the first public exposure of the 1844 theft of the white parchment leaves that Tischendorf took from Sinai to Leipzig

Steven Avery

Administrator
Today, pretty much everybody who looks at the details of the history of Codex Sinaiticus/Simoneidos will accept that the 1844 extraction by Tischendorf of the white parchment leaves to Leipzig was theft.

The details include:


a) how Tischendorf wrote to his brother Julius in 1844

b) Uspensky wrote about his 1845 visit, the

c) fact that Tischendorf fabricated the "saved from fire" story 15 years later, when he needed political cover. that

d) the "saved from burning" story itself went up in flames

e) Tischendorf has a documented pattern of theft of manuscripts and pages

f) no hint of permission for the extraction has ever been published (other than Tischendorf's 1860s self-serving account)

g) the 43 folia included five full quires as 40 of the folia, that Tischendorf could easily extract without damage

However, this theft element of the 1844 white parchment leaves that were stashed at Leipzig was unknown at the time (Tischendorf even hid the fact that it was the same manuscript for some years.)

With the exception of the following quotes that were published in the early 1860s.


"A portion of this was secretly removed from Mount Sinai, by Professor Tischendorf, in 1844. The rest, with inconceivable recklessness, he mutilated and tampered with, according to his liking, in the year 1859. Some leaves he destroyed, especially such as contained the Acrostics of Sirnonides..."

Letter from Kallinikos Hiermomonachros - September 17, 1863
The Journal of Sacred Literature (1864-04) from the Literary Churchman, Nov 1, 1863
http://books.google.com/books?id=l7cRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA227
"Simonides... not coming in time, neglected the matter altogether, until Dr. Tischendorf, coming to the Greek monastery of Sinai in 1844, in the month of May (if my memory does not deceive me), and remaining there several days, and getting into his hands, by permission of the librarian, the codex we are speaking of, and perusing and reperusing it frequently, abstracted secretly a small portion of it, but left the largest portion in the place where it was, and departed undisturbed. And last of all, coming again to the same monastery, he obtained also the remaining portion of it through the Russian Consul, in exchange for hyperbolical promises, never, in my judgment, likely to be fulfilled."

Letter from Kallinikos Hiermomonachros - Oct 15, 1962
The Journal of Sacred Literature (1863-04)
https://books.google.com/books?id=vvgDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA212

That second quote accurately explains what happened in the second (1859) major part of the theft.

"the manuscript in question is now in Mount Sinai ... I saw it there with my own eyes when I was in the Monastery of St. Catherine in 1845 in the month of July, and handled it with my own hands, and found it very defective, and somewhat changed; and when I asked the reason, I understood from Gabriel, the keeper of the treasures, that his predecessor had given the manuscript to a German, who visited the monastery in 1844 in the month of May, and who having had the MS. in his hands several days, secretly removed a part of it, and went away during the time that the librarian lay ill, afflicted with a typhoid fever"

Letter from Kallinikos Hiermomonachros - dated Aug. 1858
Journal of Sacred Literature, 1863 -
https://books.google.com/books?id=kR82AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA223

Some of this is included in the Timeline.

PureBibleForum
white parchment
timeline

https://www.purebibleforum.com/index.php/threads/a.82/post-207[/COLOR][/URL]

Note that the colouring came later than the 1844 theft, in the 1850s.
Two distinct parts of the Tischendorf mangling of the manuscript.

And today we can see the BEFORE and AFTER of the colouring tampering, courtesy of the superb Codex Sinaiticus Project, which makes the crime easily visible. Rarely do we get presented with such an amazing, visible evidence of tampering and/or forgery!

This was collated together for a CARM post which limits the number of urls.
https://forums.carm.org/vb5/forum/t...h-tischendorf-discovery?p=5203383#post5203383

BCHF
http://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4078&p=85606#p85606

Steven
 
Last edited:

Steven Avery

Administrator
the development of the alibi

Tischendorf in 1850 with the early version of the alibi.

Bibliotheca Sacra - (1850 account) (1853 Journal) Prolegomena to Tischendorf's New Edition of the Septuagint
translated by Charles Short
https://books.google.com/books?id=NFEoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA103
Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sinaiticus/permalink/276987615811384/


"Friderico-Augustan ... I found this codex among some remains of MSS. that had been torn in pieces and thrown away. The treasure thus discovered I brought the same year from the East to my own land"
 
Last edited:

Steven Avery

Administrator
Journal of Sacred Literature (1863)
I certified them that this MS. of the Scriptures is still preserved in Sinai (as thou also knowest), because I saw it there with my own eyes when I was in the Monastery of St. Catherine in 1845 in the month of July, and handled it with my own hands, and found it very defective, and somewhat changed; and when I asked the reason, I understood from Gabriel, the keeper of the treasures, that his predecessor had given the manuscript to a German, who visited the monastery in 1844 in the month of May, and who having had the M8. in his hands several days, secretly removed a part of it, and went away during the time that the librarian lay ill, afflicted with a typhoid fever.
Also
https://books.google.com/books?id=TMNjkkJZw8UC&pg=PA362


1678069431668.png


1678069620525.png
 
Top