Musings of a Catholic Convert

I don't know whether or not you have been able to log in to the Codex Sinaiticus online or not, but this morning I was able to get in and look through the texts.  Folks, you need to prepare your minds to be blown.  As my friends and coworkers know, I am a language nerd.  I was one of those geeks who wandered around campus flipping vocabulary index cards all the time.  Seriously, why waste precious time listening to music or talking on a cell phone when you could be further absorbing vocabulary?  You have to walk to class, you might as well make good use of the walk time.  Note to new students: this does not work quite so well with a textbook and highlighter pen.  You will just have to take my word on that one.  

Back to the Codex Sinaiticus.  The tool is set up beautifully.  There are two types of lighting you can use to view the text.  One is a bright light that eliminates all the waves and shadows on the page so you can read the text more clearly.  The other view allows you to see the waves and shadows.  The text is more difficult to make out, but being able to zoom in and look at the page offers amazing insight into the work of a copyist.  You can see wax marks on some pages.  You can see the patterns of the fading ink.  You can see the ruling marks made by the copyists so that columns and rows were neat and orderly.  Looking over the pen marks, you can see the painstaking detail that went into copying.  This isn't shorthand we're looking at, this is good copy work that took a long time to complete.

Next to the manuscript window is another window that shows the text as it has been transposed to mixed case Greek, with the words separated and verses noted to correspond to the biblical passage.  Textual variants are highlighted and hyperlinked.  A click highlights the clicked word in the transposition and the manuscript.  Rolling over the variant also shows you what the variant is and to what it is being compared (for example, the addition of "kai", usually meaning "and" or "but", to the beginning of Mark 1:5.).  

Below the transposition box is a translation box.  This portion is not yet working, but it would appear that we will have the ability to see translation into multiple languages.  This will be interesting to see once it is up and running.  The site masters of the Codex Sinaiticus online are quick to point out that all texts will not be translated.  This makes sense to me.  They are not trying to create another translation here.

This morning has been wonderful for me.  I've been able to play around with the Codex Sinaiticus online for free.  I was able to look at the texts (I spent most of my time in the Gospel of Mark).  And I got a feel for how this site will work.  Now I have to get my books and vocabulary cards out and start refreshing my memory. 

You're going to have issues getting onto the manuscript page until they solve their bandwidth issues.  Right now they can only have 100,000 concurrent visitors.  The good news is that the rest of the site loads fast and provides excellent insights into the Codex, albeit from a non-Catholic source.  It is interesting to note, however, that this text, along with Codex Vaticanus, help show the canonical tradition of our Old Testament as we have it and not as the Protestants changed it after the 16th century (or the Jews of the 3rd century).  The LXX (Septuagint) version of the Old Testament is still being used, which, and you can argue textual variations all you want, contained the Deuterocanonical books.  This codex also shows us some other texts that were in use in the early Church, but which were not part of the canon.

I really want to get in there and use that tool.  We have to remember though that this is one of the biggest things to hit the internet since my blog began back in 2003.  Give it a few weeks and traffic should slow enough to give a glimpse.  As for me, this browser window will remain open all day as I work, so that I might get a peek into the text and the embedded tools.

In just two days, men and women will have the opportunity to view one of the oldest surviving manuscripts of the New Testament canon.  Codex Sinaiticus is going to be made available online (http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/) through a joint effort by the various international bodies who currently house and protect the manuscripts.  These manuscripts, discovered by Constantine Tischendorff in the 1800s, were separated after the discovery and have been preserved in multiple locations (for varying reasons, some of which are unclear).  Only now, will these be able to be viewed in their entirety.  

Codex Sinaiticus (marked in NT apparati by the Hebrew א (Aleph), as well as "S" in some books) is one of the oldest surviving Bible manuscripts we have, particularly of the New Testament, although many portions of the Old Testament (LXX aka Septuagint) and some extra biblical literature (ex. Shepherd of Hermas, Epistle of Barnabas) is also included in the find.  The manuscript is written in Greek Uncials (think ALLCAPS).  This copy dates to the mid fourth century (330-350 AD) and is only slightly younger than Codex Vaticanus.  

I for one am extremely excited about the opportunity to view such a rare text as Sinaiticus without having to travel to Leipzig, the British Library, The Russian National Library, or Sinai.  The tools I have seen which will be used for navigation look to be top notch.  My brain feels like it is salivating at the thought of approaching this wonderful piece of history and sacred Tradition.

Look at the web prototype!  Ain't it cool?