{"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_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24605,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-paul-say-sinai-was-in-arabia\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":0},"title":"Why did Paul say Sinai was in Arabia?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a great admirer of your well-studied responses. I wanted to ask about a comment from the question; \"Could Israel crossed the Red Sea on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula?\" In your response, you said, \"Typically people wish to claim that Mount Sinai was on 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":48124,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-the-hebrew-writer-contrast-mount-sinai-with-mount-zion\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":1},"title":"Why does the Hebrew writer contrast Mount Sinai with Mount Zion?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeffrey, I hope you are doing well. I have a question regarding Hebrews 12:18-29. Why does the writer use the example of the events in Mount Sinai (verses 18-21) and contrasts them with Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem and everything else in verses 22-24? What is 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":6635,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-rephidim-and-kadesh-barnea-the-same-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":2},"title":"Is Rephidim and Kadesh Barnea the same place?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, Please find enclosed a short attachment concerning a crucial aspect of the exodus that seems to have been overlooked. Please read it and any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. [I won't bother copying the extensive article here, but the primary thrust is to argue that Kadesh\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":4767,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-israel-have-crossed-the-red-sea-on-the-eastern-side-of-the-sinai-peninsula\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":3},"title":"Could Israel have crossed the Red Sea on the eastern side of the Sinai peninsula?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering if the possible crossing could be on the eastern side of the Sinai peninsula? Answer: Such a crossing would not match the account on numerous factors. \"Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. A\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":36840,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-it-mean-that-god-declared-the-seventh-day-holy\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":4},"title":"What does it mean that God declared the seventh day holy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: God blessed the seventh day. When God blessed the animals and human beings He said \"Be fruitful and multiply.\" Can this mean that God also said the same thing when God blessed the seventh day? Also, what does it mean that God has declared the seventh day holy? Answer:\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":69697,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-came-first-leviticus-123-or-exodus-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":96601,"position":5},"title":"Which came first, Leviticus 12:3 or Exodus 4?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I read your article \"Did God give Moses the commandment to circumcise?\" You point out that in Leviticus 12:3, God instructs Moses that boys must be circumcised on the 8th day. In Exodus 4, we have the situation where God is preparing to kill Moses because he has\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":[]}],"_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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96604,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96601\/revisions\/96604"}],"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}]}}