{"id":96601,"date":"2026-07-11T17:04:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=96601"},"modified":"2026-07-11T17:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:04:24","slug":"the-discovery-of-the-mount-sinai-manuscript","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-discovery-of-the-mount-sinai-manuscript\/","title":{"rendered":"The Discovery of the Mount Sinai Manuscript"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\tfrom\u00a0True or False<\/em> by David Otis Fuller, ed., p. 71
\nvia\u00a0Sentry Magazine<\/em>, Vol. 21 No. 4, December 1995\n

This famous Codex (with facsimiles of the handwriting and with an account of its discovery) is published in full in Dr. Scrivener’s work entitled ‘A Full Collation of the Codex Sinaiticus’ (1864).<\/p>\n

Constantine Tischendorf, a noted German scholar, who was indefatigable in the guest of old manuscripts, was visiting, in the year 1844, a monastery on Mt. Sinai, and in the course of that visit he chanced to find one day, among the waste, some leaves of vellum which, upon inspection, were found to contain parts of the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament in a script which indicated that the manuscript was of great antiquity.<\/p>\n

In describing his famous discovery, Tischendorf says: ‘I perceived in the middle of the great hall a large and wide basket, full of old parchments; and the librarian informed me that two heaps of papers like this, moldered by reason of age, had been already committed to the flames. What was my surprise to find among this heap of documents a considerable number of sheets of a copy of the Old Testament in Greek, which seemed to me to be one of the most ancient I had ever seen.’<\/p>\n

The monks allowed him to take forty-five of the sheets. But nothing more transpired until fifteen years later, when he again visited the monastery, this time under the direct patronage of the Czar of Russia. And then he was shown a bulky roll of parchment leaves, which included, among other manuscripts of lesser importance, the Codex now known as the Sinaitic.<\/p>\n

Naturally enough, Dr. Tischendorf was highly elated by his discovery. Indeed, his enthusiasm was unbounded. He says, ‘I knew that I held in my hands the most precious Biblical treasure in existence,’ and he considered this discovery to be ‘greater than that of the Koh-i-noor (diamond) of the Queen of England.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from\u00a0True or False by David Otis Fuller, ed., p. 71 via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 4, December 1995 This famous Codex (with facsimiles of the handwriting and with an account of its discovery) is published in full in Dr. Scrivener’s work entitled ‘A Full Collation of the Codex Sinaiticus’ (1864). Constantine Tischendorf, a noted German…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[201],"tags":[1913,219],"class_list":["post-96601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-archeology","tag-bible"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":64275,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-earliest-manuscripts\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":0},"title":"The Earliest Manuscripts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ferrell Jenkins \"In the original Greek, it says\u2026\" How many times have you heard that in a Bible class or sermon? The fact is, we have no originals (autograph copies) of any New Testament or Old Testament book. Textual critics, those scholars who work with the available materials to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33351,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-mark-169-20-inspired\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":1},"title":"Is Mark 16:9-20 Inspired?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kyle Pope via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 9, No. 8, August 2009 Many students of the New Testament have found themselves puzzled by notes encountered at the close of the Gospel of Mark, claiming, \"The most reliable early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20\"[1]. Should we question\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28718,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-the-hebrew-university-bible-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":2},"title":"What do you think about the Hebrew University Bible Project?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to know if you found this news link rather interesting, and if you can put some comments about it: \"In Jerusalem, scholars trace Bible's evolution.\" Answer: The Hebrew University Bible Project is conducting textual criticism, a common practice for biblical documents. I have no idea about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56401,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-genuineness-of-mark-169-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":3},"title":"The Genuineness of Mark 16:9-20","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dudley Ross Spears The last verses from Mark's gospel, (Mark 16:9-20) have been called \"The Longer Ending of Mark.\" The first time I came across this criticism it was in response to quoting verses 15 and 16. Mark 16:16 affirms, \"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17168,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/reflections-on-the-gospel-of-judas\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":4},"title":"Reflections on the “Gospel of Judas”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Ethan R. Longhenry While\u00a0The Da Vinci Code mania continues to develop and grow throughout the world and while \"other gospels\" and \"alternative Christianities\" have become popular, we now see revealed to us yet another \"lost gospel,\" the Gospel of Judas. The National Geographic Society has done a good job of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Holding-a-Bible.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-authenticity-of-mark-169-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":5},"title":"The Authenticity of Mark 16:9-20","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jim Snapps II \"Does\u00a0Mark 16:9-20\u00a0belong in the Bible?\" The church has answered \"Yes\" for centuries. Many in the church still do. But in the 1800s, scholars questioned the originality of these 12 verses. Many scholars today take it for granted that the Gospel of Mark originally did not contain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/10\/64ManuscriptsChart.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/10\/64ManuscriptsChart.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/10\/64ManuscriptsChart.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/10\/64ManuscriptsChart.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}