CODEX SINAITICUS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1934, Page 5

CODEX SINAITICUS

ACQUISITION FOR BRITAIN. OVERSEAS LEAGUE LECTURE. The events leading to the finding of the Codex Sinaiticus and its purchase for the British Museum were described by the Rev. W. Jellie in an address before the Overseas League. The speaker said the Codex Sinaiticus was one of the only two copies of the earliest edition of the Bible in existence, the other being in the Vatican. In relating the circumstances which led to the finding of the manuscript by a German scholar in an ancient monastery on Mount Sinai, Mr. Jellie said it had been established that the monastery existed as far back as the 6th century. The manuscript was at least 200 years older than that. This could be proved by the marginal notes giving the names of the scholars who had revised its transcription, the best known being Pamphilius, who had been martyred in the 4th century. The Codex was in Greek, written on parchment in a beautifully clear script, and it had suffered little in the passage of time. Mr. Jellie described the sale of the Codex by the monks, to the Tsar of Russia, as head of the Greek Orthodox Church, and its recent acquisition from the Soviet authorities by the British Government for £lOO,OOO.