Codex Sinaiticus - the white parchment Friderico-Augustanus
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 10:09 pm
Hi,
Codex Sinaiticus has a number of curious anomalies and a somewhat shaky provenance.
Here are three interrelated facts about the ms. that call for scholarly review, consideration and explanation.
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1) Porfiry Uspensky, Russian bishop, visted St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai in 1845. He said that the Sinaiticus codex consisted of white parchment leaves. (Uspensky also wrote of his 1850 visit in an 1857 book.)
2) 43 leaves were taken by Tischendorf to Leipzig in 1844. This is a bit over 10% of the Sinaiticus extant leaves. Tischendorf called this the Codex Friderico-Augustanus. The Leipzig leaves are white parchment and stain-free.
3) 347 leaves were taken by Tischendorf to St. Petersburg in 1859. These later went to the British Library in 1933. These leaves are yellow and stained.
(Small portions of Sinaiticus are currently in Russia and Sinai, the Sinai material is related to the New Finds of 1975.)
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Please note that (2) and (3) were made accessible by the 2009 excellent placing of the full Sinaiticus ms. online. There is no indication that this curious set of "facts on the ground" has been noticed before 2014. No indication at all in English, going through the German discussions of the 1860s and the Russian historical material is more involved. Major highlights of the German discussions were reported in the English press, and the Russians have now put some helpful material online.
The British Library has confirmed the accuracy of the colors of the sections as seen on the Codex Sinaiticus website. They made extra efforts for standardization of the photography at the difference sites. And placed a color number for the parchment with each page. Also they confirmed the color distinction of the sections.
Your thoughts welcome!
Steven Avery
Bayside, NY
Codex Sinaiticus has a number of curious anomalies and a somewhat shaky provenance.
Here are three interrelated facts about the ms. that call for scholarly review, consideration and explanation.
===============================
1) Porfiry Uspensky, Russian bishop, visted St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai in 1845. He said that the Sinaiticus codex consisted of white parchment leaves. (Uspensky also wrote of his 1850 visit in an 1857 book.)
We originally saw the Uspensky section online in Russian courtesy of a Ukrainian Bible scholar, Leszek Jańczuk. Leszek has been a main contributor towards making the Bible ms. section of wikipedia rather strong.Первое путешествие в Синайский Монастыŕ в 1845 году Архимандрита Порфиря ... (1856)
By Порфирий Бишоф в. Чигирин
http://books.google.com/books?id=hIlCAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA225
«Первая рукопись, содержащая Ветхий Завет неполный и весь Новый Завет с посланием ап. Варнавы и книгой Ермы, писана на тончайшем белом пергамене. (...) Буквы в ней совершенно похожи на церковно-славянские. Постановка их прямая и сплошная. Над словами нет придыханий и ударений, а речения не отделяются никакими знаками правописания кроме точек. Весь священный текст писан в четыре и два столбца стихомерным образом и так слитно, как будто одно длинное речение тянется от точки до точки.» (Порфирий (Успенский), Первое путешествие в Синайский монастырь в 1845 году, Petersburg 1856, с. 226.)
2) 43 leaves were taken by Tischendorf to Leipzig in 1844. This is a bit over 10% of the Sinaiticus extant leaves. Tischendorf called this the Codex Friderico-Augustanus. The Leipzig leaves are white parchment and stain-free.
3) 347 leaves were taken by Tischendorf to St. Petersburg in 1859. These later went to the British Library in 1933. These leaves are yellow and stained.
(Small portions of Sinaiticus are currently in Russia and Sinai, the Sinai material is related to the New Finds of 1975.)
================================
Please note that (2) and (3) were made accessible by the 2009 excellent placing of the full Sinaiticus ms. online. There is no indication that this curious set of "facts on the ground" has been noticed before 2014. No indication at all in English, going through the German discussions of the 1860s and the Russian historical material is more involved. Major highlights of the German discussions were reported in the English press, and the Russians have now put some helpful material online.
The British Library has confirmed the accuracy of the colors of the sections as seen on the Codex Sinaiticus website. They made extra efforts for standardization of the photography at the difference sites. And placed a color number for the parchment with each page. Also they confirmed the color distinction of the sections.
Your thoughts welcome!
Steven Avery
Bayside, NY