Codex Sinaiticus : The Story of the World’s Oldest Bible : D. C. Parker, London: The British Library, 2010

Abstract

This book transmits the newly researched information on Codex Sinaiticus to the people in general who are not familiar with textual criticism. For this purpose, the special content wears a popular form. As a result, Codex Sinaiticus that has been in the monastic ivory tower of text-critics has been delivered to the people of the world. In this way, it has in common with the spirit of the Codex Sinaiticus Project that made Codex Sinaiticus available to everyone via the internet (www.sinaiticus.org). In this book, D. C. Parker achieves the goal of reaching out to the people to popularize textual criticism of the Bible and especially the study of Codex Sinaiticus.<BR> Many interesting aspects of Codex Sinaiticus are reported in this book. The codex is dated to “360 or a little later” on the basis of its script and decorative elements. The cost of its making is calculated to be 19.7 solidi, the value of which is about 5 US tons of wheat. Four copyists may have been involved in making the codex. Copyist A copied 995 pages, copyist B1 206 pages, copyist B2 118 pages, copyist D 167 pages. The place of its origin may have been Caesarea or Egypt. The parchment used for the codex is on average 116.2 micrometer thin (as thin as paper). The Arabic glosses in the margin of the codex indicate that it has already been kept in St. Catherine monastery between 12th century and 18th century.<BR> In this book, D. C. Parker doubts the theory of manuscript mass-production by dictation, since there was no need for mass-production in late antiquity, and since dictation was probably not efficient for manuscript production. This doubt may potentially have an implication for textual criticism.<BR> Although this book targets non-specialized groups of people as its readers, its content is quite special. This book contains tons of fresh information. According to this book, C. von Tischendorf was not the person who discovered Codex Sinaiticus but the first modern westerner who studied the codex. Before his visit to St. Catherine monastery, other westerners, such as V. Donati, C. K. Macdonald, seem to have seen the codex in the monastery. Further, not Tischendorf but the long and close relationship between St. Catherine monastery and Russia had a major role in the process of donating the codex to the Russian emperor. In this book, Parker critically reads the well-known story of Tischendorf’s saving manuscripts from being burned up in his 1844 visit of the St. Catherine monastery. Parker points out that parchment does not burn easily but merely produces smell. Tischendorf may have had problem in communicating with Arabic-speaking monks, and have further confused library baskets with fuel baskets. By this critical interpretation, Parker liberates Codex Sinaiticus from the shadow of the western hero Tischendorf into the hands of everyone in the world.<BR> This book is easy and interesting enough for non-specialist readers yet deep and fresh enough for specialists. Such a characteristic coheres with the characteristic of the Bible which is the content of Codex Sinaiticus. It is easy for everyone to read but profound enough for Biblical scholars to study. The attempt of this book to hand on the insight of textual studies to the people resembles the journey of Codex Sinaiticus that transmits the spirituality of the monastery to the world.