New Testament manuscript |
|
Name | Sinaiticus |
---|---|
Sign | |
Text | Old and New Testament |
Date | c. 330–360 |
Script | Greek |
Found | Sinai 1844 |
Now at | Brit. Libr., Leipzig University, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Russian Nat. Libr. |
Cite | Lake, K. (1911). Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, Oxford. |
Size | 38.1 × 34.5 cm (15.0 × 13.6 in) |
Type | Alexandrian text-type |
Category | I |
Note | very close to Papyrus 66 |
Codex Sinaiticus (Modern Greek: Σιναϊτικός Κώδικας, Hebrew: קודקס סינאיטיקוס; Shelfmarks and references: London, Brit. Libr., Additional Manuscripts 43725; Gregory-Aland nº א [Aleph] or 01, [Soden δ 2]) or "Sinai Bible" is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. The codex is a celebrated historical treasure.
The codex is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of the New Testament, along with the Codex Vaticanus. Until the discovery by Constantin von Tischendorf of the Sinaiticus text, the Codex Vaticanus was unrivaled.
The Codex Sinaiticus came to the attention of scholars in the 19th century at Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, with further material discovered in the 20th and 21st centuries. Although parts of the codex are scattered across four libraries around the world, most of the manuscript is today vested in the British Library in London, where it is on public display. Since its discovery, study of the Codex Sinaiticus has proven to be extremely useful to scholars for critical studies of biblical text.
While large portions of the Old Testament are missing, it is assumed that the codex originally contained the whole of both Testaments. About half of the Greek Old Testament (or Septuagint) survived, along with a complete New Testament, the entire Deuterocanonical books, the Epistle of Barnabas and portions of The Shepherd of Hermas.