OF all the famous manuscripts of the Bible, the Sinaitic Manuscript — or "Codex Sinaiticus," as it is called by scholars — has probably the most romantic history, besides being in the front rank in historical importance. In the year 1844, a renowned Biblical scholar named Tischendorf, while visiting the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, happened to notice a basket filled with old sheets of vellum which were being used from time to time to feed the fire, and on closer examination he found to his amazement that the basket contained more than a hundred leaves from a very ancient Greek Bible, later called the "Codex Sinaiticus." Some of these leaves he was allowed to retain, being cheerfully informed that many similar pages had already been burned, but he could then learn no news concerning the fate of the remainder of the manuscript, and it was not until fifteen years later, in 1859, during a further visit to the Monastery, that he was unexpectedly shown the rest of the book, which he found to contain the complete New Testament in addition to much of the Old Testament and of the Apocrypha. His joy at the fulfillment of his hopes may readily be imagined. After much negotiation, the monks agreed to present the manuscript to the Czar of Russia, and it remained in the great library at Leningrad until the close of 1933, when it was purchased by the British nation from the Soviet government, and may now be seen in the British Museum in London.
So much, then, for the vicissitudes of the manuscript during the past century. With regard to its original preparation, there remains some degree of uncertainty, but the general consensus of opinion among scholars is that it dates from the fourth century A.D.
Now early records show that about the year 331 a. d., Constantine, the first Christian emperor, wrote to Eusebius the historian, then Bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine, asking that he arrange for the preparation of fifty manuscript copies of the Holy Scriptures in Greek, to be inscribed "on prepared parchment in a legible manner ... by professional transcribers thoroughly practiced in their art" (Eusebius: "Life of Constantine," IV 36). These Bibles were to be based upon the evidence of still earlier manuscripts preserved at Cæsarea, which possessed one of the most famous and comprehensive Biblical libraries then in existence. Many scholars hold that two of Constantine's fifty Bibles are still in existence — namely, the Sinaitic Manuscript now under consideration, and the Vatican Manuscript, which will be referred to in a later article.
