As Luther Said, "Now We Begin To Smell the Potroast!" The Sinaiticus and Vaticanus Fakes from Snake Oil Tischendorf.

 

I have known a fair number of con-artists, in the visible church and in the repair business. There is always a hook that is used to clinch the deal.

One Cleveland car repairman was already on my suspect list when he phoned me and said, "We are looking at your car. You have a big engine but it runs like a four-cylinder Ford." I got out my notepad and pen - "So what does it need?" He gave me a long list of transmission woes, which I copied down and repeated to a transmission shop. Every single detail was not just wrong but hilariously wrong, far from reality. The Ford comment was supposed to move me to pay for massive repairs. I declined.

When I began studying the original text issues for the Greek New Testament, I found the same thing happening, which became especially vivid as I worked through the stories again.

The hook is how Tischendorf came upon the "oldest Bible in the world" at the St. Catherine's monastery on "Mt. Sinai," earning it the title of Codex Sinaiticus. The word codex means it was a bound book, and it had to be made from skin, vellum, or it would have disintegrated if made from papyrus - paper.

The hook is - Tischendorf saw a basket of vellum pages, about to be tossed into the fire, so he rescued them and took them away for safe-keeping. This story was repeated among three generations of Tischedorfs, because that was the beginning of the Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph) legend.

Over a long period of time, this codex was sent to Russia for "copying" - never to be seen again by the monastery. Much later, when Soviet Russia needed cash, they sold it to Britain for a princely price. 

Here are a few problems with the Tischendorf tale:

1. A bound book would not have loose pages, so they were obviously removed from the original. That can be done today with a book bound by thread or even by glue. Look at worn hymnals for example.
2. A vellum codex would not have been supple and white if 1500 years old.
3. Vellum (skin) in a fire would make a horrible stink and not warm up anything. 
4. If the codex were so valuable, why would the monastery let Tischendorf take part of it away from their library, which was known for old texts?
5. How did Vaticanus and Sinaiticus become the templates for the "original New Testament" when they were unknown until Tischendorf showed up?

I have used many libraries and worked in them, visited them for books to be given away, gathered collections and scattered them to fellow believers. I was known in WELS for having shelves of free books gleaned from ELCA seminary book sales and other sources. Books are shared, not burned. Very old books are often patched up and given special care, not tossed in the furnace or the BBQ (ugh! - this hamburger tastes like stale OJ). 

 Barbara Aland took over her husband's work in making the NT text even more obscure.

I will have more details, dates, and sources in the second edition of The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God.

All modern Bible translations are reliant on the Nestle-Aland Greek texts, which are dependent on Wescott-Hort's Greek NT, which uses Sinaiticus and Vaticanus as the real, original, genyoowine New Testament.

When the New KJV or any other type of "KJV" uses NU (Nestle-Aland-United Bible Societies) in footnotes, it is bowing to Tischendorf and the Church of Rome, which is a welcome partner in all the Bible societies. True? True.

 The modernists are 150 years beyond Westcott-Hort and still stuck in that rut. Hort loathed the traditional text. Aland gloats that his is now the Standard Text. So why do so few Bible readers like the precious NIV, ESV, and New RSV?