THE DISCOVERY OF THE CODEX

Septuagint The Greek translation of the Old Testament. These tactics proved successful, and later on the steward original: "οἰκονόμος" (oikonomos) — the monk in charge of the monastery's administration, desirous of showing that the monks also had a manuscript of the Septuagint, brought him the Codex wrapped in a red cloth.In which it is still wrapped, and, I hope, always will be. Tischendorf’s delight can be imagined, when he found that it contained not only a great part of the Septuagint, but the whole of the New Testament, Barnabas, and part of Hermas The Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas are early Christian writings that were highly regarded but eventually excluded from the final Bible canon.

An arrangement was made with the monks that, if the superiors of the monastery, who were living at Cairo, were willing, the manuscript should be sent to Cairo to be copied. Hurriedly returning thither, Tischendorf persuaded the representatives of the monastery to make this concession, and, in consequence, a messenger was sent to St. Catherine’s to fetch the manuscript, which on Feb. 24, 1859, reached Cairo, where it was copied by Tischendorf and two assistants in the extraordinarily short space of two months. After this Tischendorf suggested to the monks at Cairo that the manuscript should be given to the Tsar. There was, however, at that time an election in process to the archbishopric of SinaiSinai is under the control of an archbishop, who is consecrated at Jerusalem, but has independent jurisdiction.; a candidate had been unanimously selected, but he was not yet consecrated, and under these circumstances it was ultimately (in Sept. 1859) agreed that Tischendorf should take the manuscript to the Tsar in anticipation of the formal gift which would be made when the archbishop was in a position to ratify it.

There has been much not very edifying controversy as to the terms on which this arrangement was made. Some of the monks have maintained that it was never their intention to make a permanent gift of the manuscript. Another version is that they bargained for a steamship to connect their harbour on the Red Sea with Port Said. Those who have had much to do with Oriental monks will understand how improbable it is that the terms of the arrangement, whatever it was, were ever known to any except a few of the leaders. The latter probably regarded the whole affair as a speculation. In any case, the fact is certain that Tischendorf was allowed by the archbishop to take the manuscript to St. Petersburg.

The Tsar was pleased to accept the present brought by Tischendorf; in November, 1859, the manuscript was exhibited for a fortnight, and was then taken to Leipzig, in order that Tischendorf might issue a facsimile edition in accordance with the Tsar’s orders. Photography was not in those days sufficiently advanced to enable it to be employed, though Tischendorf considered its possibility, but special type was cut to imitate the manuscript, and the result may fairly claim to be the most perfect facsimile edition which was ever published in the pre-photographic period. It is a triumph of printing,A full account of its preparation is given in the preface to Tischendorf’s edition, vol. i, pp. 5 ff. and Tischendorf’s notes will always remain an indispensable aid to the study of the manuscript. It was issued in four volumes from St. Petersburg in 1862, under the title THE CODEX SINAITICUS BIBLE OF ST. PETERSBURG. UNDER THE MOST AUGUST AUSPICES OF THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER II. BROUGHT FORTH FROM DARKNESS, TRANSFERRED TO EUROPE, AND EDITED FOR THE AID AND ILLUSTRATION OF SACRED LITERATURE BY CONSTANTIN TISCHENDORF. original Latin: "BIBLIORUM CODEX SINAITICUS PETROPOLITANUS. AUSPICIIS AUGUSTISSIMIS IMPERATORIS ALEXANDRI II. EX TENEBRIS PROTRAXIT IN EUROPAM TRANSTULIT AD IUVANDAS ATQUE ILLUSTRANDAS SACRAS LITTERAS EDIDIT CONSTANTINUS TISCHENDORF."

When the manuscript was no longer needed for the purposes of preparing this edition it was finally handed over to the Tsar, and deposited in the Imperial Library, where it is still to be seen in a special show case in the Great Hall.

Meanwhile the monks of Sinai had received nothing in return for their magnificent present; and in a letter dated July 15, 1869, the Archbishop of Sinai hinted to Tischendorf that the time was approaching when the monks might reasonably expect some suitable acknowledgement. In consequence of this letter Tischendorf appears to have written to the Russian Ministry, and the result was that on Nov. 18, 1869, 7,000 roubles were received by the monks of St. Catherine’s, 2,000 roubles by the affiliated monastery of Mt. Thabor, and various decorations by the leading monks. The latter, however, have always claimed that they did not accept this as a satisfactory settlement, but no written protest on their part is known to exist, and the archbishop, at all events, remained on friendly terms with Tischendorf.See the quotations from Tischendorf’s correspondence in C. R. Gregory’s Prolegomena to the Eighth Edition of Tischendorf’s Novum Testamentum Graece, 1894. pp. 351 ff.

Finally, it is perhaps sufficiently curious to deserve mention that Simonides the forger attempted to discredit the experts who had helped to detect his fraud, by claiming that he had himself written the Codex Sinaiticus, and had deceived them all; but the details of this absurd story belong rather to the annals of crime than to the history of palaeography The study of ancient handwriting.