These are my notes and comments on a talk given by Pastor Bryan Ross that I found on YouTube. The video is 58 minutes and 56 seconds long.
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A Tale of Two Constantines: Rethinking Codex Sinaiticus. A 6 part 6 hour series produced by Pastor Ross. The text is here.
In this video he says he wanted to get feedback on some things he’s never talked about before. Also to get feedback for an upcoming talk he was giving in Chicago.
Tischendorf and Codex Sinaiticus
Tischendorf discovered the Codex Sinaiticus in 1844 and took 43 pages with him back to Germany. He published it in 1846 as Codex Frederico-Augustanus in honor of Frederick Augustus II.
He never told anybody where he found them, but it was at the Greek/Russian Orthodox monastery of Saint Catherine. He went again in 1853 and found nothing, and in 1859 he went as an official envoy of the Czar of Russia. The first two times he came as a Western scholar type, and the third time he came with papers from the Czar on official business.
The monks at the monastery began to oppose him after he found some interesting material.
He claimed that he found the first leaves in a basket ready to be burned. He says he asked the monastery about them. He may have stolen the pages.
1865, he finally writes When and Where the Gospels Were Written.
1855 publication. 8th fragment. Fragment of Isaiah and Jeremiah. He transcribed the end of Isaiah and the beginning of Jeremiah by hand. The page is not one of the leaves he stole, but he has a handwritten transcription of it. The Codex is missing the page, but he has a handwritten transcription. Ross believes he accidentally left it when tearing out the pages. I think possibly this is his evidence of forgery if he ever decided to come forth with a confession. Possibly he was planning on forging the page and never got around to it.
Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus
Mark 16:9 to the end is not found in the two oldest codices.
The passage is questionable because it’s not in the two oldest.
1475 – First known existence of Codex Vaticanus is in 1475 when it’s entered into the Vatican Library index. There is no historical record of it prior to that.
1521 – Erasmus writes to Bombassius and asks him to check that codex for 1st John 5:7. Erasmus is the first person to refer to the Codex Vaticanus.
1659 – John Owen writes a book on the integrity and purity of the Hebrew text. He mentions the Codex Vaticanus and Erasmus and the missing 1st John 5:7 verse.
1696 – Francis Turretin.
Erasmus said Codex Vaticanus was a Greek text fixed upon Latin later. Something to do with the Council of Florence (c.1453).
Samual Purdo Trigellus goes to view the Vaticanus. 1850s. He reports that they searched him for writing utensils, they would distract him, obstruct him.
It was very difficult to get a good look at the Codex Vaticanus.
The reformers were using the Textus Receptus as their base text.
Johann Leonhard Hug (1810) argued that the Codex Vaticanus wasnt from the 15th century (like Erasmus said), but from the 4th century. He determined this solely through paleography. It has never been tested; parchment, ink, die, none of it has been tested at all.
If Hug was right, it would be the oldest known MS at the time.
1831 – Karl Lachmann publishes his critical edition of the Greek bible.
1837 – Granville Penn (1761-1844). Annotations of the Book of the New Covenant. He bases his argument for an earlier date on Hug. Doesnt matter how many MSS you have, you have to find the oldest one. Argues that the Codex Vaticanus is the oldest one. Calls for a redo of the Bible. He admits no one has actually seen it. That they are relying on collations.
“But the true critical reason for assigning this MS to Egypt, if not to Alexandria expressly, is found in employing the known Egyptian orthography Greek words as shown in Hug.” Penn.
“Hug in his treatise on the antiquity of the Vatican MS has proved that it was written before the middle of the 4th century.” Penn.
First facsimile of the Codex Vaticanus was not made available until 1857. Until then nobody had actually ever seen it except in short, interrupted viewings.
1851 – Hort calls the Textus Receptus villainous and vile.
stopped at 33:33
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References:
[1] – Tischendorf, Codex Vaticanus, Westcott & Hort, and Other Tidbits
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