Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-1874)
How do we know we have an accurate Bible? By accurate, we mean as close to the original text as possible. It is a common criticism of the Bible that “it has been changed so often over the years that we do not know what it originally said.” Liberal scholarship takes this view, which was begun in the halls of European academia in the mid-19th century.
Where would you look to find the original text if you had none of the autographs? 1. the oldest texts you can find, 2. quoted text by other authors, 3. translations into other languages.
At this point in history, the Greek underpinnings of the New Testament came from the Latin Vulgate and sporadic Greek texts, none of which were near complete.
Professor Tischendorf taught in the theology department at the University of Leipzig. He was, from a young age, a brilliant scholar of ancient languages and theology. He considered it his calling to find the original text of the New Testament and set out in 1844 on an extensive journey throughout the Middle East to find ancient manuscripts. He had small successes until he stumbled into St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai.
Background: St Catherine’s Monastery was built in the mid-6th Century as an Eastern Orthodox monastery. It is still in existence today, and has actually become a bit of a tourist stop. The monastery today is even a UNESCO Heritage Site.
At the monastery, Tischendorf noticed a number of baskets with old parchments destined to stoke the furnace of the building. When he examined this trash basket, he noticed they were written in “uncial” script. (Uncial = Greek and Latin scholarship was written in only capital letters from the 3rd to about the 8th centuries AD.) He pulled these out and found over 43 large pages of text! At this point, there were no large portions of Greek Uncial biblical text. His poker face failed him and his excitement alarmed the monks. They allowed him to take the 43 leaves he initially discovered, which had parts of I Chronicles, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, and Esther. These were delivered to the university library at Leipzig, where they remain today.
The monks also showed him other manuscripts which they did not allow him to keep or copy. These included large portions of the New Testament, also in Uncial script – something never seen before. The head monk casually remarked that they had already burned two large baskets of such manuscripts prior to his arrival! Tischendorf first offered to buy the documents, then, when the monks refused, Tischendorf warned them that these manuscripts were far too valuable for burning.
Offers to buy the manuscripts came in, which the monks all refused – possibly holding out for more cash. In 1853, Tischendorf returned with other offers, and a recently published copy of the Septuagint (Greek New Testament) which he had been working on. When he gave it to a monk there, the monk remarked that he, too, had a copy of the Septuagint. Tischendorf asked to see it, so the monk retrieved from his cell, wrapped in red cloth, a very large manuscript, previously unknown to Tischendorf. Tischendorf hid his emotions better this time, and casually asked to examine the document that evening. Permission was granted, and the scholar stayed up all night in joy of studying the manuscript. He wrote in his diary “it really seemed a sacrilege to sleep!” What he was looking at was large portions of the Greek Old Testament, a complete copy of the Greek New Testament, large portions of the Apocryphal books, and two second-century Christian books referenced in early Christian works, but which had long been lost to history: the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas. This time, Tischendorf was allowed a limited time to copy the manuscript by hand, but was not allowed to purchase the manuscript, despite bringing a generous offer.
How to get the manuscript itself? This involved some international diplomacy. With the monks continuing to hold on to the ancient manuscript itself, diplomats got involved. This all resulted in the Orthodox monks being told that it would be taken very favorably if they presented the manuscripts as a personal gift to the Czar of Russia. This they reluctantly did, and received some tokens in return – not the big payout some allege they were looking for.
The manuscript, finally free of the monastery, traveled to Leipzig, where a detailed study was made, then off to St Petersburg. In the 1930s, after the Communist revolution, an offer was made to purchase the manuscript. The Soviets, uninterested in the manuscript, sold it for about $500,000 to the British Museum (half paid for by the UK Government, half raised by private funds). It resides today in the British Museum, and can be viewed in its entirety online.
So what? Why is this important? Codex Sinaiticus, as the documents came to be called, remains the only complete uncial manuscript of the New Testament known to exist. It has been dated to about 345 AD. Some years after finding this, a codex of roughly similar age was found in the bowels of the Vatican (called “Codex Vaticanus”) which contains most of the New Testament. When these two very old manuscripts are compared, in the points they agree perfectly, it usually puts to rest all of the debates over the minutiae of the New Testament text. Also, this text is very effective at putting to rest the argument that says that Scripture has changed over the years. It shows that very few changes, none of any consequence, have been made to the text – proving the reliability of the copiers over the centuries and, some would argue, showing in clear detail the Hand of God in miraculously preserving His Word over 20 centuries.
The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, 3rd Ed., Metzger, Bruce M., Oxford University Press, 1992.
http://www.codex-sinaiticus.net/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Catherine%27s_Monastery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_von_Tischendorf
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