The Forging of Codex Sinaiticus by Bill Cooper

Author:Bill Cooper [Cooper, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2016-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

Footnotes to Chapter Eight

1. http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/history.aspx

2. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/fragment-from-worlds-oldest-bible-found-hidden-in-egyptian-monastery-1780274.html

3. The essay in question is: Altbauer, Moshe. ‘Identification of Newly Discovered Slavic Manuscripts in St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai.’ Slovo: Journal of Old Church Slavonic Institute. No.37. September 1987. pp. 35-40. Dr Altbauer was, before his death in 1998, Professor Emeritus of Slavonic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Speaking of the cache of manuscripts in general, Altbauer provides an interesting note on the panic that ensued amongst the monks on the discovery (Altbauer was present to witness this): “The Sinaitic monks kept the discovery as a great secret, but a scholar from Athens, who was invited to help in segregation of the anew discovered monuments [sic], was less cautious. American scholars, who had good relationships with the scholar from Athens, got information on the manuscript finds made in Sinai, and even pictures of some of them. The reaction of the Sinaitic monks to this information was rage and wrath.” Rage and wrath is a strange reaction, is it not? What could have caused it? Did the presence in that chamber of the Sinaiticus leaves bring home to the monks the depths of Tischendorf’s deception and betrayal? It is a likelihood worth pondering. Tischendorf’s theft of the Leipzig leaves is still a weeping sore amongst them more than 170 years later.

4. On another website (http://www.bl.uk/turning-the-pages/?id=b00f9a37-422c-4542-bfbd-b97bf3ce7d50&type=book) all that the British Library has to say about the find is: “In June 1975 there was an exciting discovery of 12 more leaves and some 40 fragments in the northern wall of St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai. This portion remains in the monastery.” – not so exciting, though, as to elicit any scholarly papers on the find. Given that Sinaiticus is the keystone of the modern critics’ case against the Bible, one would have expected a great deal of effort on their part to publicise the significance of these new leaves. What, we may ask, is so worrying about the ‘discovery’ that makes every one of them draw back and say absolutely nothing? We can but wonder.

5. For a most telling account of how nervously the 1975 ‘discovery’ at Sinai was announced, and how jittery its monastic leaders were about anyone – scholar or even government official – seeing the leaves up close, see: Charlesworth, James H. ‘St. Catherine's Monastery: Myths & Mysteries.’ The Biblical Archaeologist. Vol. 42. No. 3 (Summer 1979). pp. 174-179.

6. Altbauer, Moshe. ‘Identification of Newly Discovered Slavic Manuscripts in St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai.’ Slovo: Journal of Old Church Slavonic Institute. No.37. September 1987. p. 35. – “... 220 old manuscripts, among them some in Slavic, set aside in a chest and burrowed [buried] in the ground of an ancient Sinai Monastery (about 150 years ago).” - Dr Altbauer’s English was slightly broken.

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