On Friday 11th March, the British Library in London announced an ambitious historical international project to reinterpret the oldest Bible in the world, the Codex Sinaiticus. A team of experts from the UK, Germany, Russia, Egypt and the United States will combine efforts to make the Bible accessible to a global audience using innovative digital technology.
The Codex is the ancient Greek Bible, written between the 1st and 4th centuries A.D., which is the period when the Roman Empire split and the Emperor Constantine, who ruled the Eastern Empire, adopted Christianity. The Codex was produced as the Greek version of the principal Jewish and Christian scriptures to match Greek heritage.
"The Codex is so special as a foundation document and a unique icon to Christianity," said John Tuck, head of British Collections at the British Library in London.
The Codex has a very special significance in Theology because the texts were written so soon after the life of Jesus, therefore it is the largest and longest-surviving Biblical manuscript in existence, including both the Old and New Testaments. In addition, it contains two Christian texts written by the Shepherd of Hermas and Apostle Barnabas at around 65 A.D.
Codex Sinaiticus was found by a German scholar, Constantin von Tischendorf, on his visit to St Catherine's Monastery, on Mount Sinai in Egypt, in 1859. However, since then, the texts were divided when visitors bribed and deceived monks into letting certain sections be removed for further examination in Russia, Britain and Germany, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Greek Orthodox Archbishop Damianos of Sinai said to Dallas Morning News that the texts were never returned and the monastery felt a great injustice was done, but they have agreed to join the digitisation project.
The Codex has been split into four portions which are now in St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, the British Library, the University of Leipzig in Germany, and the National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg. Therefore, the first aim of the project launched by the British Library will be to achieve reunification of all these fragile parts.
