In 303 C.E., during the "Great Persecution" of Christians, the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered the destruction of Christian books. But only ten years later—following his vision of the Cross and subsequent victory in battle—Emperor Constantine granted religious toleration throughout the Western Empire. This toleration was extended in 324, when he united the empire's two halves, establishing a new "Rome" at Constantinople.
Constantine (died 337) and his successors convened councils to determine the nature of Christian belief; many churches were founded, all requiring collections of Christian texts. In 332 C.E., for example, Constantine commissioned fifty copies of Christian scriptures for his foundations from the biblical scholar Eusebius of Caesarea (circa 260—339). Christian writings began to be gathered together in large, expensive books, appropriate for use in prestigious surroundings.
Constantine (died 337) and his successors convened councils to determine the nature of Christian belief; many churches were founded, all requiring collections of Christian texts. In 332 C.E., for example, Constantine commissioned fifty copies of Christian scriptures for his foundations from the biblical scholar Eusebius of Caesarea (circa 260—339). Christian writings began to be gathered together in large, expensive books, appropriate for use in prestigious surroundings.
Later in the fourth century, the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the state religion. This gave further impetus to the production of the biblical "canon," that is, a fixed list of books understood to have unique status by virtue of divine inspiration. Before this time, a great number of texts had been in circulation, bearing out the words of Saint Luke that "many" were writing about Jesus. Some texts came to be rejected due to dubious authenticity or association with radical sects. More of these have come to light in modern times, including, most recently, the Gospel of Judas.
From Greek to Latin
The earliest complete Christian bibles—Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexandrinus—were written in Greek and date from the fourth to fifth centuries. They were powerful symbols for Christians, physically expressing the unity of the Old and New Testaments, but they were rare even in their own time, being impractical to use and expensive to produce.
Codex Sinaiticus is thought by some scholars to have been made in Caesarea (in modern Israel) as early as the fourth century. This area hosted much of the research and writing conducted by two influential Early Christian scholars: Saint Jerome (circa 347–419/20) and Bishop Eusebius (circa 260–339), who devised a system of canon tables that allowed comparisons across the gospels. Although Codex Sinaiticus cannot be directly connected to either man, it certainly flourished in the same fertile intellectual soil.
Christian scriptures usually circulated in the form of smaller collections of gospels or epistles. Early gospelbooks include the Harley Gospels, an example of Jerome's "Vulgate" edition of the Bible—so named because it was in the common (vulgar) language of the day, Latin, the basis of the emerging "Romance" languages.
Codex Sinaiticus is thought by some scholars to have been made in Caesarea (in modern Israel) as early as the fourth century. This area hosted much of the research and writing conducted by two influential Early Christian scholars: Saint Jerome (circa 347–419/20) and Bishop Eusebius (circa 260–339), who devised a system of canon tables that allowed comparisons across the gospels. Although Codex Sinaiticus cannot be directly connected to either man, it certainly flourished in the same fertile intellectual soil.
Christian scriptures usually circulated in the form of smaller collections of gospels or epistles. Early gospelbooks include the Harley Gospels, an example of Jerome's "Vulgate" edition of the Bible—so named because it was in the common (vulgar) language of the day, Latin, the basis of the emerging "Romance" languages.
Codex Sinaiticus
The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai
Codex Sinaiticus; unnumbered bifolium
Ink on parchment; ff. 730 (originally); 363 x 332mm
Passages from the Book of Numbers; Greek
Uncertain provenance (Rome? Caesarea? Alexandria?); fourth century
This most famous and important ancient manuscript of the Bible, named after the place of its discovery, Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai (Jebel Musa, the Mount of Moses), originally contained the complete Greek Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, as well as at least two early Christian writings later considered not to belong to the New Testament canon, namely the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas. Today, portions of the Old Testament have been lost, but the whole of the New Testament has been preserved, and Codex Sinaiticus provides the only complete copy of the Greek New Testament that pre-dates the ninth century. Hence it is also the only complete copy in an uncial script (although Codex Alexandrinus contains portions of every New Testament book).
Constantin von Tischendorf was the first European scholar to see the Codex Sinaiticus and understand its antiquity and importance. On his first visit to the monastery in 1844, he saw 128 leaves of the codex in the library, of which he managed to take forty-three. These were subsequently deposited in the library of the University of Leipzig where he was a Privatdozent (lecturer). Tischendorf returned to the monastery twice more, in 1853, and again in 1859 under the patronage of Alexander II, the Russia Czar, with the aim of discovering further parts of the same manuscript. On this last visit he was shown the rest of the codex, and, recognizing its immense value, undertook first to transcribe it. He then asked to take the original manuscript to Russia, where it would be published for the benefit of scholars, writing his famous promissory note, "This manuscript I promise to return, undamaged and in a good state of preservation, to the Holy Confraternity of Sinai at its earliest request." Instead, the codex was retained by the Russian Empire, and after the Revolution was sold to the British Museum in 1933. In 1975 additional leaves and fragments of the Codex Sinaiticus were discovered at Saint Catherine's Monastery.
The remains of Codex Sinaiticus are therefore now held in four places: the larger part (347 leaves) is in the British Library; 43 leaves are in the Library of the University of Leipzig; parts of three leaves are held by the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg; and a dozen or more leaves remain at Saint Catherine's Monastery. The two-best preserved leaves among those at Sinai are illustrated here.
Codex Sinaiticus is believed originally to have contained at least 730 leaves (1460 pages), measuring 381 by 345 millimeters. It was inscribed in four columns per page, and is the only biblical manuscript known in this format, with forty-eight lines to the column (but only two columns per page in Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Job). The manuscript was written by three scribes of very similar hand in a simple, regular, and upright uncial, the letters lacking ornamentation. There is no use of accents or breathing marks, but paragraphs are indicated by a slight extension of the initial letter of the line into the left margin, with the preceding line not filled out to the right margin. Sinaiticus is very heavily corrected. After the scribes finished their work it appears that the manuscript was reviewed and emended before it left the scriptorium. At a later time, perhaps in the sixth or seventh century, the manuscript was again subjected to thorough correction. A colophon at the end of Esdras and Esther indicates that at least some of these later changes were in accordance with "a very ancient manuscript that had been corrected by the hand of the holy martyr Pamphilus." Pamphilus (240–309) had assembled the great Christian library at Caesarea, which housed many early Christian writings and was rich in biblical materials.
The character of the text of Codex Sinaiticus varies from one book to another, owing to the different manuscripts used as exemplars. In general it represents the Alexandrian text, but an appreciable number of readings, especially in the Gospel of John, are more closely related to the Western textual tradition, of which the principal early witnesses are Codex Bezae and a few earlier papyri (P 29, P 38, P 48).
Codex Sinaiticus incorporates numbers from the canon tables devised by Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea (ca. 260–ca. 339), and hence the manuscript cannot be dated earlier than the fourth century.
The bifolium illustrated here provides the passage in which Moses, leading the Hebrews through the Sinai desert after the exodus, strikes the rock to bring forth water (Numbers 20:2–13). The hole and pressure marks at the fore-edge of this folio suggest that at some point a tab, possibly of leather, was attached to it so that the codex might be readily opened at this passage, which would naturally have held particular interest for the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery. It may be mentioned in this connection that the Spanish nun, Egeria (or Etheria), a fourth-century pilgrim to the Holy Land, visited Sinai among other sites, and remarked appreciatively in her travel diary (Itinerarium Egeriae or Pereginatio Aetheriae) that at the sacred places it was customary to read the biblical narratives relating to them.
Codex Sinaiticus; unnumbered bifolium
Ink on parchment; ff. 730 (originally); 363 x 332mm
Passages from the Book of Numbers; Greek
Uncertain provenance (Rome? Caesarea? Alexandria?); fourth century
This most famous and important ancient manuscript of the Bible, named after the place of its discovery, Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai (Jebel Musa, the Mount of Moses), originally contained the complete Greek Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, as well as at least two early Christian writings later considered not to belong to the New Testament canon, namely the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas. Today, portions of the Old Testament have been lost, but the whole of the New Testament has been preserved, and Codex Sinaiticus provides the only complete copy of the Greek New Testament that pre-dates the ninth century. Hence it is also the only complete copy in an uncial script (although Codex Alexandrinus contains portions of every New Testament book).
Constantin von Tischendorf was the first European scholar to see the Codex Sinaiticus and understand its antiquity and importance. On his first visit to the monastery in 1844, he saw 128 leaves of the codex in the library, of which he managed to take forty-three. These were subsequently deposited in the library of the University of Leipzig where he was a Privatdozent (lecturer). Tischendorf returned to the monastery twice more, in 1853, and again in 1859 under the patronage of Alexander II, the Russia Czar, with the aim of discovering further parts of the same manuscript. On this last visit he was shown the rest of the codex, and, recognizing its immense value, undertook first to transcribe it. He then asked to take the original manuscript to Russia, where it would be published for the benefit of scholars, writing his famous promissory note, "This manuscript I promise to return, undamaged and in a good state of preservation, to the Holy Confraternity of Sinai at its earliest request." Instead, the codex was retained by the Russian Empire, and after the Revolution was sold to the British Museum in 1933. In 1975 additional leaves and fragments of the Codex Sinaiticus were discovered at Saint Catherine's Monastery.
The remains of Codex Sinaiticus are therefore now held in four places: the larger part (347 leaves) is in the British Library; 43 leaves are in the Library of the University of Leipzig; parts of three leaves are held by the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg; and a dozen or more leaves remain at Saint Catherine's Monastery. The two-best preserved leaves among those at Sinai are illustrated here.
Codex Sinaiticus is believed originally to have contained at least 730 leaves (1460 pages), measuring 381 by 345 millimeters. It was inscribed in four columns per page, and is the only biblical manuscript known in this format, with forty-eight lines to the column (but only two columns per page in Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Job). The manuscript was written by three scribes of very similar hand in a simple, regular, and upright uncial, the letters lacking ornamentation. There is no use of accents or breathing marks, but paragraphs are indicated by a slight extension of the initial letter of the line into the left margin, with the preceding line not filled out to the right margin. Sinaiticus is very heavily corrected. After the scribes finished their work it appears that the manuscript was reviewed and emended before it left the scriptorium. At a later time, perhaps in the sixth or seventh century, the manuscript was again subjected to thorough correction. A colophon at the end of Esdras and Esther indicates that at least some of these later changes were in accordance with "a very ancient manuscript that had been corrected by the hand of the holy martyr Pamphilus." Pamphilus (240–309) had assembled the great Christian library at Caesarea, which housed many early Christian writings and was rich in biblical materials.
The character of the text of Codex Sinaiticus varies from one book to another, owing to the different manuscripts used as exemplars. In general it represents the Alexandrian text, but an appreciable number of readings, especially in the Gospel of John, are more closely related to the Western textual tradition, of which the principal early witnesses are Codex Bezae and a few earlier papyri (P 29, P 38, P 48).
Codex Sinaiticus incorporates numbers from the canon tables devised by Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea (ca. 260–ca. 339), and hence the manuscript cannot be dated earlier than the fourth century.
The bifolium illustrated here provides the passage in which Moses, leading the Hebrews through the Sinai desert after the exodus, strikes the rock to bring forth water (Numbers 20:2–13). The hole and pressure marks at the fore-edge of this folio suggest that at some point a tab, possibly of leather, was attached to it so that the codex might be readily opened at this passage, which would naturally have held particular interest for the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery. It may be mentioned in this connection that the Spanish nun, Egeria (or Etheria), a fourth-century pilgrim to the Holy Land, visited Sinai among other sites, and remarked appreciatively in her travel diary (Itinerarium Egeriae or Pereginatio Aetheriae) that at the sacred places it was customary to read the biblical narratives relating to them.
Painted covers from the Freer Gospels
Washington, D.C., Freer Gallery of Art, F1906.297 (Matthew and John), F1906.298 (Mark and Luke) (MS. III; Codex Washingtonensis)
Covers from the Freer Gospels; Greek
Encaustic (wax) painting on wooden boards; 213 x 143 x 16mm (each board)
Coptic Egypt; seventh century
The Freer gospelbook, one of the earliest witnesses to the Greek Bible, was made in Egypt during the late fourth to early fifth century. It was purchased by Charles Freer in Cairo in 1906. During the seventh century the book's wooden boards were adorned with images of the four evangelists whose gospels lie within. They are depicted bearded in Byzantine fashion, each head framed by a nimbus, and hold individual copies of their gospels bound in jeweled treasure bindings. Their hands are draped in the attitude of veneration adopted by the deacon when carrying the gospels in procession and reading from them during the liturgy.
The vibrancy of the colors has been retained due to the use of the encaustic painting technique that was particularly favored in Coptic Egypt. Encaustic paint consists of pigments mixed with beeswax that is worked when molten, applied to a surface, and reheated, giving an enamel-like finish. The term comes from the Greek term "to burn in," referring to the process of fusing the paint to its support. Encaustic painting was practised by the Greeks from the fifth century B.C.E. and Pliny the Younger, writing in the first century C.E., tells of Roman encaustic painting on wooden panels, marble, and ivory. Some of the finest examples of the art are the funerary portraits that adorned mummified burials in the Fayyum during the first and second centuries and the technique was perpetuated in Egypt during the early Middle Ages. It was a difficult process but one that permitted a building-up of paint in relief, with a jewel-like luminescence and a far better rate of preservation than tempera, as it is moisture-proof and does not fade, discolor, or require varnishing.
The binding boards are probably contemporary with the volume and were originally simply of wood, perhaps contained in an envelope binding, in accordance with early practice. Holes in the edges of the front cover show that, like the Glazier Codex (New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS. G.67), the Freer Gospels were originally held closed by long leather bands, tied to prevent the parchment from cockling. These were removed to protect the paintings, which were added later to enhance the appearance and importance of the book. Traces of paint on the fore-edges suggest, as John Lowden notes, that the evangelist paintings were added in situ to the bound book.
The metalwork fittings at the head of the binding served to prevent the volume from being opened very far, thereby protecting its structure and contents but also effectively preventing the text from being read. Lowden has suggested that this later embellishment and chaining of the volume amounted to its enshrinement as a relic (perhaps protected by a fabric wrapping when not displayed), the images of the gospelers effectively serving as a substitute for their inaccessible gospels.