An exciting and amazing bit of news for Biblical scholars!

From Yahoo News (July 6, 2009):

World's oldest Christian Bible digitized

By NARDINE SAAD, Associated Press Writer Nardine Saad, Associated Press Writer

LONDON – The surviving pages of the world's oldest Christian Bible have been
reunited — digitally. The early work known as the Codex Sinaiticus has been
housed in four separate locations across the world for more than 150 years. But
starting Monday, it became available for perusal on the Web at
http://www.codexsinaiticus.org so scholars and other readers can get a closer
look at what the British Library calls a "unique treasure."

"(The book) offers a window into the development of early Christianity and
firsthand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation
to generation," said Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British
Library.

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of
prepared animal skin, each of which measures 15 inches by 13.5 inches (380
millimeters by 345 millimeters). It is the oldest book that contains a complete
New Testament and is only missing parts of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.

The 4th-century book, written in Greek, has been digitally reunited in a project
involving groups from Britain, Germany, Russia and Egypt, which each possessed
parts of the 1,600-year-old manuscript.

They worked together to publish new research into the history of the Codex and
transcribed 650,000 words over a four-year period.

The Codex was both a key Christian text and "a landmark in the history of the
book, as it is arguably the oldest large-bound book to have survived,"
McKendrick said.

Codex Sinaiticus, which loosely translated means "the book from Sinai," was
discovered at the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai by German Bible
scholar Constantine Tischendorf in the mid-19th century. Much of it eventually
wound up in Russia — just how exactly the British Library won't say, citing
lingering sensitivity over the circumstances surrounding its removal from the
monastery.

The British Library bought 347 pages from Soviet authorities in 1933.
Forty-three pages are at the University Library in Leipzig, Germany, and six
fragments are at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. And in 1975,
monks stumbled on 12 more pages and 40 fragments stashed in a hidden room at the
monastery at Mount Sinai.

Juan Garces, the Codex Sinaiticus project manager, said putting the book online
was a "definitely a historical moment."

"It's special because it's the oldest almost completely preserved bible," Garces
said.

Garces said the only other Bible that rivals Codex Sinaiticus in age is the
Codex Vaticanus, which was written around the same time but lacks parts of the
New Testament.

"It's such an important book — that's why it should be accessible," Garces said.
"If you would have liked to see it before you would have had to travel to four
countries in two continents. If you want to see the manuscript right now all you
have to do is go online and experience it for yourself."

On the Codex parchment leaves is written around half of the Old Testament and
Apocrypha, the whole of the New Testament and two early Christian texts not
found in modern Bibles. Most of the first part of the Bible manuscript —
containing most of the so-called historical books, from Genesis to 1 Chronicles
— is missing and presumed to be lost.

Garces said Codex Sinaiticus was handwritten by four scribes. Experts had
previously believed there were only three, but researchers at the British
Library looked at the script with high quality digital imaging that revealed the
hand of a fourth penman.

"From Parchment to Pixel: The Virtual Reunification of the Codex Sinaiticus," an
exhibit about the Bible's reunification process, opened at the British Library
on Monday and runs until Sept. 7.

The digitized manuscript includes more than 800 pages and fragments, including
the pages discovered in 1975 — published for the first time.

"There's a high demand," Garces said. "Our Web site has crashed because people
want to look at it."

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On the Net: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org