Codex Sinaiticus Premieres Online

If you're like me (and who isn't), the most exciting thing that you've heard this past week is that the oldest complete Greek manuscript of the New Testament is going online. The Codex Sinaiticus, which dates to the 4th Century, is currently being digitized so that people can access images of the full manuscript. The new website, a joint collaboration of several entities, went live on Thursday.

The story of Codex Sinaiticus, or at least the "discovery" of the codex is a fascinating tale of intrigue, involving clueless monks, more wary monks, and a scholar for hire in the 19th Century. While staying at the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai in 1844, Dr. Constantin von Tischendorf (as part of a larger tour of the Mideast looking for ancient Biblical manuscripts), he noticed some parchments in the trashcan which proved to be early Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament (easy to date on sight because they are written in uncial Greek script (uppercase) as opposed to later minuscule script (lowercase and cursive)). von Tischendorf was allowed to keep these parchments, which he took back to the University of Leipzig.

On later trips, von Tischendorf attempted to find out if there were more parts of the codex, but the monks sensed that they might have something valuable on their hands and became quite closed-mouth. In 1859, von Tischendoft presented the steward of the monastery with a copy of the book he had published about the parchments he had taken to Europe; the steward said that he also had a book of such documents, which turned out to be the remainder of the Codex, which still had large parts of the Old Testament and a full copy (in good condition) of the New Testament. von Tischendorf tried to negotiate the sale of the codex, but the monks were not interested; they were, however, looking for a new abbot, so they were persuaded to make a gift to the Czar of Russia (the most powerful political influence on the eastern church) -- the entire extant codex. [After the Russian Revolution, the British Museum would purchase this codex from the Russian government, which then had little interest in Christian artifacts.]

Aside from this great story (which I've actually condensed) of its rediscovery, the Codex Sinaiticus is an extremely important early manuscript of the New Testament. It is the earliest complete Greek New Testament, and the only complete Greek New Testament written in uncial Greek script (all uppercase, no spaces). It is remarkably good condition, with very little physical deterioration, unlike p46, the earliest New Testament manuscript we have, all of whose pages have significant deterioration and many of which are lost. The original codex dates to the 300s, though there is evidence of later corrections/notations in the margins which are of uncertain era.

Because of its completeness, its early dating, and its timely mid-19th Century discovery, the Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most influential early New Testament manuscripts. No two early manuscripts agree completely, so the New Testament we have is a scholarly reconstruction of what is believed to be the most authentic text from among the variant readings. (This is not to suggest that there are wildly variant readings among the ancient manuscripts -- there are very few dramatic differences between the texts. But these differences must be accounted for -- scholars do the same things with the various manuscripts of everyone from Homer to Shakespeare. In fact, it is amazing how closely all the manuscripts of the New Testament agree with each other, especially when one takes out scribal mistakes and abbreviation differences.)

The Greek New Testament I have in my office contains all of the major variant readings of the New Testament, and it includes a scholarly apparatus to show which manuscripts have which readings. Among the various manuscripts, Sinaiticus enjoys a prime position, evident in the scholarly shorthand for it. The ancient codexes are catalogued by capital letter, first in the Roman alphabet (A, B, C), then in the Greek. But Sinaiticus is represented by the Hebrew aleph. (Happily, this makes it instantly recognizable; I have to consult a book to remind myself what codex goes with what capital letter.)

The website does not yet have the full Codex Sinaiticus yet -- they expect to finish the digitization process by the end of 2009. But what they do have is beautiful, a three-part screen which features: 1) a digitized view of each page of the codex (shot in your choice of two different lightings); 2) a transcription of the Greek, with proper spacing and chapter and verse indicators; and 3) a space for a translation of the passage in English, German, modern Greek, or Russian. For textual scholars, there is even an additional part which features detailed physical descriptions of the parchment and text, including the specific repairs and treatments made to it. The codex is searchable by Bible passage or by its own quire and page.

If you have a few minutes, you should check it out: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/. There is a lot of contextual information, including a history of the manuscript and its transmission. Go to the "See the Manuscript" tab and look at the beginning of Mark (currently, the only part of the New Testament online). See a glimpse of where our English Bible comes from -- just having that in your mind's eye will quite possibly change your view of the entire Bible -- any Bible -- that you ever hold in your hand.

Some days technology is a maddening thing. And we have growing pains yet to go through as more of our lives, and our information, becomes Internet-driven. But sometimes technology is truly a wonderful thing. The number of people who have been able to see this manuscript online in the past few days surely dwarfs the number of people who have been able to read this manuscript in person in its entire history.