Transcription of Codex Sinaiticus available for download

Over on the ITSEE site, the good news that a Transcription of Codex Sinaiticus is now available for download.

The Beauty of Books: Ancient Bibles (and Codex Sinaiticus)

If you haven't seen it yet, let me strongly recommend the first episode of a new four part series on BBC4:

The Beauty of Books: Ancient Bibles

It is thirty minutes long and the first ten or so minutes discuss Codex Sinaiticus and there are contributions from Scot McKendrick, David Parker and Janet Soskice. There are some great shots of the manuscript. It was on BBC 4 on Monday and it was repeated yesterday. You can catch it on the iPlayer from the link above, although international users will need to use some jiggery-pokery if they want to view it. There is also a two minute clip here, featuring Scot McKendrick



Clip HT: Deirdre Good.

Codex Sinaiticus Lecture

Thanks to James Shaw for sending over this announcement:
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The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska is hosting a lecture about Codex Sinaiticus at 2 PM on Sunday, January 30:

Leonard Greenspoon, Department of Theology, presents "Codex Sinaiticus, The World's Oldest Bible: What It Is All About and Why Is It So Important?"

Codex Sinaiticus is a fourth century Greek manuscript that provides the oldest surviving text of the complete Christian Bible. For the Old Testament, the text is the Greek translation called the Septuagint. We will look at this manuscript in terms of its origins and also chronicle the exciting (if also at times, frustrating) story of its modern discovery. We will explore what can be learned of its use over the centuries and what it tells us about the transmission and translation of the Bible from antiquity until the modern period. We will also see how modern technology allows us all to view this treasure--as a work of art and, for many, as a source of inspiration--from our own computers.

Joslyn Art Museum in partnership with Creighton's University College, presents a sixth season of stimulating lectures by Creighton faculty. Held in Joslyn's Abbott Lecture Hall on select Sundays at 2:00 pm, CU atJoslyn presents a variety of topics and interdisciplinary perspectives on Joslyn's collections or exhibitions. CU atJoslyn is free with regular museum admission for general public, and always free for Museum members and Creighton students and faculty with ID.
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New fragment of Codex Sinaiticus discovered

Tomorrow's Independent carries an interesting story about the find of a previously unseen section of Codex Sinaiticus:

Fragment from world's oldest Bible found hidden in Egyptian monastery
Academic stumbles upon previously unseen section of Codex Sinaiticus dating back to 4th century
By Jerome Taylor, Religious Affairs Correspondent

A British-based academic has uncovered a fragment of the world's oldest Bible hiding underneath the binding of an 18th-century book.

Nikolas Sarris spotted a previously unseen section of the Codex Sinaiticus, which dates from about AD350, as he was trawling through photographs of manuscripts in the library of St Catherine's Monastery in Egypt . . . .

. . . . A Greek student conservator who is studying for his PhD in Britain, Mr Sarris had been involved in the British Library's project to digitise the Codex and quickly recognised the distinct Greek lettering when he saw it poking through a section of the book binding. Speaking from the Greek island of Patmos yesterday, Mr Sarris said: "It was a really exciting moment. Although it is not my area of expertise, I had helped with the online project so the Codex had been heavily imprinted in my memory. I began checking the height of the letters and the columns and quickly realised we were looking at an unseen part of the Codex."

Mr Sarris later emailed Father Justin, the monastery's librarian, to suggest he take a closer look at the book binding. "Even if there is a one-in-a-million possibility that it could be a Sinaiticus fragment that has escaped our attention, I thought it would be best to say it rather than dismiss it."

Only a quarter of the fragment is visible through the book binding but after closer inspection, Father Justin was able to confirm that a previously unseen section of the Codex had indeed been found. The fragment is believed to be the beginning of Joshua, Chapter 1, Verse 10, in which Joshua admonishes the children of Israel as they enter the promised land . . . .

Although the article is new, the discovery happened a while ago; The Economist reported it in July, and the British Library has a useful article by Prof. Nicholas Pickwoad, also from July, which mentions the find:

Most recently, Nikolas Sarris, a member the Codex Sinaiticus Project when he was working in the British Library, noticed, in the process of working through the photographic records from our manuscript survey for his PhD thesis, noticed a familiar-looking script inside the right board of MS Greek 2289. He immediately referred this to the librarian, Father Justin, who identified the text as coming from the book of Joshua and to be a part of the text missing from the known leaves of the Codex Siniaticus. It would appear that this is indeed another fragment of the Codex, but it presents enormous problems. It was used in as a board lining in one of a small group of bindings identified by Nikolas as having been bound in the monastery in the first half of the eighteenth century. At some date, someone tore part of the pastedown away to reveal the manuscript (and in the process apparently removing some of the ink), but there appears to be no further record of it. From a brief visual examination of the fragment, it would appear to be in a badly deteriorated condition with possibly a second leaf under it, but the turn-ins of the leather cover are very firmly adhered to it, as is much of what is left of the paper pastedown . . . .

Codex Sinaiticus Podcasts

While I was away, I didn't get chance to blog on the big news event in our area, the launch of the online Codex Sinaiticus on July 6. Now, ITSEE news notes some new podcasts from the British Library all about the Codex Sinaiticus project, and it features some familar names. They are between 7 and 12 minutes long and there are five of them altogether. Here at the NT Blog, we like podcasts, so here is the link to the page:

Podcasts - From Parchment to Pixel

These podcasts are part of the From Parchment to Pixel: The Virtual Reunification of Codex Sinaiticus exhibition at the British Library. These five podcasts mostly take the form Juan Garcés conducting telephone interviews with David Parker, Amy Myshrall, Rachel Kevern and Timothy Arthur Brown. The first is an introduction by Juan Garcés himself.

The British Library's embedded media player (Windows Media Player) does not seem to be working in Firefox or Chrome, though it is working in IE. If that is the case for you too, they have a link to each podcast that you can use instead.

There is a great line in the podcast featuring David Parker, where he says that today is the most exciting time to be editing texts possibly ever.

Codex Sinaiticus Conference

I am working through the email mountain at the moment and see that I forgot to post this notice from Juan Garcés some time ago:
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Codex Sinaiticus Conference
British Library, London, 6-7 July 2009

The Codex Sinaiticus Project, an international initiative to reunite the entire manuscript in digital form and make it accessible to a global audience for the first time (see http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/), will host a conference devoted to this seminal fourth-century Bible.

Leading experts have been invited to present papers on the history, codicology, and text of Codex Sinaiticus, among other topics. A call for papers, registration information, and programme will be made available soon.
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The Oldest Bible

It is good to see Codex Sinaiticus still making the news and on Monday, Radio 4 (which most right thinking Brits, and many others too, love with passion) broadcast a half hour documentary:

The Oldest Bible

Roger Bolton tells the story of the Codex Sinaiticus bible, found in 1844 in a monastery in the Sinai Desert and then split between Egypt, Russia, Switzerland and the British Library. It is soon to be digitised for world-wide viewing, and poses a significant challenge to the Bible as we know it.

You can listen again from the link above, or by going straight to the iPlayer. It will be available for the next few days. Once I've listened, I will comment here. Meanwhile, an article related to the programme has drawn heavy criticism and helpful correction from Dirk Jongkind on Evangelical Textual Criticism. I would be interested to hear Dirk's and others' comments on the programme too when they have listened.

Codex Sinaiticus Project Countdown Begins

Several news sources are reporting the exciting news that the Codex Sinaiticus Project is to go online on Thursday this week. Deutsche Welle announces German University to Put World's Oldest Bible Online, but it looks like they are a bit confused -- the project is actually a British Library Online Project, though in collaboration with three other institutions including Leipzig, correctly today in the 24 Hour Museum:

Codex Sinaiticus Bible Reunited in British Library Online Project

A “unique treasure” of Biblical history is to be made available online for the first time through a collaborative project between The British Library and three other major international institutions.

The Codex Sinaiticus, considered to be the world’s most important Biblical manuscript, dates from the fourth century and is thought to be the earliest, most complete Christian bible.

The manuscript is however split up and housed in four different locations - London, Sinai, St Petersburg and Leipzig. This means that pages from one book of the bible manuscript might be housed in two or more different repositories . . .

There is a holding page on the official site in German and English. The 24 hour museum article gives a little more detail:

While the project intends to have all parts of the Codex Sinaiticus online by July 2009, this year’s initial launch will give access to 106 pages held by the British Library. These include the complete Book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark.

A further 28 fragment pages from the British Library collection will also be added. These pages enable the online completion of a further six Biblical texts when joined with the parts of the manuscript housed at Leipzig University. These texts include 1 Chronicles, Jeremiah and Lamentations.

As well as translations of some parts of the manuscript from the Greek into English and German, the website will also allow users to explore cross-referencing between both the transcription and the image of the manuscript itself. For instance, pointing at a word on the transcription will highlight the equivalent word in the image.

I will add a link and a notice when the time comes on Thurdsay. For more on the project see:

ITSEE: The Codex Sinaiticus Project
British Library Press Release (2005)

And for recent blog notices, see now Progress in the Digitization of the Codex Sinaiticus on Elginism and Codex Sinaiticus to go Online this week on j. c. baker and The Codex Sinaiticus Project on Paleojudaica.

Codex Sinaiticus On-line

Helenann Hartley mentioned this yesterday, from BBC News. A similar piece, interviewing Scot Mckendrick, now appears on Christianity Today:

Oldest Known Bible to go Online

One of the best pieces of news about this excellent project is that the website "is planned to be free of charge". Note that the original British Library press release (11 March 2005) is still available, as is the following information page:

Showcase: Codex Sinaiticus