The Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest near-complete New Testament Greek manuscript in existence. The codex was discovered by Constantin von Tischendorf in a monastic library in the Greek Orthodox monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai, Egypt. It contains almost the entire Old Testament and New Testament, with only the Book of Revelation missing (which is found elsewhere – albeit a very fragmentary version).
Many scholars consider the Codex Sinaiticus , designated by א (A), the oldest nearly completely preserved bible manuscript in Greek. It is a 4th century manuscript written by Alexandrian scribes in uncial letters on paper and vellum. The codex contains the complete text of the Christian New testament, with one lacuna in Matthew 1:1–8:12, c. 315 AD (Shelford, 1907). It is written in two columns per page, originally on 294 leaves – now 146 – 30 cm (15 in) tall . Since its discovery, study of the Codex Sinaiticus has proven that it is one of the most copied manuscripts in existence.
The Codex Vaticanus (Latin: “Vatican Codex”), 300AD, is an early 4th-century manuscript of the Greek Bible (or New Testament). The codex is named in honour of the Vatican Library, where it has been since at least the 15th century when it was received by Pope Sixtus IV. The text and font size are larger than other manuscripts. It contains almost a full copy of the Septuagint and some of the Deuterocanonical books. In 1546 it suffered damage from a fire that broke out in the sacristy of the Vatican Basilica.
The oldest New Testament manuscript is a fragment of the Gospel of Luke that was written on papyrus. It is dated to around 125 AD and was discovered in Egypt in 1934.
The second-oldest New Testament manuscript is a copy of the Gospel of John, also on papyrus, which dates to around 100 AD and was discovered in the Wadi el-Jarf cave in Egypt in 1966.
The third-oldest New Testament manuscript is another copy of the Gospel of John, dated to around 125 AD and found in Egypt in 1945.
The oldest New Testament manuscript is a fragment of papyrus that was discovered in Egypt, dating back to the second half of the fourth century. This fragment contains parts of John 18:31-33 and 18:37-38. The text is written in uncial letters, which were used in Greek manuscripts from the third century onward.
This fragment was purchased by an Egyptologist named Constantine Tischendorf at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is now housed at the British Museum in London.
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Oldest New Testament Manuscript
The oldest known New Testament manuscript, a fragment of John’s Gospel, was probably written in the ancient city of Ephesus in modern-day Turkey around 120 A.D., according to a team at the University of Texas at Austin.
The oldest known New Testament manuscript, a fragment of John’s Gospel, was probably written in the ancient city of Ephesus in modern-day Turkey around 120 A.D., according to a team at the University of Texas at Austin.
Using radiocarbon dating, a team led by Greg Hodgins found that the papyrus fragment dates back to sometime between 220 and 340 A.D., with 95 percent confidence. The text strongly resembles the Codex Sinaiticus, which is also thought to have been written in Egypt but contains an older version of the New Testament than most other manuscripts.
“This fragment contains portions of one line from Chapter 8 and all of Chapter 9 from John’s Gospel,” said Daniel Wallace, executive director of Dallas Theological Seminary’s Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM), which had funded previous research by Hodgins on other manuscripts held in Europe and North America. These included fragments owned by CSNTM belonging to Luke’s Gospel that were recently dated to between 25 B.C. and 50 A.D., making them possibly the world’s earliest surviving Christian writings.”
