What is Codex Sinaiticus? (2021-02-24) #

0:00:01 what is the codex sinaiticus
0:00:03 and why does it matter to us today i
0:00:06 think it matters
0:00:07 for two really important reasons which
0:00:09 i'll come to
0:00:10 shortly but firstly what is it what is
0:00:13 the codex sinaiticus
0:00:15 to answer that question i'm going to
0:00:17 read from
0:00:18 in a monastery library preserving codex
0:00:20 sinaiticus and the greek
0:00:22 written heritage this is a
0:00:25 book or booklet produced by the british
0:00:27 library
0:00:28 here in london about a mile and a half
0:00:30 from where i am sitting
0:00:32 and they house they store and preserve
0:00:34 the codex sinaiticus it's usually on
0:00:36 display i've seen it many times
0:00:38 unfortunately the moment it's closed
0:00:40 like so many other things
0:00:42 but i hope one day it'll be open and we
0:00:43 can see it again there is a website
0:00:46 dedicated to this text the codex
0:00:48 sinaiticus
0:00:50 produced by the british library and i'll
0:00:51 link to it in the description
0:00:53 below so firstly what is it well
0:00:56 the codex sinaiticus is a treasure
0:00:59 beyond price often described in
0:01:02 superlatives
0:01:04 this handwritten book is hard to
0:01:07 overestimate for its deep and continuing
0:01:09 significance
0:01:11 for many scholars it is the preeminent
0:01:13 christian bible
0:01:15 known to them as aleph that's the first
0:01:17 letter of the hebrew alphabet
0:01:19 or number one amongst christians
0:01:22 worldwide it is renowned for containing
0:01:25 the earliest complete copy of the bible
0:01:28 of the new testament so this is uh not
0:01:31 the original this is a
0:01:32 copy but it's the very very earliest
0:01:34 that we have
0:01:36 arguably it is also the earliest
0:01:38 christian
0:01:39 bible the ultimate antecedent of all
0:01:42 printed editions of the bible in
0:01:45 whatever language
0:01:46 anywhere in the world as one of the
0:01:49 earliest
0:01:49 luxury codices that's bound books
0:01:53 codices is plural for books codex is
0:01:56 singular
0:01:57 for book uh it's one of the earliest to
0:01:59 survive
0:02:00 from history in the ancient world the
0:02:02 codex
0:02:03 forms one of the most important
0:02:05 landmarks in the history
0:02:07 of the book what is more is pages offer
0:02:10 some of the most direct links with a
0:02:13 crucial turning point in world history
0:02:15 the triumph of the emperor constantine
0:02:18 the great
0:02:19 at the battle of the milvian bridge in
0:02:21 ad312
0:02:23 and the edict of milan in ad
0:02:26 313 in which constantine formally
0:02:29 recognized christianity
0:02:31 and urged tolerance rather than
0:02:33 persecution of christians
0:02:36 bridging more than 1 600 years
0:02:39 codex sinaiticus is a vivid testament
0:02:42 to human invention and spiritual
0:02:45 inspiration
0:02:47 now one of the reasons it's called the
0:02:49 codex finite
0:02:50 vatic sinaiticus i should say is because
0:02:53 of where
0:02:54 it was found in the monastery of saint
0:02:56 catherine
0:02:57 on mount sinai now that's in egypt
0:03:01 and reputedly the place where moses
0:03:04 according to the book of exodus in the
0:03:06 bible received
0:03:08 revelation from god the torah and had
0:03:10 that encounter
0:03:11 with god and that's why the monastery
0:03:13 was built there probably in the early
0:03:15 4th century to
0:03:17 commemorate that extraordinary event
0:03:21 as it survives today the codex
0:03:23 sinaiticus
0:03:24 comprises just over 400 large leaves
0:03:28 of prepared animal skin in calf so
0:03:31 the book is made about animal skin
0:03:34 on the parchment leaves is written about
0:03:37 half of the old testament
0:03:39 and apocrypha the whole of the new
0:03:42 testament
0:03:43 and two early christian texts not found
0:03:46 in modern bibles an epistle
0:03:49 described ascribed to the apostle
0:03:52 barnabas and the shepherd by the early
0:03:56 2nd century
0:03:57 roman writer hermas now
0:04:00 there's a bit of confusion here
0:04:01 potentially because
0:04:03 many people have heard of something
0:04:04 called the gospel of barnabas and some
0:04:06 muslims think that this is
0:04:08 uh an authentic text going back to the
0:04:11 apostle barnabas
0:04:12 well i'm afraid um every scholar in the
0:04:15 world who's ever looked at this
0:04:17 considers the gospel of barnabas that we
0:04:19 have
0:04:20 access to today to be a renaissance
0:04:22 forgery
0:04:23 it doesn't go back to the first century
0:04:25 barnabas being of course
0:04:26 a companion of paul who we had a big
0:04:28 falling out with that's another story
0:04:30 so no one thinks that no one who is an
0:04:32 expert in the field thinks the gospel of
0:04:34 barnabas is authentic i'm afraid
0:04:37 but the epistle of barnabas the letter
0:04:39 of barnabas
0:04:40 goes back to the uh the second century
0:04:43 or or earlier
0:04:44 and is found in this codex and was
0:04:46 considered part of the bible the new
0:04:48 testament
0:04:49 inspired by god and then we have this
0:04:52 thing called the shepherd of
0:04:53 the shepherd of hermes hermes was an
0:04:55 early second century roman
0:04:58 guy and his uh work uh his
0:05:01 uh is considered scripture by many in
0:05:04 the early church
0:05:05 as well but you will not find it
0:05:08 anywhere
0:05:08 in modern bibles this is my modern bible
0:05:10 and you will not find it anywhere here
0:05:12 or any other modern bible in the world
0:05:15 and this is one of the points i wanted
0:05:17 to
0:05:17 uh make about the significance of this
0:05:19 text and i'll come back to that in a
0:05:20 second
0:05:22 all of these texts in the new testament
0:05:24 of course are in greek
0:05:26 uh and the this is it appears in the
0:05:28 original
0:05:29 um vernacular language the language that
0:05:31 people spoke in the
0:05:33 roman empire which was called coiner
0:05:35 greek
0:05:36 so uh just ex uh
0:05:39 there's no there's no confusion the the
0:05:41 romans typically didn't speak latin they
0:05:43 spoke greek
0:05:45 uh coin or greek and the old testament
0:05:48 in this version is also in greek
0:05:50 although
0:05:50 it's in a slightly different form of
0:05:53 greek called the septuagint
0:05:55 and that goes back to the second and
0:05:56 third centuries bc when it was
0:05:58 translated
0:05:59 and in amongst these books in the codex
0:06:02 santiagos are
0:06:03 tobit judith 1 and 4 maccabees the book
0:06:06 of wisdom the book of tobit
0:06:08 and 2 esdras now all these books
0:06:11 are in the modern catholic canon well
0:06:14 apart from four maccabees they've only
0:06:16 got
0:06:16 one and two maccabees four maccabees is
0:06:19 in the orthodox canon the russian and
0:06:21 greek orthodox
0:06:22 but what one of the points um i wanted
0:06:25 to make here
0:06:26 is the is just to emphasize that what
0:06:29 makes
0:06:29 up the bible the books that comes to con
0:06:32 that make up the canon
0:06:33 of the christian bible uh differ
0:06:36 depending on which era you're asking the
0:06:39 question of
0:06:40 and which church you're asking uh
0:06:43 christians have different bibles with
0:06:44 different books
0:06:46 even the new testament is different uh
0:06:49 in some respects has different books
0:06:51 in it so it's a much more open-ended um
0:06:55 process and it was never fixed uh like
0:06:58 the quran is with
0:06:59 a certain number of chapters that all
0:07:01 people agree on
0:07:02 and christians still disagree today on
0:07:04 which books go up the bi
0:07:06 make up the bible and this has doctrinal
0:07:08 implications because the catholic canon
0:07:10 includes one maccabees for example which
0:07:14 um they understand to teach the doctrine
0:07:16 of purgatory
0:07:17 and the legitimacy of praying to saints
0:07:20 that's a different subject
0:07:21 so it matters which books make up the
0:07:23 bible it creates
0:07:25 informs doctrine of the churches
0:07:28 so that's one of the really important
0:07:30 reasons
0:07:31 but the another reason is is what's not
0:07:35 in
0:07:35 the codex sinaiticus lots of things are
0:07:38 not in this
0:07:38 codex which are in modern bibles for
0:07:40 example
0:07:41 the really famous story of the woman
0:07:44 caught in adultery
0:07:46 in john's gospel uh chapter seven
0:07:48 chapter eight
0:07:49 which is in all modern bibles but it's
0:07:51 not in the codex sonyaticus that's
0:07:54 because it wasn't part
0:07:55 of john's gospel then another
0:07:59 thing that's missing are the
0:08:00 resurrection appearances believe it or
0:08:02 not
0:08:02 in the earliest gospel of mark there are
0:08:04 no resurrection appearances
0:08:06 in the earliest gospel according to the
0:08:08 earliest new testament
0:08:10 what else is different um there are a
0:08:12 number the famous trinity verse
0:08:14 of uh 1 john 5 7. it goes without saying
0:08:18 is not
0:08:19 in the earliest new testament we have
0:08:21 that's a
0:08:22 much much later medieval uh insertion
0:08:25 into the text now there are dozens of
0:08:28 other much
0:08:28 smaller differences which i'm not going
0:08:30 to list uh you can discover for yourself
0:08:33 if you go on the website where the codex
0:08:36 differs from
0:08:37 modern bibles um so that this
0:08:40 causes them to question the whole idea
0:08:42 of of the preservation of the bible
0:08:44 and what is and what isn't the word of
0:08:46 god which books are scripture and
0:08:48 inspired by god well
0:08:49 depends who you ask and it matters as i
0:08:52 say
0:08:52 for doctrine and some really important
0:08:56 much much love stories like the woman
0:08:58 caught in adultery
0:08:59 are simply not part of the early bible
0:09:01 manuscripts certainly not our earliest
0:09:03 one
0:09:04 and uh it was it became part of the
0:09:06 bible much later
0:09:09 so um that's all i want to say about
0:09:12 this
0:09:12 now i do recommend you look into this
0:09:14 more
0:09:15 and i just want to emphasize as i say
0:09:17 the idea that the canon of scripture is
0:09:19 not
0:09:20 fixed it depends on which church you go
0:09:22 to and what you want to believe
0:09:24 and this affects doctrine and secondly
0:09:27 that the earliest manuscript that we
0:09:28 have is missing some really key
0:09:31 passages the resurrection appearances in
0:09:34 the gospel of mark
0:09:35 the woman caught on adultery the
0:09:37 trinitarian verse and so on they're all
0:09:40 missing
0:09:40 from this manuscript and the trini and
0:09:43 the codex sonyasakas is their most
0:09:45 important single manuscript
0:09:48 in the world this is the the mother of
0:09:51 all manuscripts
0:09:53 so i hope that was of interest until
0:09:55 next time