• Rescuing the Codex Sinaiticus
    The Watchtower—1988 | October 15

    • After four years spent searching through Europe’s finest libraries, Tischendorf, in May 1844, reached the Monastery of St. Catherine, situated 4,500 feet [1,400 m] above the Red Sea in Sinai. Access to the monks’ fortresslike retreat was by a basket suspended on a rope through a small wall opening.

      REWARDING FINDS

      For some days he was permitted to search through their three libraries, without success. Then, just as he was about to leave, he spotted what he had been looking for​—ancient parchments! They filled a large basket standing in the hall of the main library. The librarian told him that they were to be burned, just as two full baskets had already been. Among these parchments, Tischendorf was amazed to find 129 leaves from the oldest manuscript he had ever seen, a Greek translation of parts of the Hebrew Scriptures. He was given 43 sheets, but the rest were denied him.

      Tischendorf revisited the monastery in 1853 to discover only a fragment of Genesis from the same fourth-century manuscript. He was convinced “that the manuscript originally contained the entire Old Testament, but that the greater part had been long since destroyed.” The complete manuscript probably consisted of 730 leaves. It was written in Greek uncial (capital) letters on vellum, fine sheep and goat skins.

      Six years later Tischendorf made his third visit to the monks at Sinai. On the eve of his departure, he was casually shown not only the leaves he had saved from the fire 15 years earlier but many others as well. They contained the entire Christian Greek Scriptures plus part of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.