5 ms·

Codex Sinaiticus

12 points by yu 17y ago

Source: Reuters 2009-07-06. Summary: * oldest Bible, 800 pages and fragments (of 1400) * mid-fourth century, uncovered a fourth scribes * includes Greek and some English translations * collection of sections from British Library, Monastery of St. Catherine, National Library of Russia, Leipzig University Library

yu 17y ago
Source: Reuters 2009-07-06. Summary: * oldest Bible, 800 pages and fragments (of 1400) * mid-fourth century, uncovered a fourth scribes * includes Greek and some English translations * collection of sections from British Library, Monastery of St. Catherine, National Library of Russia, Leipzig University Library
- leoc 17y ago
  The modern history of the Codex beginning with its 1844 "rediscovery" is pretty interesting too. It looks a bit like the Elgin Marbles story, only messier. Even the official website mentions that the Monastery of St. Catherine had "some initial hesitations" about participating in the scanning project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus#Discovery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus#Discovery http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/history.aspx http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/history.aspx
hvs 17y ago
Ok, I give. What does this have to do with anything?
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  "What is probably the oldest known Bible is being digitised, reuniting its scattered parts for the first time since its discovery 160 years ago. It is markedly different from its modern equivalent. What's left out?" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7651105.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7651105.stm
  - jon_dahl 17y ago
    This is not news. The text of the Codex Sinaiticus has been available for over a century. I have a Greek New Testament on the shelf at home that footnotes points at which Sinaiticus disagrees with other ancient manuscripts. The "news" is that the text is now available online, whereas previously it was only available in print. Details (if you're interested): This story is 99% hype. First, there are several major ancient New Testament manuscripts (Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Majority Text, and tons of fragments). We have fragments from the second and third centuries, and entire versions from the fourth century (including Codex Sinaiticus). This isn't unusual; most of our manuscripts for other ancient documents (Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, etc.) come from many centuries after they were actually written. Second, these manuscripts often disagree on wording, but they rarely disagree on content. Definitely not "markedly different". They were orally dictated to scribes, not reprinted by a printing press, which is how many of the differences were introduced. Third, the "no resurrection" business is false. One of the four gospels - Mark - ends with some of Jesus' followers finding an empty tomb, and an angel saying that Jesus had rose from the dead. End of text. It doesn't actually follow Jesus around post-resurrection. But that's different than not including a resurrection, and it's really, really old news.
sethg 17y ago
One interesting detail from the site is that the Codex Sinaiticus is a technological milestone as well as a religious milestone: it's one of the oldest known books that puts such a large number of pages together as a bound volume rather than as a scroll.
tokenadult 17y ago
What do you think of the user interface of this new website? Besides the server not being able to keep up with demand after today's news, it seems that there is a rather glaring lack of usability.
- leoc 17y ago
  It's not bad as these things usually go, and it has some nice features. The right-hand pane with the transcription in the same physical layout as the scanned image is useful. The option to view some pages in raking light is also useful and I think quite unusual. (Though it's not a matter of website UI as such.)

Codex Sinaiticus

12 points by yu 17y ago

yu 17y ago

leoc 17y ago
The modern history of the Codex beginning with its 1844 "rediscovery" is pretty interesting too. It looks a bit like the Elgin Marbles story, only messier. Even the official website mentions that the Monastery of St. Catherine had "some initial hesitations" about participating in the scanning project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus#Discovery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus#Discovery http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/history.aspx http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/history.aspx

hvs 17y ago

Ok, I give. What does this have to do with anything?

nopassrecover 17y ago
"What is probably the oldest known Bible is being digitised, reuniting its scattered parts for the first time since its discovery 160 years ago. It is markedly different from its modern equivalent. What's left out?" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7651105.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7651105.stm
- jon_dahl 17y ago
  This is not news. The text of the Codex Sinaiticus has been available for over a century. I have a Greek New Testament on the shelf at home that footnotes points at which Sinaiticus disagrees with other ancient manuscripts. The "news" is that the text is now available online, whereas previously it was only available in print. Details (if you're interested): This story is 99% hype. First, there are several major ancient New Testament manuscripts (Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Majority Text, and tons of fragments). We have fragments from the second and third centuries, and entire versions from the fourth century (including Codex Sinaiticus). This isn't unusual; most of our manuscripts for other ancient documents (Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, etc.) come from many centuries after they were actually written. Second, these manuscripts often disagree on wording, but they rarely disagree on content. Definitely not "markedly different". They were orally dictated to scribes, not reprinted by a printing press, which is how many of the differences were introduced. Third, the "no resurrection" business is false. One of the four gospels - Mark - ends with some of Jesus' followers finding an empty tomb, and an angel saying that Jesus had rose from the dead. End of text. It doesn't actually follow Jesus around post-resurrection. But that's different than not including a resurrection, and it's really, really old news.

sethg 17y ago

One interesting detail from the site is that the Codex Sinaiticus is a technological milestone as well as a religious milestone: it's one of the oldest known books that puts such a large number of pages together as a bound volume rather than as a scroll.

tokenadult 17y ago

What do you think of the user interface of this new website? Besides the server not being able to keep up with demand after today's news, it seems that there is a rather glaring lack of usability.

leoc 17y ago
It's not bad as these things usually go, and it has some nice features. The right-hand pane with the transcription in the same physical layout as the scanned image is useful. The option to view some pages in raking light is also useful and I think quite unusual. (Though it's not a matter of website UI as such.)