning "the Sinai book," is a fourth-century (300s A.D.) Greek manuscript of the Bible and superb online resource for studying it.[2] It ranks with the Codex Vaticanus as an independent early confirmation of the entire New Testament.[3]

In addition to the now-standard 27 books of the New Testament, Sinaiticus includes the Epistle of Barnabas and most of the Shepherd of Hermas. The Old Testament given in the codex is a Greek translation called the Septuagint. This is the version of scripture quoted by Jesus and the apostles. Sinaiticus includes various works now classified as apocryphal by Protestants, including 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 and 4 Maccabees, Wisdom, and Sirach.

The codex was found in 1859 by German Bible scholar Tischendorf at the Monastery of St. Catherine at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Tischendorf claimed to have saved the codex as it was being fed to a fire by monks.

Tischendorf published a print facsimile in 1862 and presented the manuscript to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, his sponsor. A photographic facsimile edition was published by Oxford University Press in 1911. In 1933, the Soviet government sold the manuscript to the British Museum. In 1975, the monks of St. Catherine discovered numerous parchment fragments. Among these fragments were twelve missing leaves from the Codex Sinaiticus.

There are 347 leaves of the codex in the British Library in London. Some 199 of these are from the Old Testament, while 148 of the New Testament. Forty-three Old Testament leaves are at the University of Leipzig in Germany, twelve at St. Catherine's Monastery, and six at the National Library of Russia. In July 2009, the Codex Sinaiticus Project used color digitized images of leaves kept at four institutions to unite the codex online in a fabulous resource for all.[4][5]

Gospel of Mark

Codex Sinaiticus is a primary source for the Gospel of Mark, which has been studied extensively in this rendition.[6] Generally, there are fewer ancient manuscripts and contemporary commentary about the Gospel of Mark than for the other Gospels.

Codex Sinaiticus omits the Mark 16:9-20 (see Mark ending), thereby confirming that this passage was likely appended later.

References

  1. ↑ Pronounced KOW·daks seye-neye-tuh-kuhs - say "Sinai" followed by "-ticus".
  2. ↑ https://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/
  3. ↑ The Codex Sinaiticus reportedly has more mistakes than Vaticanus, but is also more complete as the Vaticanus is missing a few substantial sections such as the last part of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Over the millennia, nine scribes attempted to correct minor errors in the Sinaiticus, see "Bible (texts)," New Catholic Encyclopedia (2003).
  4. ↑ The Codex Sinaiticus Website
  5. ↑ "Oldest known Bible to go online," BBC, 3 August 2005.
  6. ↑ chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://jbtc.org/v13/Head2008.pdf

See also

External links