Major MacDonald's Sinai visit

[Steven Avery]

Major Charles Kerr MacDonald (1806-1867)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Pm06BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA433
http://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getperson.php?personID=I104595&tree=CC

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Unpublished Letters of Tregelles - (1976) p. 19 &25 - (most important source)
Dropbox

Leipsic June 20th /62
We arrived here Tuesday afternoon; a good part of Wednesday and all yesterday were devoted to the examination of Codex Sinaiticus. The value of the MS is quite as great as I had supposed, more than would be judged from the specimens given to the public by Tischendorf. There can be no reasonable doubt that this is the same MS that Major Macdonald saw but of the nonexistence of which Tischendorf assured me in the strongest manner both in writing and when I was here in 1850.

Tischendorf again lied about what he knew of the ms. As occurs in 1844-1846 (CFA and Uspensky) and then in the 1859 and later fabrications.

Major Macdonald of the East India Company had told Newton of MSS that he had seen in the Sinai Convent while surveying for his Company, and Newton had encouraged Tregelles to look into the matter. The latter had not taken it seriously (see Large Fry MS Book). Tregelles implies a certain dishonesty on the part of Tischendorf that he kept quiet about the MS.....

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Edinburgh review (1859)
https://books.google.com/books?id=7K3PAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA96

Professor Tischendorf's visit to the library of the monastery of Mount Sinai, several years ago, was productive of but little result; and he heard somewhat incredulously the report brought by Major Macdonald that the special treasures of that library had not been shown him; indeed there were persons in this country who were inclined to think that the statements were too highly coloured which that officer had made.

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An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures (1860 postscript) (1877 edition)
Tregelles
https://books.google.com/books?id=vS4XAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA775

And a little later, perhaps, Major Macdonald described a very ancient MS. which he had seen at Mount Sinai, containing the New Testament in early uncial characters, which he stated distinctly to be attributed to the 4th century. Major Macdonald also mentioned the manner in which the monks destroyed by fire ancient MSS.

Journal of Sacred Literature, 1861 (similar)
https://books.google.com/books?id=VPgDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA485

London Quarterly Review - (1864) review of Tischendorf books (similar)
https://books.google.com/books?id=oH1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA244

Tregelles could have made some mistakes here, or he may have had privy to unpublished correspondence. There is a response in print to the burning part of this .

The Tregelles comment is note by Bottrich on p. 72, of Der Jahrhundertfund: Entdeckung und Geschichte des Codex Sinaiticus, 2011

Allein der englische Textkritiker Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1813-1875) notierte 1860, Major Macdonald habe auf dem Sinai ein sehr altes Manuskript gesehen, in fr?hen Uncialen, das er dem 4. Jh. zuordnete.139
Es liegt nahe, dabei an den „Codex Sinaiticus“ zu denken. Eine schriftliche Quelle gibt Tregelles jedoch nicht an; m?glicherweise beruht seine Information auch nur auf einer m?ndlichen Mitteilung. Ebenso unklar bleibt an seiner Notiz, ob sich „a little later“ auf Uspenskijs Reise von 1845 oder auf dessen Reisebericht von ... (end of p. 72)

139 So unter den „Additions“ in Horne, Introduction "1863, 775 (= Postscript, Nov. 1, 1860, Rez. zu Tischendorfs Notitia editionis von 1860); darauf nimmt bereits Bezug Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Sinaiticum 1863, XIII Anm. 2.

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Codex Zacynthius: Greek Palimpsest Fragments of the Gospel of Saint Luke, Obtained in the Island of Zante
Tregelles, 1861
https://books.google.com/books?id=UYMxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR4

Sinaiticus ... having been seen and described by the Russian Archimandrite Porphyrius in 1846, and also by Major Macdonald, led to no results

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Vorworte zur Sinaitischen Bibelhandschrift zu St. Petersburg (1862)
Constantin von Tischendorf

Vorworte zur Sinaitischen Bibelhandschrift zu St. Petersburg, ... herausgegeben durch C. Tischendorf

books.google.com

1 Ausserdem m?ssen wir aber auch einem gelehrten englischen Major einen Platz unter denen anweiseu, die auf die Handschrift aufmerksam geworden. Tregelles hat n?mlich zu einem Auszugs meiner „Notitia“, den er in den „Additions“ zur biblischen Einleitung herausgegeben, Folgendes angemerkt: A little later (nach Porphyrius), perhaps, Major Macdonald described a very ancient Ms. which he lnud seen at Monat Sinai, containing the New Testament in early uncial characters, which he stated distinctly 'to be attributed to the 4th century. Er f?gt dem noch bei, Macdonald habe auch der Vernichtung alter Handschriften durch Feuer seitens der M?nche Erw?hnung gethan. (Maj. Maul. also mentioned the manner in which the monks destroyed by fire ancient Mss.)

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A full collation of the Codex Sinaiticus with the received text of the New Testament: to which is prefixed a critical introduction (1864)
Scrivener
https://books.google.com/books?id=4pYEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR10

Before quitting this part of our subject, it is right to state that the manuscript must have been inspected by two persons at Mount Sinai during the interval between its being first seen by Tischendorf in 1844 and its removal from the convent in 1859. In 1845 or 1846 the Russian Archimandrite Porphyrius examined it, observed that the New Testament formed a part of it, and published a tolerable account of its contents and the character of its text at St. Petersburg in 1856. This book, being written in the Russian language, was unknown to Tischendorf until it was shown to him at Constantinople in August 1859, by Prince Lobanow, the Russian embassador there. It subsequently appeared that Porphyrius brought with him from Sinai some fragments of the Codex Sinaiticus itself, containing portions of Genesis and of Numbers v.—vii., which had been applied long before to the binding of some other books. Again, a little later than Porphyrius, Major Macdonald glanced at what seems to be the same copy:—it was kept wrapped up in a cloth: there were several columns on each page (three at least, perhaps four), and it was affirmed by the monks that the manuscript, which opened at some part of the New Testament, was of the fourth century, the very date which Tischendorf in 1844 had taught them to assign to it. Of these two witnesses in confirmation of Tischendorf's narrative, perfectly independent of him and of each other, Porphyrius, who is by far the more explicit, is the rather entitled to regard, inasmuch as he has since become involved in a controversy with Tischendorf, on his part angry and unintelligent enough, as to the merits of the text of this manuscript, which would certainly render him unwilling to lend his adversary support, any further than truth and the exigency of the case might compel.

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The Athenaeum (1901)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Cl5DAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA208
(discussion of Gregory summary .. see online for now)

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Life, Writings and Correspondence (1847) (1899)
George Henry Borrow
https://archive.org/stream/lifewritingsand01knapgoog#page/n82/mode/2up

This section discusses the English considerations in the 1850s about the ms. and expeditions to St. Catherine's.

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Wikipedia

In 1846, Captain C. K. MacDonald visited Mount Sinai, saw the codex, and bought two codices (495 and 496) from the monastery.

Gregory, Caspar Ren? (1900). Textkritik des Neuen Testaments 1. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung. pp. 195–196.
https://archive.org/stream/textkritikdesne00greggoog#page/n207/mode/2up
bought in 1846 by mcdonald who has visited the Sinai
"gekauft 1846 von c. k. macdonald der den sinai besucht hat"

ms 495 and 496
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minuscule_495
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minuscule_496

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"It is generally thought that the MS. was also seen by Major Macdonald. a Scotsman who visited Sinai in 1848"
- Kirsopp Lake
https://books.google.com/books?id=IL7fAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA22

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Epp
https://books.google.com/books?id=eJMDCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41

refers to Bentley, p. 91

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Parker p. 121