Codex Sinaiticus Reproduced in Digital Form
St Catherine's Monastery Sinai and One of the World's Oldest Bibles
Aug 16, 2009
Sinai, once a region in the Biblical land of Midian, is said to form part of the route taken by the Children of Israel as they set out towards the Promised Land and the place where Moses was given the Ten Commandments.
Although in modern Egypt, Sinai retains a much wider association with the history and traditions of what is now known as the Middle East.
St Catherine's Monastery Sinai
St Catherine’s Monastery has existed for seventeen centuries, a site of pilgrimage for Christians and Jews. Records kept at the monastery also show its importance to Muslims after the Prophet Mohammed offered it protection in return for food and shelter.
The Codex Sinaiticus
Today St Catherine’s is once again in the headlines thanks to the Codex Sinaiticus, the literal meaning of which is the Sinai Book. The Codex is what remains of a large hand written book that contained the scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments. It is one of the world’s oldest Bibles and dates to the last quarter of the fourth century.
The Codex, written in Greek, was originally removed in sections from St Catherine’s Monastery by the German scholar Constantine Von Tischendorf between 1844 and 1859 and taken to Russia for study, with the promise that it would later be returned to its rightful home.
For various reasons this didn’t happen and it was subsequently dispersed between a number of institutions. The largest part was bought by the British Library in London, other sections went to Leipzig University Library and the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg.
In 1973, following a fire in St Catherine’s Monastery a collection of over 25,000 fragments of manuscripts and books was discovered in one of the towers in the monastery. Among the new finds were fragments of the Codex Sinaiticus.
One of the World's Oldest Bibles
The publicity following the discovery of fragments of one of the world’s oldest Bibles introduced the treasures of St Catherine’s to a much wider audience. While people were excited about the new finds they also began to understand the value of the other books and manuscripts held in the monastery library.
Italian traveller Vitaliano Donati probably saw the Codex when he visited the monastery in 1761. His diaries provide a valuable source of information. he said: “I found a huge quantity of manuscripts, many of which have been placed in a library but some have been tossed into a filthy cupboard. Almost all are of parchment, including various codices on the life of the saints, some histories and other writings.
“There are a few that are older than the seventh century especially one Bible on beautiful parchment written in Greek, in rounded and very beautiful characters. This must have been written in the second half of the fourth century.”
The Codex was thought by Von Tischendorf to have been scribed by four different people and early scholars searching for the answer as to where it was written have suggested a number of possible places including Rome, Egypt and Caesarea (part of modern Israel). Modern thinkers, including Nicholas Picwood from the British Library believe it was written somewhere in Palestine.
In order to bring the Codex to a worldwide audience, the British Library led a project to reproduce the Codex in digital form. It brought together four partners: the British Library, Leipzig University Library, National Library of Russia and Saint Catherine’s Monastery. The project has now been completed and the Codex Sinaiticus is available online.
Sources:
British Library, The Codex Sinaiticus Project
Website of The Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai, Saint Catherine’s Monastery
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