Codex Sinaiticus Pdf
Sacha Weakland
Biblical scholar B. H. Streeter remarked there was a great agreement between the codex and the Vulgate of Jerome. According to him, Origen brought the Alexandrian text-type that was used in this codex to Caesarea, and it was subsequently employed by Jerome for his Latin revision.[24]
The codex can be dated with a reasonable degree of confidence between the early fourth century and the early fifth century.[38] It could not have been written before about 325 because it contains the Eusebian Canons, which is a terminus post quem. The terminus ante quem is less certain. Milne and Skeat relied on small cursive notes to assert that the date of the production of the codex was not likely to be much later than about 360.[3] More recent research suggests that these cursive notes could be as late as the early fifth century.[38]
The complete publication of the codex was made by Kirsopp Lake in 1911 (New Testament), and in 1922 (Old Testament). It was the full-sized black and white facsimile of the manuscript, "made from negatives taken from St. Petersburg by my wife and myself in the summer of 1908".[9]
The codex is now split into four unequal portions: 347 leaves in the British Library in London (199 of the Old Testament, 148 of the New Testament), 12 leaves and 14 fragments in the Saint Catherine's Monastery, 43 leaves in the Leipzig University Library, and fragments of 3 leaves in the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg.[6]
I did not feel free to accept the brilliant offers that were made to me to settle finally, or even for a few years, in the Russian capital. It was at Leipzig, therefore, at the end of three years, and after three journeys to St. Petersburg, that I was able to carry to completion the laborious task of producing a fac-simile copy of this codex in four folio volumes.
1911 - The New Testament text is photographed in sepia tones by Kirsopp and Helen Lake and published as Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus: The New Testament, Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas (Oxford: Clarendon Press). The parts of the Old Testament at the British Library are photographed a few years later. But very few people get any access to see more than a page or two of the codex.
2009 - All available pages of the Codex Sinaiticus are carefully photographed and placed online at codexsinaiticus.org. For the first time people can see all known pages, in color, for themselves.
The Codex Sinaiticus is a codex Bible, which is a book composed of single pages bound together at one side. Like most codices, the Codex Sinaiticus is not printed on paper. Instead, it is handwritten on vellum parchment. The parchment pages are 380mm high and 345mm wide. The Codex Sinaiticus is considered one of the four great biblical uncials. The term uncial refers to the style of handwriting, which consists of rounded, separated letters similar to modern uppercase letters. Uncial writing is typical of Greek and Latin manuscripts written between the 4th and 8th centuries CE. The Codex Sinaiticus is currently in multiple pieces, with fragments and folios existing in four locations: St. Catherine's Monastery, the British Library, the National Library of Russia, and the Leipzig University Library. Approximately 800 pages are still in existence out of roughly 1,400 original pages.
The work was written in scripta continua with neither breathings nor polytonic accents. Occasional points and few ligatures are used, though nomina sacra with overlines are employed throughout. Each line has some 12 to 14 Greek uncial letters, arranged in four columns (48 lines in column) with carefully-chosen line breaks and slightly ragged right edges. The poetical books of the Old Testament written in στίχοι, only in two columns per page. Breathings and accents there are none. The codex has almost four million uncial letters.
Each rectangular page has the proportions 1.1 to 1, while the block of text has the reciprocal proportions, 0.91 (the same proportions, rotated 90). If the gutters between the columns were removed, the text block would mirror the page's proportions. Typographer Robert Bringhurst referred to the codex as a "subtle piece of craftsmanship".[2]
The portion of the codex held by the British Library consists of 346 folios, 694 pages (38.1 cm x 34.5 cm), constituting over half of the original work. Of these folios, 199 belong to the Old Testament including the apocrypha and 147 belong to the New Testament, along with two other books, the Epistle of Barnabas and part of The Shepherd of Hermas. The apocryphal books present in the surviving part of the Septuagint are 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach[3]. The books of the New Testament are arranged in this order: the four Gospels, the epistles of Paul (Hebrews follows 2 Thess), the Acts of the Apostles,[4] the General Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. The fact that some parts of the codex are preserved in good condition, while others are in very poor condition, implies they were separated and stored in two places.
Burnett Hillman Streeter remarked a great agreement between codex and Vulgate of Jerome. According to him Origen brought to Caesarea the Alexandrian text-type which was used in this codex, and used by Jerome.[9]
Since the fourth to the twelfth century worked on this codex 9 correctors and it is one of the most corrected manuscripts.[10] Tischendorf enumerated 14,800 corrections. Besides of this corrections some letters were marked by dot as doubtfull (f.e. ṪḢ). Corrections represent Byzantine text-type, just like in codices: Bodmer II, Regius (L), Ephraemi (C), and Sangallensis (Δ). They were discovered by Cambridge scholar Edward A. Button.[11]
The complete publication of the codex was made by noted English scholar Kirsopp Lake (1872-1946) in 1911 (New Testament),[20] and in 1922 (Old Testament). It was the full-sized black and white facsimile of the manuscript, made on the basis two earlier facsimiles editing. Lake did not have access to the manuscript.
After some negotiations, he obtained possession of this precious fragment. James Bentley gives an account of how this came about, prefacing it with the comment, "Tischendorf therefore now embarked on the remarkable piece of duplicity which was to occupy him for the next decade, which involved the careful suppression of facts and the systematic denigration of the monks of Mount Sinai."[22] He conveyed it to Tsar Alexander II, who appreciated its importance and had it published as nearly as possible in facsimile, so as to exhibit correctly the ancient handwriting. The Tsar sent the monastery 9000 rubles by way of compensation.Regarding Tischendorf's role in the transfer to Saint Petersburg, there are several views. Although when parts of Genesis and Book of Numbers were later found in the bindings of other books, they were amicably sent to Tischendorf, the codex is currently regarded by the monastery as having been stolen. This view is hotly contested by several scholars in Europe. In a more neutral spirit, New Testament scholar Bruce Metzger writes:
In September 13, 1862, Constantine Simonides, a forger of manuscripts who had been exposed by Tischendorf, by way of revenge made the claim in print in The Guardian that he had written the codex himself as a young man in 1839.[24] Henry Bradshaw, a scholar, contributed to exposing the frauds of Constantine Simonides, and exposed the absurdity of his claims in a letter to the Guardian (January 26, 1863). Bradshaw showed that the Codex Sinaiticus brought by Tischendorf from the Greek monastery of Mount Sinai was not a modern forgery or written by Simonides. Simonides' "claim was flawed from the beginning".[25]
For many decades, the Codex was preserved in the Russian National Library. In 1933, the Soviet Union sold the codex to the British Museum[26] for 100,000 raised by public subscription. After coming to Britain, it was examined by T. C. Skeat and H.J.M. Milne using an ultra-violet lamp.[27]
The codex is now split into four unequal portions: 347 leaves in the British Library in London (199 of the Old Testament, 148 of the New Testament), 12 leaves and 14 fragments in St. Catherine's Monastery of Sinai, 43 leaves in the Leipzig University Library, and fragments of 3 leaves in the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg.[1]
At the present day, the monastery in Sinai officially considers that the codex was stolen. Visitors in our day have reported that the monks at Saint Catherine's Monastery display the receipt they received from Tischendorf for the Codex, in a frame that hangs upon the wall.[34]
Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus et Friderico-Augustanus Lipsiensis. The Old Testament. Preserved in the Public Library of Petrograd, in the Library of the Society of Ancient Literature in Petrograd, and in the Library of the University of Leipzig now reproduced in facsimile from photographs by Helen and Kirsopp Lake with a description and introduction to the history of the codex by Kirsopp Lake.
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