Christian Doubt» Codex Sinaiticus http://www.christiandoubt.com thoughts from someone dealing with doubt Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:04:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 The existing manuscripts are so close to the original autographs http://www.christiandoubt.com/resources/reasons-for-believing-in-christianity/the-existing-manuscripts-are-so-close-to-the-original-autographs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-existing-manuscripts-are-so-close-to-the-original-autographs http://www.christiandoubt.com/resources/reasons-for-believing-in-christianity/the-existing-manuscripts-are-so-close-to-the-original-autographs/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2011 02:10:04 +0000 Mark Lefers http://www.christiandoubt.com/?page_id=908 Continue reading →]]> The oldest manuscript of the is a papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John, called P52, an dates around A.D. 125. The next oldest Gospel come from 200-250 A.D. (P4, P45, P64, P66, P67, P75). The Codex Sinaiticus which contains the whole NT dates to the fourth century A.D. The gap between the oldest and the is magnitudes shorter than any other ancient writing.

[post_in_post]

Source:

Mark D. Roberts, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 31

Response:

No autographs exist today, and it is unlikely that one will ever be found. The earliest manuscripts are very small fragments (P52 is business card size) and date 100 years or more after the events they describe. In addition dating early manuscripts by paleography isn’t precise and can present a range of 25 to over 125 years. So these manuscripts could be even later.

References and Links:

]]> http://www.christiandoubt.com/resources/reasons-for-believing-in-christianity/the-existing-manuscripts-are-so-close-to-the-original-autographs/feed/ 0 Codex Sinaiticus http://www.christiandoubt.com/2009/07/20/codex-sinaiticus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=codex-sinaiticus http://www.christiandoubt.com/2009/07/20/codex-sinaiticus/#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:55:12 +0000 Mark Lefers http://christiandoubt.com/?p=322 Continue reading →]]> Codex_SinaiticusSomeone the other day pointed me to this great link that has the Codex Sinaiticus online. The Codex Sinaiticus is is one of the most important hand-written ancient copies of the Greek Bible. It It has been dated to the 4th century (based on palaeographical analysis) and contains one of the very oldest and best of the New Testament. The only earlier New Testament contain small portions of the text.

I easily burned through several hours just playing with the different features. It was a little clunky at times, but to click on different parts of the manuscript, then see the translation, and compare it to my NIV version was really cool. I wish they could do this for some of the other early manuscripts too. For those who don’t know the field well (like myself), it adds so much to actually see the manuscripts and to see the translations and to compare it to the Bible I have in hand today. It gives me a bit more confidence that what we have today is what the Gospel writers wrote back then. I just have to keep thinking and pondering whether what they wrote down is true or not (unfortunately the harder part).

]]> http://www.christiandoubt.com/2009/07/20/codex-sinaiticus/feed/ 0