About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible have been put online, the BBC News reports. It’s crazy, isn’t it? An ancient text of all ancient texts (it’s 1,600 years old!) is now available for your perusal online at www.codexsinaiticus.org. Back then it was either stone tablet or parchment — not a Mac or PC in sight.
It’s an amazing thing that the Codex Sinaiticus survived intact. According to what Dr. Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library told the BBC, it is “one of the world’s greatest written treasures.” (A bit of a step up from Perez Hilton, no?)
The finding and the dissemination of the text via the worldwide channel of the Internet is a chance for scholars around the world to collaborate on research. It’s nice that the computer generation is used for such edifying things as this, and not just paparazzi shots or things like, say, Michael Jackson in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
This is also a great move by the church — it’s like showing us their bankbook, only better. In a time when we long for corporate transparency, the church is stepping up first. How many times have you heard people say “well, in the original Bible, it actually means this?” Now everyone can see for themselves … if they just brush up on their ancient Greek.
According to the BBC report, the Codex Sinaiticus (written on parchment) was found in a Sinai monastery in 1844 and was split between Egypt, Germany and Britain. The monastery was located on a Christian island in a Muslim sea, and the desert air helped to preserve the Bible.
Read (and see) more here.
Photo courtesy of Billy Alexander@sxc.hu