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Syriac Sinaiticus
The Syriac Sinaiticus or Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus (syrs), known also as the Sinaitic Palimpsest, is one of the Syriac versions of the Bible. The Syriac Sinaiticus is a late-4th- or early-5th-century manuscript of 179 folios, containing a nearly complete translation of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament into Syriac, which have been overwritten by a vita (biography) of female saints and martyrs with a date corresponding to AD 697. This palimpsest is the oldest copy of the Gospels in Syriac, one of two surviving manuscripts (the other being the Curetonian Gospels) that are conventionally dated to before the Peshitta, the standard Syriac translation. The Syriac palimpsest [catalogued as Sinai, Syr. 30] was discovered by a Western researcher at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1892.
Both the Syriac Sinaiticus (designated syrs) [Sinai, Syr 30] and the Curetonian Gospels (designated syrcur or syrc) [British Library, Add 14451; Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, Orient Quad 528] known as the Old Syriac version contain similar renderings of the Gospel text; its conformity with the Greek and the Latin has been debated.Additional passages of the Old Syriac version were discovered among the New Finds (1975) of Saint Catherine's Monastery [Sinai, Syr. NF 37, 39].
The Diatessaron, a Harmony of the Four Gospels composed by Tatian in the second century, was being used in the Syrian churches for three centuries, but this was to change. A promulgation by Bishop Rabbula of Edessa between the years A.D. 411 and 435 decreed that the four separate Gospels were to be used in Syriac churches instead. The Old Syriac version of Gospels was the result.
The importance of such early, less-conforming texts is emphasized by the revision of the Peshitta that was made about 508, ordered by bishop Philoxenus of Mabbog. His revision, it is said, skillfully moved the Peshitta nearer to the Greek text; "it is very remarkable that his own frequent Gospel quotations preserved in his writings show that he used an Old Syriac set of the four Gospels".
The Peshitta would evolve and diverge from the Old Syriac Gospels in a number of ways, and became effectively the Syriac "Vulgate." (The Vulgate was originally translated from Greek in the lingua franca of Latin-speaking Christians in Europe and Asia. The Peshitta served a similar purpose for those who spoke the Syriac language.)
The palimpsest was identified in the library at Saint Catherine's Monastery in February 1892 by Agnes Smith Lewis, who returned with a team of scholars in 1893 that included J. Rendel Harris, F. C. Burkitt, and R. L. Bensly to photograph and transcribe the work in its entirety.
While there, Lewis also discovered a completely different palimpsest in a different dialect of Syriac unfamiliar to her. This version (and a second copy found by Dr. Harris) was determined to be a lectionary written in Aramaic using Syriac letters. These two lectionaries became known as the Palestinian Syriac version of the Bible, a much later Syriac version of the Bible designated as syrpal.
The German theologian Adalbert Merx devoted much of his later research to the elucidation of the Syriac Sinaiticus, the results being embodied in Die vier kanonischen Evangelien nach dem ältesten bekannten Texte (1897–1905).
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Syriac Sinaiticus
The Syriac Sinaiticus or Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus (syrs), known also as the Sinaitic Palimpsest, is one of the Syriac versions of the Bible. The Syriac Sinaiticus is a late-4th- or early-5th-century manuscript of 179 folios, containing a nearly complete translation of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament into Syriac, which have been overwritten by a vita (biography) of female saints and martyrs with a date corresponding to AD 697. This palimpsest is the oldest copy of the Gospels in Syriac, one of two surviving manuscripts (the other being the Curetonian Gospels) that are conventionally dated to before the Peshitta, the standard Syriac translation. The Syriac palimpsest [catalogued as Sinai, Syr. 30] was discovered by a Western researcher at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1892.
Both the Syriac Sinaiticus (designated syrs) [Sinai, Syr 30] and the Curetonian Gospels (designated syrcur or syrc) [British Library, Add 14451; Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, Orient Quad 528] known as the Old Syriac version contain similar renderings of the Gospel text; its conformity with the Greek and the Latin has been debated.Additional passages of the Old Syriac version were discovered among the New Finds (1975) of Saint Catherine's Monastery [Sinai, Syr. NF 37, 39].
The Diatessaron, a Harmony of the Four Gospels composed by Tatian in the second century, was being used in the Syrian churches for three centuries, but this was to change. A promulgation by Bishop Rabbula of Edessa between the years A.D. 411 and 435 decreed that the four separate Gospels were to be used in Syriac churches instead. The Old Syriac version of Gospels was the result.
The importance of such early, less-conforming texts is emphasized by the revision of the Peshitta that was made about 508, ordered by bishop Philoxenus of Mabbog. His revision, it is said, skillfully moved the Peshitta nearer to the Greek text; "it is very remarkable that his own frequent Gospel quotations preserved in his writings show that he used an Old Syriac set of the four Gospels".
The Peshitta would evolve and diverge from the Old Syriac Gospels in a number of ways, and became effectively the Syriac "Vulgate." (The Vulgate was originally translated from Greek in the lingua franca of Latin-speaking Christians in Europe and Asia. The Peshitta served a similar purpose for those who spoke the Syriac language.)
The palimpsest was identified in the library at Saint Catherine's Monastery in February 1892 by Agnes Smith Lewis, who returned with a team of scholars in 1893 that included J. Rendel Harris, F. C. Burkitt, and R. L. Bensly to photograph and transcribe the work in its entirety.
While there, Lewis also discovered a completely different palimpsest in a different dialect of Syriac unfamiliar to her. This version (and a second copy found by Dr. Harris) was determined to be a lectionary written in Aramaic using Syriac letters. These two lectionaries became known as the Palestinian Syriac version of the Bible, a much later Syriac version of the Bible designated as syrpal.
The German theologian Adalbert Merx devoted much of his later research to the elucidation of the Syriac Sinaiticus, the results being embodied in Die vier kanonischen Evangelien nach dem ältesten bekannten Texte (1897–1905).
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