A) Four Years’ Work on the Codex Sinaiticus: Significant Discoveries in Reconditioned MS.

Abstract

Just over four years have passed since, on Dec. 27, 1933, the Codex Sinaiticus was first placed on public exhibition in the British Museum and at once became the centre of a pilgrimage unequalled in the history of that institution. The unexpectedness of its purchase from the Russian Government, the evergreen story of Tischendorf's romantic discovery, and the traditional interest of this country in the Bible, stirred national curiosity to a high pitch; for week's long queues of sightseers filed past the showcase in which the manuscript lay. The importance of all the detective work derives largely from the fact that the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus are so indissolubly linked that they must both have been written in the same neighbourhood, if not in the same writing establishment. Thus to fix the Sinaiticus at Caesarea would settle the origin of the two most important manuscripts of the Bible. Keywords: Bible; British museum; Caesarea; Codex Sinaiticus; Codex Vaticanus; Tischendorf