TO PAY £100,000.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 302, 22 December 1933, Page 7

TO PAY £100,000.

BIBLE MANUSCRIPT. British Museum Purchase from Soviet. FOURTH CENTURY RECORD. (United P.A.-Electric Telegraph-Copyright) (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, December 21. The British Museum Trustees, with the approval of the Government, have agreed to purchase from the Soviet Government the fourth century manuscript known as the Godex Sinaiticus. It was formerly in the possession of the Czar of Russia, is one of the oldest , manuscripts of the Bible and is regarded as of paramount importance to the establishment of the Bible's text. An announcement made in official circles to-day is to the effect that the price paid "for the Codex Sinaiticus breaks all records. Negotiations for the sale have been going on in secret for two years. M. Stalin, the Soviet dictator, quickly agreed to the sale, but £100,000 is only half of what the Soviet Government originally asked. A Paris message states that the Grand Duke Cyril, pretender to the throne of the Czars, says it is distressing to hear that the manuscript has been sold, but adds: "We have no legal rights. It is some consolation, however, to see that precious heirloom belonging to my family is going to England." The Prime Minister stated in the House of Commons that the Government had undertaken to make a special contribution toward the purchase price of £1 for every £1 subscribed by the public. The purchase price-is £100,000. The price paid (£100,000), according to Mr. R. Flower, Deputy-Keeper of Manuscripts in the British Museum, is the largest the museum has ever paid for a manuscript, while the purchase is the most important the museum has ever made. The Codex was written in Greek and is one* of the most important manuscripts in the world. Forty-three leaves of it were discovered in 1844 by the German biblical scholar, Dr. Tischendorf, in a rubbish basket in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and were presented to the Leipzig Library. In 1853 Dr. Teschendorf returned to Mount Sinai and was shown additional manuscripts which were reeogTlised as the main bulk of that formerly obtained, and which were sent to the Czar Alexander. The Codex consists of a very large portion of the Old Testament —a translation from the Hebrew into the Greek Septuagint —although some books are fragmentary. It includes also the complete New Testament, with the Epistle of Barnabas and the treatise known as "the Shepherd of Hernias," which was so popular in the Early Church and was nearly included in the canon of Scripture. The Codex dates from the second half of the fourth century. With the Codex Vatieanus at Rome it constitutes one of the two earliest of the great biblical manuscripts. The third is .the Codex Alexandrinus, dating from the second half of the fifth century, which is already in the British Museum.