Anyone want to try to explain that big blank section at the end of the Gospel of Mark? Looks like someone should have used white-out instead of a rubber eraser. ;)
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
That story many of us heard about Sinaticus being burned and in a trash can is false. The monks were burning a LXX, but were not burning Sinaticus. Somehow people have merged those two actions into one. Here is what Tischendorf said:
From Tischendorf’s journal: “On the afternoon of this day I was taking a walk with the steward of the convent in the neighbourhood, and as we returned, towards sunset, he begged me to take some refreshment with him in his cell. Scarcely had he entered the room, when, resuming our former subject of conversation, he said: “And I, too, have read a Septuagint” — i.e. a copy of the Greek translation made by the Seventy. And so saying, he took down from the corner of the room a bulky kind of volume, wrapped up in a red cloth, and laid it before me. I unrolled the cover, and discovered, to my great surprise, not only those very fragments which, fifteen years before, I had taken out of the basket, but also other parts of the Old Testament, the New Testament complete, and, in addition, the Epistle of Barnabas and a part of the Shepherd of Hermas” (emphasis mine).
From Constantin von Tischendorf, The Discovery of the Sinaitic Manuscript, Extract from Constantin von Tischendorf, (1866) When Were Our Gospels Written? An Argument by Constantine Tischendorf. With a Narrative of the Discovery of the Sinaiti Manuscript New York: American Tract Society. (Quoted from Wikipedia, “Tischendorf.”)
See also Metzger’s The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration
Glad to share the truth of the preservation of this important Greek manuscript.
Discussion
NewAnyone want to try to explain
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
NewNot a true account
From Tischendorf’s journal: “On the afternoon of this day I was taking a walk with the steward of the convent in the neighbourhood, and as we returned, towards sunset, he begged me to take some refreshment with him in his cell. Scarcely had he entered the room, when, resuming our former subject of conversation, he said: “And I, too, have read a Septuagint” — i.e. a copy of the Greek translation made by the Seventy. And so saying, he took down from the corner of the room a bulky kind of volume, wrapped up in a red cloth, and laid it before me. I unrolled the cover, and discovered, to my great surprise, not only those very fragments which, fifteen years before, I had taken out of the basket, but also other parts of the Old Testament, the New Testament complete, and, in addition, the Epistle of Barnabas and a part of the Shepherd of Hermas” (emphasis mine).
From Constantin von Tischendorf, The Discovery of the Sinaitic Manuscript, Extract from Constantin von Tischendorf, (1866) When Were Our Gospels Written? An Argument by Constantine Tischendorf. With a Narrative of the Discovery of the Sinaiti Manuscript New York: American Tract Society. (Quoted from Wikipedia, “Tischendorf.”)
See also Metzger’s The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration
Glad to share the truth of the preservation of this important Greek manuscript.
Joe