"The Codex Sinaiticus: Pages from the World's Oldest Bible Reunited" by Karen H. Jobes

The ancient codex meets modern technology with the Codex Sinaiticus project that went online this month. Because Sinaiticus, the world’s oldest Bible, was originally acquired in parts during the 19th-century, for more than a century it pages have been secured away from easy access in four institutions: the British Library, the University Library in Leipzig, the National Library of Russia, and St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt.

On July 6, 2009, a partnership agreement by these four institutions culminated in the reunion of the entire Bible in digital form online. All known leaves of Codex Sinaiticus have been digitally photographed and assembled at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org, where the manuscript can be viewed, along with a transcription of its Greek text and translations into English, modern Greek, German, and Russian. Never before have scholars and the general public alike had such close and sustained access to this ancient manuscript. The BBC announced the project at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8135415.stm.

To see features of the website showing the manuscript, its transcription, and English translation go to http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=9.

Karen H. Jobes is the Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Wheaton College. She is the author of The Alpha-Text of Esther: Its Character and Relationship to the Masoretic Text, Esther in the NIV Application Commentary series and Invitation to the Septuagint with Moises Silva. Karen also translated Esther for the Codex Sinaiticus project.