Codex Sinaiticus

Uncial 01

New Testament manuscript
Book of Esther
Name	Sinaiticus
Sign	${\displaystyle \aleph }$
Text	Greek Old Testament and Greek New Testament
Date	c. 325-360
Script	Greek
Found	Sinai, 1844
Now at	British Library, Leipzig University Library, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Russian National Library
Cite	Lake, K. (1911). Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, Oxford.
Size	38.1 × 34.5 cm (15.0 × 13.6 in)
Type	Alexandrian text-type
Category	I
Note	very close to 𝔓66

The Codex Sinaiticus (/sɪˈnaɪtɪkəs/;^[1] Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), also called the Sinai Bible, is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old Testament, including the deuterocanonical books, and the Greek New Testament, with both the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas included. It is designated by the siglum א‎ [Aleph] or 01 in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts, and δ 2 in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts.^[2] It is written in uncial letters on parchment. It is one of the four great uncial codices (these being manuscripts which originally contained the whole of both the Old and New Testaments). Along with Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible, and contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.^[3] It is a historical treasure,^[4] and using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the mid-fourth century.^{[5]: 77–78}

Biblical scholarship considers Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the most important Greek texts of the New Testament, along with Codex Vaticanus. Until German Biblical scholar (and manuscript hunter) Constantin von Tischendorf's discovery of Codex Sinaiticus in 1844, the Greek text of Codex Vaticanus was unrivalled.^[6]: 26 Since its discovery, study of Codex Sinaiticus has proven to be useful to scholars for critical studies of the biblical text.

Codex Sinaiticus came to the attention of scholars in the 19th century at Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, with further material discovered in the 20th and 21st centuries. Although parts of the codex are scattered across four libraries around the world, most of the manuscript is held today in the British Library in London, where it is on public display.^{[7][2]: 107–108}