DESCRIPTION OF THE CODEX

Column 1

A technical description of a manuscript should logically begin with the binding—the first thing to catch the observer's eye—and then work through various questions regarding the vellum vellum: high-quality parchment made from animal skin, the construction of the leaves, and the ink, before moving to the more complicated problems of identifying the different scribes and correctors. However, the Codex Sinaiticus had lost its binding before Tischendorf Constantin von Tischendorf (1815–1874), the German biblical scholar who discovered the manuscript at Saint Catherine's Monastery discovered it. Therefore, the only points to discuss are those concerning the vellum and ink, and the identification of the scribes and correctors.

The manuscript is written on fine parchment made from the skin of a fairly large animal. Tischendorf suggested it was an antelope; however, considering how this guess has been copied by successive writers on the New Testament text, and the certainty that frequent repetition has given it in their eyes, it is perhaps necessary to point out that there is nothing in the vellum to indicate an antelope rather than any other animal of the required size. The parchment varies considerably in thickness. The thicker leaves, which have generally preserved the writing better than the thin ones, tend to have a yellowish tint. Many of the leaves are so thin that the writing from the other side is sometimes clearly visible, which can be confusing; in a few cases, the ink has even eaten through the vellum and left holes. As a rule, however, the vellum seemed to me not quite as thin as that of the Codex Alexandrinus, and consequently, it has suffered somewhat less from erosion.

The edges of the leaves have been slightly trimmed since the time of the "Group C" correctors. As far as can be discovered now, there is no writing on the edges of the closed manuscript. The Codex was prepared for writing in the usual way, using ruled lines to regulate the rows and columns. There are almost always 48 lines per column, and each of the four columns is framed by a vertical line on each side. The only exception...

---

Column 2

...which I have noted is that leaves 59 and 60 in the Old Testament facsimile, being conjugate leaves conjugate leaves: two leaves that form a single continuous piece of parchment folded in the middle, have 50 lines each. Oddly enough, page 59a is by Scribe D, who also wrote the three preceding leaves, while 59b and 60 are by Scribe B, who wrote the rest of the book of 4 Maccabees. The prickings prickings: small holes made in the parchment to guide the ruling of lines, which were always made at the edge of the leaves as a guide for the person preparing the vellum, have been cut away. However, in a few places, the preparer seems to have made a mistake, and a line of prickings can still be seen in the middle of the first column of writing.

The gatherings gathering: a group of folded sheets of parchment sewn together, also called a "quire" into which the sheets of vellum were assembled are usually quaternions quaternion: a gathering consisting of four folded sheets, creating eight leaves or sixteen pages of four conjugate leaves. However, gathering 41 original: μα has only four leaves, and gathering 58 original: νη has only six leaves. Gathering 58 is obviously a small gathering meant to allow the poetic books to begin with a new gathering. The reason for gathering 41 is less obvious: it contains the end of 1 Maccabees followed by 4 Maccabees, which takes up exactly one gathering of eight leaves and is followed by the Prophets. Furthermore, 4 Maccabees was written by Scribes D and B, unlike 1 Maccabees, which was written by Scribe A. Scribe B probably also wrote Isaiah. What is the exact significance of these facts regarding the status of 4 Maccabees in the minds of the Codex’s scribes?

Similarly, in the New Testament, gathering 78 original: oη (in Luke) has only seven leaves; gathering 80 original: π (the end of the Gospels) and gathering 90 original: \varsigma (in Barnabas) have six each; and gathering 91 original: \varsigmaα (the end of Barnabas) has only two.² Each gathering appears to have been signed in a faint red ink at the top left-hand corner of the first front side (recto) by a hand that was likely contemporary with the manuscript. It is therefore probable that these signatures should be considered the work of the scribes employed in the original scriptorium scriptorium: a room dedicated to the professional copying of manuscripts, though there is no definitive proof of this. Most of these signatures have been cut off, but traces of them can be seen in the Epistles and later books. The best specimen can be found on folio 86, front side (recto), of the New Testament...

¹ These numbers refer to the recent signatures.
² Nothing is missing from this gathering; therefore, the suggestion that the Codex once contained additional text between the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas is incorrect.

c 2