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         <Name>Codex Sinaiticus: The Book from Sinai</Name>
         <Summary>Review of British Library Seminar</Summary>
         <Description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An international conference was conducted by the &lt;a href="http://www.bl.uk/index.shtml"&gt;British Library &lt;/a&gt;to celebrate the digitizing of one of the oldest known Bibles still extant.&amp;nbsp;Since 1933, the British Library has held most of the known pages of the &lt;a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/"&gt;Codex Sinaiticus&lt;/a&gt;. A few pages remained in the National Library of Russia and others were held by the University of Leipzig in Germany. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;The Codex Sinaiticus, which is&amp;nbsp;now nearing its 18th Century of existence, has held star status with the British Library since its acquisition from Russia during the depths of the great depression.&amp;nbsp;With the movement to digitize books as a means of preserving them for future generations and with an eye toward expanding&amp;nbsp;access&amp;nbsp;to the Codex, the British Library set up a collaborative effort with the other holders of material from the Codex Sinaiticus and proceeded with&amp;nbsp;the major&amp;nbsp;undertaking of its conservation and digitizing. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;To celebrate the completion of the project and to present the digitized version to the world at large, the Library organized a &lt;a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/project/conference.aspx"&gt;conference&lt;/a&gt; to communicate the results of its work. This was conducted at the British Library in London, July 6 and 7, 2009. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;Textual scholars from across Europe and North America gathered to discuss the place of Codex Sinaiticus within the biblical tradition.&amp;nbsp;The key-note address was given by Professor Eldon Jay Epp, Visiting Professor of New Testament at Harvard&amp;nbsp;Divinity School&amp;nbsp;and formerly president of the Society of Biblical Literature (2003).&amp;nbsp; Professor Epp chose as his title &amp;ldquo;Codex Sinaiticus in Modern Biblical Scholarship.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp; He then proceeded to outline the role of four New Testament majuscules and their impact on New Testament studies. The first addressed was Codex Bezae, held at Cambridge.&amp;nbsp; To Professor Epp, &lt;a href="http://www.skypoint.com/members/waltzmn/ManuscriptsUncials.html#uDe"&gt;Codex Bezae&lt;/a&gt;, known from the mid sixteenth century was an &amp;ldquo;Unwelcomed Stranger&amp;rdquo; to those involved in textual studies.&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href="http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/codexalex.html"&gt;Codex Alexandrinus&lt;/a&gt;, held by the British Library, he characterized by the term &amp;ldquo;Familiarity Breeds Success.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp; This was the best known of the codices and was given priority from the 17th century. &lt;a href="http://www.skypoint.com/members/waltzmn/ManuscriptsUncials.html#uDe"&gt;Vaticanus&lt;/a&gt; was a &amp;ldquo;Sleeping Giant,&amp;rdquo; probably the earliest of the four codices but hidden from view and access in the Vatican Library.&amp;nbsp;Although known since the&amp;nbsp;15th century, access&amp;nbsp;was only granted after Codex Sinaiticus had been discovered in the&amp;nbsp;19th century. Sinaiticus was &amp;ldquo;A Late Bloomer,&amp;rdquo; yet became an instant celebrity.&amp;nbsp;Having traced the impact of these four codices on the textual development of the New Testament translations, Professor Epp considered the impact of even older papyri that had been discovered in the 20th Century. Both Vaticanus and Sinaiticus appear to have their beginnings in several of these papyri. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;The seminar was&amp;nbsp;informed about the discovery of additional pages of Sinaiticus during building repairs at St. Catherine&amp;rsquo;s in 1975.&amp;nbsp;Details of the conservation and digitization of the Codex were also covered. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;The seminar marked the opening of an exhibition about the Sinaiticus: &lt;a href="http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/codex/codex.html"&gt;&lt;i&gt;From Parchment to Pixel&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href="http://www.bl.uk/whatson/podcasts/exhibition/codex/index.html"&gt;Podcasts &lt;/a&gt;relating to this exhibition are also available online.&amp;nbsp;A discussion and display of the creation of the Sinaiticus &lt;i&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event94369.html"&gt;Materials of the Codex Sinaiticus: How was the oldest surviving Bible made?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; scheduled for August has been sold out. &lt;/p&gt;</Description>
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                   <Synopsis>Juan Garcés of the British Library talks to Timothy Arthur Brown, one of the team who helped create the digitised Codex Sinaiticus - probably the earliest surviving Bible in the world.</Synopsis>

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                   <Synopsis>Juan Garcés, Curator for the Codex Sinaiticus Project at the British Library, talks about the curious past and exciting future of this remarkable manuscript: one of the oldest two complete Bibles in existence, possibly commissioned by Constantine in the fifth century as a 'master copy' for all Bibles.</Synopsis>

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                   <Title>Historic Bible pages put online</Title>

                   <Synopsis>About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible have been recovered and put on the internet.</Synopsis>

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         <Name>What Can We Learn from Old Books?</Name>
         <Summary>Lessons to be understood in this day of multiple translations</Summary>
         <Description>&lt;p&gt;In the late 19th century, textual scholars &lt;a href="http://www.westcotthort.com/biographies.html"&gt;Westcott and Hort&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;established a classification of types of ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. The reason for the classification was an attempt to understand the history of the development of the Greek text and determine the earliest witness to the text. Three of the oldest and most complete codices (Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and Vaticanus) had come from Egypt and so were placed in one group which was classified as Alexandrian texts.&amp;nbsp;The conclusion that they were of the same type was based on the comparison of these texts with the majority of what were classified as the Byzantine texts. But in making the classification, little consideration was given to the comparison of the three codices to one another. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;With the digitization of the Vaticanus in 1999, and now that of the Sinaiticus,&amp;nbsp; comparison has become a possibility.&amp;nbsp; The result is that the three manuscripts, although closely related in terms of geographic origin and time of composition, are in fact now considered three distinct types of text. That finding provides an interesting commentary to the statement of Origen of Alexandria, Egypt, who lamented: &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px"&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;. . . the differences among the manuscripts [of the Gospels] have become great, either through the negligence of some copyists or through the perverse audacity of others; they either neglect to check over what they have transcribed, or, in the process of checking, they lengthen or shorten, as they please.&lt;a href="/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;Origen&amp;rsquo;s comments are well displayed in the case of the Apocalypse represented in the Sinaiticus.&amp;nbsp;Juan Hernandez Jr. of Bethel University, St. Paul, MN, presented a paper titled &amp;ldquo;Codex Sinaiticus: The Earliest Greek Christian Commentary on John&amp;rsquo;s Apocalypse?&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp; In an abstract he states: &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px"&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;The Apocalypse in codex Sinaiticus is a striking example of a fourth-century text that differs substantially from modern critical editions. It exhibits dozens of differences at key points, reflecting the concerns, interests, and idiosyncrasies of its earliest copyists and readers. Taken as a whole, Sinaiticus&amp;rsquo;s text of Revelation may constitute one of our earliest Christian commentaries on the book, disclosing its fourth-century milieu and anticipating the later concerns of Oecumenius and Andrew of Caesarea. This is no commentary in the contemporary sense, however. Sinaiticus&amp;rsquo;s readings range from the spectacular to the mundane and include the theological, the liturgical, the commonplace and even the infelicitous. It is a text ever in tension with itself, effective both in its capacity to obscure as well as in its regulation of meaning. Clarity and confusion co-reign and compete for our attention. Despite that, we can discern a concerted effort to elucidate the Apocalypse&amp;rsquo;s message by scores of changes throughout. Some of these are inherited. Others created. All affected the reading of the text. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;So what can really be learned from old texts?&amp;nbsp; It&amp;rsquo;s apparent that scribes used their role to establish ideas that supported their views of scripture just as translators&amp;nbsp;may do today.&amp;nbsp;It&amp;rsquo;s our job to cut through the confusion and establish what may have been intended given our understanding of the milieu of the first century.&amp;nbsp;It will be interesting to see&amp;nbsp;what impact this realization&amp;nbsp;of the differences between Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus and Vaticanus will have on the establishment of future eclectic texts. For the last century they have been given first priority in view of their age.&amp;nbsp;But now that the extent of variation and text type has been established, that could well change. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;div&gt;&lt;br clear="all" /&gt;&lt;hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /&gt;
    &lt;div id="ftn1"&gt;
      &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="/#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"&gt;&lt;sup&gt;[1]&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Bruce M. Metzger, &lt;i&gt;The Text of the New Testament: Its Transition, Corruption and Restoration&lt;/i&gt; (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992),&amp;nbsp;152. &lt;/p&gt;
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         <Name>Feast of the Assumption</Name>
         <Summary>Ancient views of Mary, the mother of Jesus, reveal the growth of the story</Summary>
         <Description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;August 15th is the Feast of the Assumption, relating to the Roman Catholic dogma of Mary&amp;rsquo;s assumption into heaven. This was the last dogma established relating to Mary, the mother of Jesus, decreed by Pope Pius XII in 1950 a&amp;nbsp;mere 59 years ago. It was the latest in a succession of dogmas relating to Mary. Recently I was doing some research on how&amp;nbsp;she was viewed by the early, non-Biblical writers. Clement of Rome is considered the earliest of these and he makes no comment about Mary at all. In light of the subject he is addressing that is not surprising. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Ignatius of Antioch wrote a number of epistles to various church groups in Asia Minor, and the time of his writing is placed around C.E. 125. Mary is simply mentioned as the mother of Jesus in his epistles. No other significant detail of her is&amp;nbsp;given. But the Latin version of Ignatius&amp;rsquo;s epistles is interesting as it contains what are considered&amp;mdash;rightly so&amp;mdash;to be spurious letters to the Virgin Mary and the Apostle John. I question the title of the first epistle especially considering the contents of the Second Epistle to John. The title of &amp;ldquo;Virgin Mary&amp;rdquo; may well have been supplied by the translators rather than being in the original. The subtitle, &amp;quot;Her friend Ignatius to the Christ-bearing Mary,&amp;quot; probably was all that was attached to the original document. As I can only work from a translation, I&amp;rsquo;m not able to establish the title provided by the writer. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;In the second of the Epistles to the Apostle John, the writer makes reference to James the Just, also known as the brother of Jesus. Catholic doctrine presents James as being a child of Joseph by a former marriageto preserve the concept of&amp;nbsp;Mary's virginity. Yet the writer talks of James in this way: &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px"&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;And in like manner [I desire to see] the venerable James, who is surnamed Just, whom they relate to be very like Christ Jesus in appearance, in life, and in method of conduct, as if he were a twin-brother of the same womb. They say that, if I see him, I see also Jesus Himself, as to all the features and aspect of His body.(1) &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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  &lt;p&gt;&lt;alexander /&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;To make a statement&amp;nbsp;that James was like a twin brother of Jesus and hence of Mary indicates that the idea of perpetual virginity was not an understanding of this writer. In that this was preserved only in Latin is a fair indication that this doctrine was probably a late second or third century addition to the Catholic Church. We know that it was a factor by the time&amp;nbsp;Jerome translated the Vulgate, finishing in the early fifth century. A footnote to Matthew 1:25 in the Douay Rheims translation provides this detail attributed to Jerome:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/alexander /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px"&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;&lt;alexander /&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&amp;quot;Till she brought forth her firstborn son&amp;quot;. . .&amp;nbsp;From these words Helvidius and other heretics most impiously inferred that the blessed Virgin Mary had other children besides Christ; but St. Jerome shews, by divers examples, that this expression of the Evangelist was a manner of speaking usual among the Hebrews, to denote by the word until, only what is done, without any regard to the future. Thus it is said, Genesis 8. 6 and 7, that Noe sent forth a raven, which went forth, and did not return till the waters were dried up on the earth. That is, did not return any more. Also Isaias 46. 4, God says: I am till you grow old. Who dare infer that God should then cease to be: Also in the first book of Machabees 5. 54, And they went up to mount Sion with joy and gladness, and offered holocausts, because not one of them was slain till they had returned in peace. That is, not one was slain before or after they had returned. God saith to his divine Son: Sit on my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool. Shall he sit no longer after his enemies are subdued? Yea and for all eternity. St. Jerome also proves by Scripture examples, that an only begotten son, was also called firstborn, or first begotten: because according to the law, the firstborn males were to be consecrated to God; Sanctify unto me, saith the Lord, every firstborn that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, etc. Ex. 13. 2. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/alexander /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;alexander /&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;I make the point about the late second century based on the comments by Irenaeus about Mary. By the time of his writing, ideas about a special role for Mary were starting to develop in the West. If that is correct, then the spurious letters attributed to Ignatius must have been written before that time.&lt;/font&gt; &lt;/alexander /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;alexander /&gt;_____________&lt;/alexander /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;alexander /&gt;1). Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe, The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol.I: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, The Apostolic Fathers With Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, 1997), 125.&lt;/alexander /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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