Hi,
There are lots of possibilities of how Simonides may, or may not, have been involved with the Sinaiticus ms. He is an important figure, but, as with Tischendorf, we have to be very cautious with his claims. We especially see the 1840-1845 period through a glass darkly.
Simonides published his Hermas ms. in 1856, about which James Anson Farrer (1849-1925) said:
"The coincidence seems almost more singular than can be accounted for by chance"
Literary forgeries (1907) - James Anson Farrer
http://books.google.com/books?id=4lgLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA60
The situations with Hermas and with Barnabas are incredibly difficult for Sinaiticus antiquity. If anybody with a little background in these writings and the classical languages wants to examine this in more detail, please contact me for more information.
As for our main topic on this thread, consider this:
"And I know yet further, that the codex also was cleaned with lemon-juice, professedly for the purpose of cleaning its parchments, but in reality in order to weaken the freshness of the letters, as was actually the case."
Kallinikos Hieromonachos, Oct 15, 1862, referencing Tischendorf
"I know too. still further, that the same Codex was cleaned with a solution of herbs, on the theory that the skins might be cleaned, but, in fact, that the writing might he changed, as it was, to a sort of yellow colour."
James Keith Elliott book, p. 77 (I'll plan on getting more info in the AM)
"Some he thought had been dipped in tobacco-water to give them the semblance of age.",
Farrer, p. 40, referring to another situation with mss from Simonides
The simple fact that these first two assertions dovetail so well with the physical condition of Sinaiticus is an element that any objective researcher would have to earnestly consider.
Essentially, Tischendorf, and possibly friends (Tischendorf had special
baksheesh contacts at St. Catherine's) was being accused of tampering with the manuscript in Sinai in the period after the 43 leaves had been taken to Leipzig. The results of such yellowing of the manuscript would be precisely the colour and condition disparity that we see today. Thus, this surely must be considered as one of the explanations searched for in the OP.
Here is a simple question. If the mass of the ms. examined in the 1860s in Russia looked like the Codex Friderico-Augustanus, would the pristine white parchment condition, and the fine ink, have been discordant with claims of great antiquity?
Steven Avery