The Codex Sinaiticus
Dated to the mid-fourth century, cataloged with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (aleph), originally it contained, and the New that the Old Testament, together with the letters of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, texts of the Apostolic Fathers, also written in Greek.
Found by researcher Constantine von Tischendorf in the library of the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, in 1844. He was then taken to St. Petersburg. In 1933 it was sold to the British Museum in London where it is currently kept.
The Sinaitic Code consists of 346 e 1/2 parchment sheets. Each sheet measures 43×38 cm. Calculating that a sheep's tanned hide can only provide two sheets of that size, no less than 170-180 sheep to prepare only the writing material. Evidently the client of the manuscript must have been very wealthy (the same is true for all the ancient biblical Codes). The code has four columns of text per side, except in poetic books whose text in verse is arranged in two columns of considerable width. The four columns perhaps depend on the considerable size of the sheets used, by the need to make the text in “The writing continued” (that is, the writing is continuous, without gaps between words) breaking it more frequently. The manuscript is in Uncial letters (in uppercase), without accents or punctuation marks, except sometimes the apostrophe and the period at the end of a period. The letters are all the same, there are no ornaments. The copyists do not follow the division of the text proposed by Eusebius of Caesarea, which is testified to us in his letter to Carpiano. All these elements, together with the presence of the letter of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Erma, they suggest dating to the fourth century.
The manuscript has undergone various mutilations, especially in the books from Genesis to Ezra. What remains (198 sheets) consists of fragments of Genesis 23 e 24, Numbers 5, 6 e 7, 1Chronicles 9, 27- 19, 17; Esdra 9, 9- 10, 44; Lamentations 1, 1- 2, 20. The books of: Nehemiah, Ester, Joel, Abdia, Jonah, Nahum, Abacuc, Sofia, Haggai, Zaccaria, Malachi, Isaiah, Geremia. The manuscript also contains the Greek apocryphal texts of Tobias, Giuditta, 1Maccabei e 4Maccabei (while the code never contained 2 e 3 Maccabei). He NT (148 sheets) it contains all the books considered canonical, plus the epistle of Barnabas (at Barnabas they followed 6 lost sheets, whose content is unknown) and the Shepherd of Erma (incomplete). The epistles of Paul precede the Acts, and the letter to the Hebrews follows 2Thessalonians. The text of the Sinaitic Code in general closely resembles that of the Vatican Code. In the OT the text of the Sinaiticus is more similar to that of the Alexandrian Code.
