BIBLE MANUSCRIPT

Hokitika Guardian, 22 December 1933, Page 5

BIBLE MANUSCRIPT

BRITISH PURCHASE

.VALUABLE AND ANCIENT M.S

(Per British Official Wireless.)

• RUGBY, ■ December 21. The British : 'Museum Trustees,' with the approval of the Government, ’ na'e agreed. to purchase 'from the Soviet Government a fourth c&ntury manuscript, known as the Codex Sihaitiqus. It was formerly in the possession of the Czar of Russia and' is one of the oldest, manuscripts of the Bible, and is regarded as of paramount importance to the establishment of its text.. The Prime Minister stated in the House of Commons that the ‘G'oveni* ment has undertaken to make i* special contribution towards the purchase price of the Codex, namely £sl for every £1 subscribed by the public. The purchase price will be £IOO,OOO. Mr (R. Flower, the deputy-keeper of manuscripts at the British' Museum says that the price paid for the Codex Simiticus is the biggest that the Museum hag ever paid for any manuscript, while' the purchase rs the most important that the Museum has ever made.

The Codex. Sihaiticus is written in Greek, It is one o.f the most important manuscripts in' the world. Fortythree leaves of it 'were • discovered in 1844 by a Germaii" Biblical scholar, i'Vubbish basket at the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. He presented, it to the Leipzig Library. Lischendorf,.„in the year 1853, -returned to Mt, Sinai, and he was then shown f «dd|t jqpal manuscripts, which he recognised' as being the main bulk of that which he fortnterly had obtained and which he eent to Czar Alexander of Russia. -• ;

The Codex Sinaiticus consists o| a very large portion of the -Old fiesta* ment translation and the Hebrew Septuagint, ' although some ,of the i Books are fragmentary., There is , also complete the New Testament Epistle of St. Barnabas,-: and the treatise, known as that of The Shepherd of Hemas, which was so. popular with the early church, and. yjwh.ich nearly was - included in the Canon of the Scripture. The Codex* dates . back to the second half )of ithe .: fourth 'century .-and it, with the Codex Yiaticanus ; ,at .Rome, constitutes two of the- earliest; ,of the 'great Biblical manuscripts.; . , ■A third one, is the Ocdex .Alexa.iidriamus, dating back to the second half of the fifth century. It. y-is; .already in the British museum.

SOVIET DEMANDED £2oo*ooo. i

(Received this day at 10.40 a.m.) ' ' LONDON, December. 21.

The price paid lor the Codex Sinaiticiis breaks ’all records.- The sale cha s been going,dti iff secret for two years. M, Stalin-quickly .agi'eed 'to' the:-,sale, but £IOO,OOOMs only half of what the jgoviet Government origihallyH'lisked;

GRAND DUKE CYRIL’S OPINION.

(Received this day at..10.52‘a.m.)

PARIS, December 21

The. Grand Duke pretender to the throne of the Czars, says: “It is distressing to. hear the been sold, 'but we have ho' legal right. There is some consolation, However, to see. the pr°cions heirloom of my family going to England. '