Science and religion may not have the smoothest relationship, but one thing the churchly crowd can hand to technology is its propensity for making religious texts available to the masses. Including, now, the world’s oldest Bible. The Codex Sinaiticus, which before could only be read on leaves of animal skin, is now peruse-able in its entirety online. Reports the AP:
As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of prepared animal skin, each of which measures 15 inches by 13.5 inches (380 millimeters by 345 millimeters). It is the oldest book that contains a complete New Testament and is only missing parts of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.
The 4th-century book, written in Greek, has been digitally reunited in a project involving groups from Britain, Germany, Russia and Egypt, which each possessed parts of the 1,600-year-old manuscript.
They worked together to publish new research into the history of the Codex and transcribed 650,000 words over a four-year period.
The parchment leaves contained around half of the Old Testament and Apocrypha, all of the New Testament, and two early Christian texts not found in modern-day translations. The first part of the Old Testament, from Genesis to 1 Chronicles, has been presumed to be lost for good. Still, that hasn’t stopped people from running to their computers to read it: “There’s a high demand,” Codex Sinaiticus project manager Juan Garces told the AP. “Our Web site has crashed because people want to look at it.”
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Image: Flickr / Fotos EnBytes
July 7th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
“The Codex Sinaiticus, which before could only be read on leaves of animal skin,…”
Well … no.
It’s easy enough to find out that the majority of it (all that was known at the time) was published in facsimile under the sponsorship of Tsar Alexander II in the mid-1800’s. I haven’t searched out info on the more recently-discovered loose pages and fragments, but I’d be surprised if they could have “only be read on leaves of animal skin” prior to digitization.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
[...] the rest here: World’s Oldest Bible, Now Available on Your Laptop Mail this postPopularity: 1% [?]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “World’s Oldest Bible, Now [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Yawn. So what. There are earlier works of fiction than that one.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
“Yawn. So what. There are earlier works of fiction than that one.”
True, but none of them got the rave reviews that the Bible did.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:44 am
World’s Oldest Bible, Now Available on Your Laptop
Science and religion may not have the smoothest relationship, but one thing the churchly crowd can hand to technology is its propensity for making religious texts available to the masses. Including, now, the world’s oldest Bible. The Codex Sinaiticus…
July 15th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
[...] Content: Discoblog: The World’s Oldest Bible, Now Available on Your Laptop Discoblog: Religion: A Tool to Keep the Parasites Away? Discoblog: No Time to Pray? No Problem! [...]
August 16th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
[...] The world’s oldest Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus (which contains the entirety of the New Testament, …. You can see images of each of the 400 large leaves of prepared animal skin, along with the text and translation, “digitally reunited in a project involving groups from Britain, Germany, Russia and Egypt.” The Codex Sinaiticus was created in the 4th century in Greek. [...]