The world’s oldest Bible, handwritten in Greek over 1,600 years ago and whose over 400 pages are held by institutions in four countries, has been digitally photographed leaf by leaf and is now available for viewing on the Internet.

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The Leipzig University Library holds 43 leaves of the Codex Sinaiticus.

(© picture-alliance/ dpa)

The British Library holds 347 leaves; the Leipzig University Library in Germany, 43 leaves; St. Catharine’s Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula, 12 leaves as well as 24 fragments; and the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, several fragments of 6 leaves.  The official completion of the international Codex Sinaiticus Project was celebrated in London on July 6 and 7.

The Codex Sinaiticus contains approximately half of the Old Testament, the complete New Testament, and the Apocrypha, as well as two early Christian texts not found in modern Bibles, an Epistle by a writer claiming to be the Apostle Barnabas and The Shepherd, by the early second-century Roman writer Hermas.

Under the project, not only have the leaves and fragments been digitally photographed, the texts have been  transcribed and their condition examined.  The Internet edition is expected to be made available and translated into several modern languages in the coming years.  Thus, this manuscript, which otherwise could only be viewed by a few people under extremely controlled conditions, is being made available to researchers and the general public.

Original pages found in Sinai

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Ulrich Johannes Schneider, director of the University Library Leipzig and Father Justin, librarian of the St. Catherine's Monastery, compare an original leaf with a 19th century reprint.

(© picture-alliance/ dpa)

The history of how this Bible was discovered reads like an archeological suspense novel.  The German Protestant theologian Konstantin von Tischendorf spent his entire life searching feverishly for old Bible manuscripts because he wanted to find a Bible text that was as close to the original version as possible.  He traveled in 1844 to St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai.  This monastery, which was said to have been constructed on the site where God had spoken to Moses through the burning bush, has never been destroyed since its establishment in the 3rd century.  So, Tischendorf thought, it had to hold ancient manuscripts. 

After searching for some time, he discovered discarded in a basket 129 pages of a Bible manuscript, whose antiquity he immediately recognized.  The monks there, who had become suspicious of their visitor’s true intentions, allowed Tischendorf, after much discussion, to take only 43 pages of the book; the rest, he was able to copy.  He deposited these pages with the Leipzig University Library, where they were given the title Codex Friderico Augustanos, after the King of Saxony.

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Konstantin von Tischendorf, 1815-1874

(© picture-alliance/akg-i-mages )

Tischendorf then undertook a second journey in 1854, which, however, was not successful, as he could not find the remaining pages again.  In 1859, he traveled a third time to Mount Sinai, this time under the patronage of the Russian czar.  His attempts again turned up fruitless until the evening before his departure, when the custodian of the monastery showed him the rest of the Old Testament and a complete New Testament.  The Bible was taken to a monastery in Cairo, where Tischendorf was permitted to transcribe it.  Nevertheless, he continued to negotiate to have the manuscript turned over.  Ultimately, the monks relented, and he was able to take the Bible to Russia to present it to Czar Alexander II, perhaps initially on loan, then later as a gift.  In 1933, the Communist government, which was in need of hard currency, sold the Bible to the British Museum.

Between 1907 and 1911, the Russian historian Vladimir Beneshevich discovered in Sinai fragments of the Bible within the pages of later manuscripts.  He brought these fragments to St. Petersburg, where they are still located today.

And in May 1975, while restoration work was being performed on the monastery, a space was discovered under the chapel, where several parchment fragments, including more parts of the Bible, were found.  These too have now been digitized as part of the joint project. While parts of the book have been known by other names over its history, today it is referred to as the Codex Sinaiticus, meaning “the Sinai Book.”