Codex Sinaiticus

=== Simonides ===
On 13 September 1862 [[Constantine Simonides]] (1820–1890), skilled in calligraphy and with a controversial background with manuscripts, made the claim in print in ''[[The Guardian|The Manchester Guardian]]'' that he had written the codex himself as a 19-year-old boy in 1839 in the [[Agiou Panteleimonos monastery|Panteleimonos monastery]] at [[Mount Athos|Athos]].<ref>{{Cite book | title=The Codex Sinaiticus and the Simonides Affair | first=James Keith  | last=Elliott | publisher=Patriarchal Institute of Patristic Studies | location=Thessalonica | year=1982 | page=16 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.sravnika.narod.ru/sin/sin3.htm | title=Странное объявление Симонидеса о Синайском кодексе и ответ Тишендорфа }}</ref> [[Constantin von Tischendorf]], who worked with numerous Bible manuscripts, was known as somewhat flamboyant, and had ambitiously sought money from several royal families for his ventures, who had indeed funded his trips. Simonides had a somewhat obscure history, as he claimed he was at Mt. Athos in the years preceding Tischendorf's contact, making the claim at least plausible. Simonides also claimed his father had died and the invitation to [[Mount Athos|Mt. Athos]] came from his uncle, a monk there, but subsequent letters to his father were found among his possessions at his death. Simonides claimed the false nature of the document in ''The Manchester Guardian'' in an exchange of letters among scholars and others, at the time. Henry Bradshaw, a British librarian known to both men, defended the Tischendorf find of Codex Sinaiticus, casting aside the accusations of Simonides, which later have been disproved. Since Bradshaw was a social 'hub' among many diverse scholars of the day, his aiding of Tischendorf was given much weight. Simonides died shortly after, and the issue lay dormant for many years.<ref>Letters of Constantine Simonides, Grolier Library, NY</ref>

In answer to Simonides in ''[[Allgemeine Zeitung]]'' (December 1862), Tischendorf noted only in the New Testament were there many differences between it and all other manuscripts. [[Henry Bradshaw (scholar)|Henry Bradshaw]], a bibliographer, combatted the claims of Constantine Simonides in a letter to ''The Manchester Guardian'' (26 January 1863). Bradshaw argued that Codex Sinaiticus brought by Tischendorf from the Greek monastery of Mount Sinai was not a modern forgery or written by Simonides.<ref>{{Cite book | last=McKitterick | first=David | year=1998 | title=A History of Cambridge University Press | volume=2 | chapter=Scholarship and Commerce (1698–1872) | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=0-521-30802-X | page=369 }}.</ref> The controversy seems to regard the misplaced use of the word 'fraud' or 'forgery' since it may have been a repaired text, a copy of the Septuagint based upon Origen's Hexapla, a text which has been rejected for centuries because of its lineage from [[Eusebius]] who introduced Arian doctrine into the courts of Constantine I and II.

Not every scholar and Church minister was delighted about the codex find. [[John William Burgon|Burgon]], a supporter of the [[Textus Receptus]], suggested that Codex Sinaiticus, as well as codices [[Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209|Vaticanus]] and [[Codex Bezae]], were the most corrupt documents extant. Each of these three codices "clearly exhibits a fabricated text – is the result of arbitrary and reckless recension."<ref name="burgon">{{Cite book | first=John William | last=Burgon | title=The Revision Revised | year=1883 | location=London | publisher=John Murray }}</ref>{{rp|9}} The two most weighty of these three codices, {{larger|{{script|Hebr|א}}}} and [[Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209|B]], he likens to the "two false witnesses" of {{bibleref|Matthew|26:60}}.{{r|burgon|p=48}}

However, independent discoveries of other fragments of the codex in recent history (see below) prove its authenticity, and disprove all theories of it being a forgery.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Finding Additional Leaves of the Codex Sinaiticus in a Book Binding | url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=952 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=New fragment of Codex Sinaiticus discovered | date=September 2009 | url=https://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-fragment-of-codex-sinaiticus.html }}</ref><ref name="Sarris">{{Cite web | title=The Discovery of a New Fragment from the Codex Sinaiticus | first=Nikolas | last=Sarris | url=https://www.academia.edu/44594833/The_discovery_of_a_new_fragment_from_the_Codex_Sinaiticus }}</ref>