Oldest copy of the New Testiment is going online

[Az]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gzdZYondd-Jlqw-ziW9W3qmSSeUwD922E3300

Excerpt
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LONDON (AP) — The oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the world, is being made whole again — online.

The British Library says the full text of the Codex Sinaiticus will be available to Web users by next July, digitally reconnecting parts that are held in Britain, Russia, Germany and a monastery in Egypt's Sinai Desert.

A preview of the Codex, which also has some parts of the Old Testament, will hit the Web on Thursday — the Book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark.
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It will be interesting to see the reaction as this collection is examined online. Particularly considering that it differs with much of modern thought concerning Christianity. Notably it makes no mention of the resurrection.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Thanks for the heads up

[TomInTib]

2. But will Jesus' quotes been printed in red?

I always thought that was so cool.

And I always read them in Jesus Voice (seriously, I was a True Believer).

[Az]

4. Well depends on what the editors do

They do like their red letters. Figure about a year for translations and other commentaries to show up.

[Faygo Kid]

7. delete

I should read these things before posting.

[LiberalFighter]

17. What did Jesus's voice sound like?

[baldguy]

3. "The Gospel of Mark ends abruptly after Jesus' disciples discover his empty tomb..."

BEFORE the resurrection. Ain't that interesting?

[pegleg]

13. Most early manuscripts do not have Mark 16:9-20.

[Occam Bandage]

19. That isn't before the resurrection, actually. In the early Gospels, Mark

ends with this:

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

I don't know where the belief that early versions of Mark don't include a Resurrection comes from, nor do I know why this is treated like news; I learned about the additions to Mark ten years ago when I first started studying Christian history.

[JerseygirlCT]

5. Wow. That's really cool

I expect this will stir up some very interesting conversations.

[AmyCamus]

6. 4th century? Is it in Latin or Greek?

Cuz it ain't in English.

[nebenaube]

12. heh...

My money is on latin... after all it's called 'Codex Sinaiticus '

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. The language used is important

as Greek and Latin have different ways of conveying meaning than Aramaic and Hebrew. Neil Douglas-Klotz explains this in his book "Desert Wisdom". I'm getting ready to leave for work, and cannot go into detail, but basically what he says is that in the former two languages, there is a more rigid dichotomy between ideas--something can be one thing or another but not both. In Aramaic and Hebrew, this is not always the case. And often ideas are not stated starkly and simply, but rather illustrated via parables, idioms, and analogies, some of which were taken literally by later translators. (Jonah and the whale is an example--to be "in a fish", I've been told, meant to be in big trouble rather than literally being swallowed by a whale.) When you add to this the fact that some early copiers of manuscripts thought it perfectly acceptable to alter words and "improve" upon them (saw this bit on a TV show years ago), it becomes obvious that the original thoughts and ideas by the founders of the Christian movement have been greatly changed.

[LiberalFighter]

18. Copies were made over and over and over and error and error and error.

[TechBear_Seattle]

16. Greek, specifically the dialect known as Koine

The Codex Sinaiticus is one of the earliest compilations of what would become the New Testament. Interestingly enough, it also contained the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, two works considered canon for centuries but eventually dropped.

Wikipedia entry for the Codex Sinaiticus

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. It will be an important document to read

I hope that it sheds more light upon the development of what became the Christian religion.

[Az]

9. I do wish more interest were plied towards older documents

There are so many that believe that the Bible is a stable work. If you take any time to read the history of the book you quickly find that it is a widely varied work depending on which copies you read. And the further back you go in history the more disparate the work becomes. I have of late been imagining placing all the various texts that made claims regarding the life and teachings of Jesus side by side and not telling believers which particular texts were the one accepted and modified and seeing if they could assemble something approximating the modern bible.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. It is especially interesting to read the books about Jesus

that did not "make the cut" when the Council of Niacia put together the Bible. Years ago, some of these were published in "The Lost Books of the Bible", and they were quite interesting, as some told stories of Jesus as a child. Some of these tales are talked about in the Qur'an, so it can be assumed that the tales were in rather wide circulation even in the 600s. And other non-Biblical accounts from the time of the early church have been found, such as the Gospel of Thomas.

If one looks at religion as an evolutionary process, the study of these early works helps fill in gaps on how humanity's concepts of life have changed.

[DCKit]

10. The religiously insane are soiling themselves.

I can't wait to see the interpretations they come up with over the next few months to fit their world-view.

[nebenaube]

11. Yawn...

I've read the original... it's called the book of the dead!