BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 302, 22 December 1933, Page 7

BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPT

CODEX SINAITICUS BRITISH MUSEUM PURCHASE FOURTH-CENTURY TREASURE SOLD BY SOVIET RUSSIA ( British Official Wireless. I Received Dec. 21. 7.5 p-m. RUGBY, IDec. 20The British Museum trustees, with the approval of the Government have agreed to purchase from the Soviet Government the Kurth century manuscript known as the Codex Smaiticus. It was formerly in the possession of the Czar of Russia, ana is one of the oldest manuscripts of the Bible, and is regarded as of paramount importance to the establishment of its text The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, stated tn the Commons that the Government had undertaken to make a special contribution towards the purchase price of £1 for every £1 subscribed by the public. The purchase price is £100,000.. Mr. R. Flower. Deputy-Keeper ot Manuscripts at the British Museum, savs that the price paid for the Codex is the biggest tjie museum has ever paid for a manuscript, while the purchase is the most important the museum has ever made. The Codex is written in Greek and is one of the most important manuscripts in the world. Fortythree leaves of it were, discovered in 184-4 by a German biblical scholar named Tischendorf in a rubbish basked in a monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai; He presented these to the Leipzig Library. Tischendorf, in 1853 returned to Mt. Sinai and was shown additional manuscripts, which he recognised as the main bulk of that formerly obtained, which he sent to the Tsar Alexander. The Codex consists of a very- large portion of the Old Testament translation of the Hebrew Septuagint, al though some books are fragmentary, and also tint complete New Testament Epistle of Barnabas, and a treatise known as the “Shepherd of Hennas.’’ which was so popular with the early church, and was nearly included m the canon of the Scriptures. The Codex dates from the second half of the fourth century, and with the Codex Vaticanus in Rome constitutes two of the earliest great biblical manuscripts. The third ,is the Codex Alexandrinus, dating from the lecond half of the fifth century, which U already in the British Museum.