02 Codex Sinaiticus

Museum Description: Codex Sinaiticus

Room: Sir John Ritblat Gallery

Scripture: 1 John 5:7

German biblical scholar Tischendorf had been on a trip to find old Bible manuscripts when he visited St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1859. He was about to leave without success when he found 43 sheets in a wastepaper basket about to be burned. It was a manuscript from the fourth century C.E. with all the Christian Greek Scriptures and part of the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is one of three most important Greek manuscripts. Another, the Vatican 1209, was actually discovered earlier, but was only released for study by the Vatican after the Sinaiticus was discovered. Now, spurious texts such as "the Father, the Word and the holy spirit; and these three are one" in 1 John 5:7 could be removed as being a later edition, as they were not in these ancient manuscripts