Codex Sinaiticus

== Description ==
[[File:Codex Sinaiticus-small.jpg|left|thumb|[[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] 11:2 in Codex Sinaiticus]]
The manuscript is a codex (the forerunner to the modern book) made from [[vellum]] parchment, originally in double sheets, which may have measured about 40 by 70&nbsp;cm. The whole codex consists of [[Paper quire|quires]] of eight leaves (with a few exceptions), a format which came to be popular throughout the Middle Ages (this being eight parchment pages laid on top of each other, and folded in half to make a full block (also known as a [[folio]]); several of these were then stitched together to create a book).<ref>T. C. Skeat, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jTWlhe7wlN8C&pg=PA77 ''Early Christian book-production''], in: Peter R. Ackroyd & Geoffrey William Hugo Lampe (eds.) ''The Cambridge history of the Bible'' (Cambridge 1975), pp. 77–78.</ref> The folios were made primarily from calf skins, secondarily from sheep skins.<ref name="gav-moor">{{cite web| first=Gavin | last=Moorhead | url=https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/project/conservation_parchment.aspx | title=Parchment Assessment of the Codex Sinaiticus | access-date=11 May 2022 }}</ref> Tischendorf thought the parchment had been made from antelope skins, but modern microscopic examination has shown otherwise.{{r|gav-moor}} Most of the quires (or signatures) contain four sheets, save two containing five. It is estimated that the hides of about 360 animals were employed for making the folios of this codex. Each line of the text has some twelve to fourteen Greek [[uncial]] letters, arranged in four columns, 48 lines per column, with carefully chosen line breaks and slightly ragged right edges.{{r|kirsopp-sinai|p=XVI}} When opened, the eight columns thus presented to the reader have much the same appearance as the succession of columns in a papyrus roll.<ref name="Kenyon">{{Cite book | first=Frederic G. | last=Kenyon | title=Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts | edition=4th | year=1939 | publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode | location=London | url=https://archive.org/stream/MN41613ucmf_0#page/n157/mode/2up}}</ref>{{rp|191}} The poetical books of the Old Testament are written [[stichometry|stichometrically]] (writing each new poetic phrase on a new line), in only two columns per page. The codex has almost 4,000,000 uncial letters.<ref group="n">It was estimated by Tischendorf and used by Scrivener in his ''Introduction to the Sinaitic Codex'' (1867) as an argument against authorship of [[Constantine Simonides|Simonides]] ([http://www.christianism.com/html/add36a2.html ‘‘Christianity’’, p. 1889.])</ref> Each rectangular page has the proportions 1.1 to 1, while the block of text has the reciprocal proportions, 0.91 (the same proportions, rotated 90°). If the gutters between the columns were removed, the text block would mirror the page's proportions. Typographer [[Robert Bringhurst]] referred to the codex as a "subtle piece of craftsmanship".<ref>{{Cite book | last=Bringhurst | first=Robert | title=The Elements of Typographic Style (version 3.0) | pages=174–75 | location=Vancouver | publisher=Hartley & Marks | year=2000 | isbn=0-88179-205-5}}.</ref> The cost of the material, copying time required for the scribes, and binding, is estimated to have equalled the lifetime wages of one individual at the time.{{r|Metzger-Palaeo}}

Throughout the New Testament portion, the words are written in ''[[scriptio continua]]'' (words without any spaces in between them) in the hand-writing style that came to be called "biblical uncial" or "biblical majuscule". The parchment was ruled with a sharp point to prepare for writing lines. The letters are written along these lines, with neither [[Greek diacritics|breathings]] nor [[Stress (linguistics)|polytonic accents]] (markings utilised to indicate changes of pitch or emphasis).<ref>{{Cite book | last=Scrivener | first=Frederick Henry Ambrose | author-link=Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener | title=A Full Collation of the Codex Sinaiticus with the Received Text of the New Testament | page=XIII | year=1864 | publisher=Deighton, Bell, and Co. | location=Cambridge }}</ref> A variety of types of punctuation are used: high and middle points; colon; diaeresis on initial iota and upsilon; a few [[Typographic ligature|ligatures]] are used, along with the paragraphos: initial letter into margin (extent of this varies considerably). A plain [[iota]] is replaced by the epsilon-iota diphthong almost regularly (commonly though imprecisely known as [[itacism]]), e.g. {{lang|el|ΔΑΥΕΙΔ}} instead of {{lang|el|ΔΑΥΙΔ}}, {{lang|el|ΠΕΙΛΑΤΟΣ}} instead of {{lang|el|ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ}}, {{lang|el|ΦΑΡΕΙΣΑΙΟΙ}} instead of {{lang|el|ΦΑΡΙΣΑΙΟΙ}}, etc.{{r|Jongkind|p=74 ff, 93–94}}

[[Nomina sacra]] with [[overline]]s are employed throughout. Some words usually abbreviated in other manuscripts (such as {{lang|el|πατηρ}} and {{lang|el|δαυειδ}}), are written in both full and abbreviated forms. The following [[nomina sacra]] are written in abbreviated forms (nominative forms shown): {{overline|ΘΣ}} ({{lang|grc|θεος}} / ''god'') {{overline|ΚΣ}} ({{lang|grc|κυριος}} / ''lord'') {{overline|ΙΣ}} ({{lang|grc|Ιησους}} / ''Jesus'') {{overline|ΧΣ}} ({{lang|grc|χριστος}} / ''Christ'') {{overline|ΠΝΑ}} ({{lang|grc|πνευμα}} / ''spirit'') {{overline|ΠΝΙΚΟΣ}} ({{lang|grc|πνευματικος}} / ''spiritual'') {{overline|ΥΣ}} ({{lang|grc|υιος}} / ''son'') {{overline|ΑΝΟΣ}} ({{lang|grc|ανθρωπος}} / ''man'') {{overline|ΟΥΟΣ}} ({{lang|grc|ουρανος}} / ''heaven'') {{overline|ΔΑΔ}} ({{lang|grc|Δαυιδ}} / ''David'') {{overline|ΙΛΗΜ}} ({{lang|grc|Ιερουσαλημ}} / ''Jerusalem'') {{overline|ΙΣΡΛ}} ({{lang|grc|Ισραηλ}} / ''Israel'') {{overline|ΜΗΡ}} ({{lang|grc|μητηρ}} / ''mother'') {{overline|ΠΗΡ}} ({{lang|grc|πατηρ}} / ''father'') {{overline|ΣΩΡ}} ({{lang|grc|σωτηρ}} / ''saviour'').<ref name="Jongkind">{{Cite book | first=Dirk | last=Jongkind | title=Scribal Habits of Codex Sinaiticus | year=2007 | publisher=Gorgias Press LLC. | location=New Jersey | isbn=978-1593334222}}</ref>{{rp|22–50, 67–68}}

The portion of the codex held by the British Library consists of 346½ [[Bookbinding|folio]]s, 694 pages (38.1&nbsp;cm x 34.5&nbsp;cm), constituting over half of the original work. Of these folios, 199 belong to the Old Testament, including the [[apocrypha]] ([[deuterocanonical books|deuterocanonical]]), and 147½ belong to the New Testament, along with two other books, the [[Epistle of Barnabas]] and part of [[The Shepherd of Hermas]]. The apocryphal and [[deuterocanonical books]] present in the surviving part of the Septuagint are [[2 Esdras]], [[Book of Tobit|Tobit]], [[Judith]], [[1 Maccabees|1]] and [[4 Maccabees]], [[Book of Wisdom|Wisdom]], and [[Wisdom of Sirach|Sirach]].{{r|Metzger-Palaeo}}<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.codex-sinaiticus.net/en/codex/content.aspx | title=The Codex Sinaiticus Website | publisher=Codex-sinaiticus.net | access-date=4 February 2010 | archive-date=30 August 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830053139/http://www.codex-sinaiticus.net/en/codex/content.aspx | url-status=dead }}</ref> The books of the New Testament are arranged in this order: the four [[Gospels]], the [[Pauline epistles|epistles of Paul]] ([[Epistle to the Hebrews|Hebrews]] follows [[Second Epistle to the Thessalonians|2 Thess.]]), the [[Acts of the Apostles]],<ref group="n">Here and in [[Minuscule 69]], [[Minuscule 336]], and several other manuscripts, the Pauline epistles precede Acts.</ref> the [[General Epistles]], and the [[Book of Revelation]]. The fact that some parts of the codex are preserved in good condition while others are in very poor condition suggests they were separated and stored in several places.<ref name="Skeat-lastchap">{{Cite journal | last=Skeat | first=Theodore Cressy | title=The Last Chapter in the History of the Codex Sinaiticus | journal=Novum Testamentum | volume=XLII, 4 | issue=4 | year=2000 | pages=313–315 | publisher=Brill | doi=10.1163/156853600506708 | s2cid=162368522 }}</ref>{{rp|313–315}}

While large portions of the Old Testament are missing, it is assumed the codex originally contained the whole of both Testaments.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/codexsinai.html | title=Sacred Texts: Codex Sinaiticus | website=www.bl.uk | access-date=27 January 2017 }}</ref> About half of the Greek Old Testament (or ''[[Septuagint]]'') survived, along with a complete [[New Testament]], the entire [[Deuterocanonical books]], the [[Epistle of Barnabas]] and portions of [[The Shepherd of Hermas]].<ref name="Aland">{{Cite book | last1=Aland | first1=Kurt | author-link1=Kurt Aland | first2=Barbara | last2=Aland | author-link2=Barbara Aland | others=Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.) | title=The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism | year=1995 | publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] | location=Grand Rapids, Michigan | isbn=978-0-8028-4098-1 }}</ref>{{rp|107}}