Sinaitic Manuscript

(Codex Sinaiticus, designated as א), a MS. of the Septuagint and Greek New Test., brought from the Convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai, by Tischendorf in 1859. It consists of 345 leaves and a half, 199 in the Old Test. and 147 in the New Test. The Codex Sinaiticus contains the following portions of the Old Test. and Apocrypha in the order here given: 1Ch 9:27-11:22; Tobit 2:2 to the end; Judith 1:l-11:13; 13:9- 15; 1 Macc.; 4 Macc.; Isaiah; Jeremiah 1:1-10:25; Joel; Obadiah; Jonah; Nahum; Habakkuk; Zephaniah; Haggai; Zechariah; Malachi; Psalms; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; Song of Solomon; Wisdom of Solomon; Ecclesiasticus; Job. Of the missing portions the following are supplied by the Codex Friderico-Augustanus, and the fragments afterwards published by Tischendorf, which were originally parts of the Sinaitic MS. a few verses of Ge 23:20, and of Numbers 5-7; also 1Ch 11:22-19:17; Ezr 9:9 to the end; Nehemiah; Esther; Tobit 1:1-2, 2; Jer 10:25 to the end; La 1:1-3:20. This codex contains the entire New Test., together with the epistle of Barnabas and parts of the Shepherd of Hermas.

There are four columns in each page. The character of the letters, the inscriptions and subscriptions to different books, the absence of the Ammonian sections and Eusebian canons, the nature of the readings, and other peculiarities, agree in a remarkable manner with B, or the Vatican. Tischendorf supposes that it is somewhat older than B, belonging to the 4th century. Probably it is of the 6th century, though made from a text older than that of B. The copyist, writing perhaps from dictation, has made many blunders. The value of this acquisition to the critical apparatus of the Bible can hardly be overestimated. In Tischendorf's Notitia Editionis Codicis Bibliorum Sinaitici, etc. (Lips. 1860, sm. fol.), the indefatigable critic has given nine pages entire from the New Test., eight from the Old Test., and, one from the epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas (p. 22 sq.). He has also furnished upwards of six hundred readings from all the books of the New Test. (p. 14 sq.). A facsimile is given above. Tischendorf has likewise printed a brief Notitia Codicis to accompany the seventh edition of his Greek Test. of the same size. It may be remarked that the Codex Sinaiticus agrees with B in omitting the last twelve verses of Mark's gospel; that it has εφανερωθη, not θεος; that it omits the passage respecting the woman taken in adultery (Joh 7:53; Joh 8:11); agrees with B in omitting εν εφεσω in Eph 1:1 (a prima manu); wants the doxology in Mt 6:13, as do B D Z; agrees with B in reading την εκκλησιαν του Θεου (Ac 20:28); with B C D** in having ουδενος λογου ποιουμαι την ψυχην τιμιαν εμαυτω (ver. 24), and has μονογενης Θεος with B C L in Joh 1:18 a reading undoubtedly wrong. The MS. has been published at St. Petersburg in facsimile (4 vols. fol.), the edition being limited to 300 copies. In 1863 the New Test. part was published in ordinary type at Leipsic, 4to, with columns the same as the original, and in 1865 Tischendorf issued a new edition in 8vo. Scrivener has also printed its readings in a small vol. (1863), and Hansell has added them to his edition of the New Test. (1864). See Amer. Theol. Rev. April, 1861; Princeton Rev. Jan. 1861; Lond. (Wesl.) Rev. Oct. 1863; Brit. Quar. Rev. Oct. 1863; Stud. u. Krit. 1864, 3; Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Theologie, 4, 1864. SEE MANUSCRIPTS, BIBLICAL.