The
oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century
version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the
world, is being made whole again — online.
The
British Library says the full text of the Codex Sinaiticus
will be available to Web users by next July, digitally
reconnecting parts that are held in Britain, Russia, Germany
and a monastery in Egypt's Sinai Desert.
A preview of
the Codex, which also has some parts of the Old Testament,
will hit the Web on Thursday — the Book of Psalms and the
Gospel of Mark.
"Only a few people have ever had the
opportunity to see more than a couple of pages of the
[Codex]," said Scot McKendrick, the British Library's head
of Western manuscripts.
The Web site will give
everyone access to a "unique treasure," he said.
Discovered at the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount
Sinai by German Bible scholar Constantine Tischendorf in the
mid-19th century, much of the Codex eventually wound up in
Russia — just how exactly the British Library won't say,
citing lingering sensitivity over the circumstances
surrounding its removal from the monastery.
The
British Library bought 347 pages from Soviet authorities in
1933. Forty-three pages are at the University Library in
Leipzig, Germany, and six fragments are at the National
Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. And in 1975, monks
stumbled on 12 more pages and 40 fragments stashed in a
hidden room at the monastery.
Biblical scholars are
thrilled at the news that the Codex Sinaiticus — divided
since Tischendorf's trip to the monastery in 1844 — is
finally being put back together, albeit virtually.
In
the past, anyone wishing to examine the document first hand
would have had to approach the British Library "on bended
knee," said Christopher Tuckett, a professor of New
Testament studies at Oxford University.
"To have it
available just at the click of a button is fantastic," he
said. "You could do in two seconds what would take hours and
hours of flicking through the leaves."
Handwritten in
Greek more than 1,600 years ago — it isn't exactly clear
where — the surviving 400 or so pages carry a version of the
New Testament that has a few interesting differences from
the Bible used by Christians today.
The
Gospel of Mark ends abruptly after Jesus' disciples discover
his empty tomb, for example. Mark's last line has them
leaving in fear.
"It cuts out the post-resurrection
stories," said Juan Garces, curator of the Codex Sinaiticus
Project. "That's a very odd way of ending a Gospel."
James Davila, a professor of early Jewish studies at St.
Andrews University in Scotland, said the Codex also includes
religious works foreign to the Roman Catholic and Protestant
canons — such as the "Epistle of Barnabas" and the "Shepherd
of Hermas," a book packed with visions and parables.
Davila stressed that did not mean the works were necessarily
considered Scripture by early Christians: They could have
been bound with the Bible to save money.
The Codex
itself is a fascinating artifact, representing the best of
Western bookmaking, Garces said. The parchment was arranged
in little multipage booklets called quires, which were then
numbered in sequence.
"It was the cutting edge of
technology in the 4th century," he said.
