the two Germans in Cairo helping Tischendorf - where is that copy today?

Steven Avery

Administrator
On this thread, I want to put all the various notes about the time the Sinaiticus ms was in Cairo under the handling of Tischendorf.

How it got there to Cairo in 1859 was disputed. There is a Tischendorf story and an alternate story of his running with the ms. to the Russian Consulate and then a deal being brokered.

Then there is supposedly, Tischendorf working with two Germans, very lightly identified, one or both skilled in Greek, who helped him for months and who never show up again.

Supposedly they were making a copy of the manuscript. There are many questions in this scenario, but first .. where is that copy today?

WIP


On 24 February, with the manuscript in his hands, Tischendorf, with the aid of two Germans he had met—a doctor and a pharmacist who happened to know Greek—began the task of transcribing 110,000 lines of Greek. This would have been a difficult task under the best of circumstances, and it is unclear how thoroughly and how well this task was accomplished at this time by Tischendorf and his assistants. ...On top of this, the heat in March to May in Cairo was invariably high. As a result of these conditions, Tischendorf says that "The relation in which I stood to the monastery gave me the opportunity of suggesting to the monks the thought of presenting the original to the Emperor of Russia as the natural protector of the Greek Orthodox faith." Porter, p. 42-43

The most important task for him was therefore to record the contents. This he set out to do at once in Cairo:

The time was now come boldly and without delay to set to work to a task of transcribing no less than a hundred and ten thousand lines. - of which a great number were difficult to read, either on account of later corrections, or through the ink having faded, - and that in a climate where the thermometer during March. April, and May, is never below 77 (degrees) in the shade. No one can say what this cost me in fatigue and exhaustion. - Tischendorf, first in1863
https://books.google.com/books?id=fAfcqmi73EIC&pg=RA1-PA32

According to his son-in-law, Tischendorf accomplished the task in two months, with the assistance of two Germans resident in Cairo, a doctor and a chemist (in some accounts they are an apothecary and a bookseller). Their role was to copy out the manuscript, and Tischendorf checked their work. No doubt they achieved a great deal. But why does Tischendorf's own account go on to state that when in September he took the manuscript as a loan to St Petersburg, it was 'there to have it copied as accurately as possible'? And that it was to take a further three years to complete 'the laborious task of producing a facsimile copy of this codex in four folio volumes'? Is it true that in those two months in Cairo they transcribed the whole manuscript? Or at any rate, that what they produced was more than the rough beginnings of a transcription? The experience of the Digital Project (building on a hundred and fifty years of research) suggests that eight weeks might serve to produce some sort of a version of some of the manuscript, but not an accurate copy of the whole.
David Parker p. 139

None of these stories make a lot of sense. What happened to the two months of labours? Thrown away? What reports did the two helpers give? Another twist, in some accounts, has the ms. being fed to Tischendorf quire by quire.

And why in a Cairo hotel? There were more accomplished copyists in the monasteries. Remember, though, that the whole story is suspect. An English writer, William George Thorpe, reported that the actual taking of the manuscript to the Consulate in Cairo was covered up. (Covered elsewhere.) (One writer talks of records made in the Consulate of the negotiations. It would be interesting to see if Nikolaos Fyssas or others have ever confirmed such materials, and what they say.)
 
Last edited:

Steven Avery

Administrator
Hort says that the Tischendorf facsimiles were prepared from the Cairo copy done by "Coptic scribes". He says that these copies were used for the printed editions of Tischendorf, rather than the actual manuscript.
The New Testament in the Original Greek: Text.-v. 2. Introduction and appendix (1882)
Brooke Foss Westcott, Fenton John Anthony Hort
https://books.google.com/books?id=sqgsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR22

"Tischendorf first copied the Sinaitic MS., with the help of Coptic scribes, at Cairo; and from this copy, which the Professor showed me at Leipsic, the printed editions were prepared. As neither Tischendorf nor his scribes were infallible, some errors may have crept in, so that, in doubtful cases, a resort to the original MS. in St. Petersburg is neccssary. Tregelles has inspected it."

Schaaf has something similar, but only from the mouth of Tischendorf, he does not claim to see anything.
Through Bible Lands: Notes of Travel in Egypt, the Desert, and Palestine (1878)
Philip Schaff
https://books.google.com/books?id=rDNHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA190

...and finally, in February, 1859, when, under the patronage of the Russian Czar, the protector of the Eastern Church, he obtained the priceless treasure. He was permitted to carry it to Cairo, and to copy it there (working day and night, with the help of Coptic scribes); and ultimately secured it as a tribute of duty and gratitude to the Czar Alexander II. I heard the story twice from his own lips, in his study at Leipzig, and when we spent a few days together at Friedrichshafen. He was the happiest theologian I ever knew. He never got over the intense satisfaction and delight of the discovery which would immortalize a man of far less learning and merit than Tischendorf.

Scrivener clashes, the copy would not be accurate enough to be used for the facsimile:
A full collation of the Codex Sinaiticus with the received text of the New Testament: to which is prefixed a critical introduction (1864)
https://books.google.com/books?id=4pYEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR8

... and soon obtained a letter from Cyril the librarian to the superiors of the monastery at S. Catherine’s in Cairo, which procured for him permission to copy the manuscript in the latter place, to which it was brought for that purpose on February 24. Two months were devoted by Tischendorf to this task, the book being doled out to him by quaternions, or eight leaves at a time, his assistants being two natives, a doctor of medicine and a druggist As might have been expected from so much haste and such helpers, the result of their labours proved but loose and unsatisfactory', especially as regards the numerous changes in the original writing made by various hands at different periods.
 
Last edited:

Steven Avery

Administrator
The Discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus as reported in the personal letters of Konstantin Tischendorf
Michael Featherstone
https://www.academia.edu/1123038/The_Discovery_of_the_Codex_Sinaiticus_as_reported_in_the_personal_letters_of_Konstantin_Tischendorf

Note: these are often simply chosen, and then summarized.

Cairo, 15 March 1859 p. 301
... He has found a doctor med. L’Orange from Königsberg and a pharmacist from Leipzig to help with the copying of the MS, though he must revise everything himself. By Reminiscere-Sunday all the New Testament will be finished ; then all the rest, God willing, in the Laetare-week in April. There is still a glimmer of hope of acquiring the splendid, inestimable original ; this would make him exceedingly happy. He is making three photographic facsimiles, which he hopes will turn out well.

Cairo, 30 March 1859 p. 307
There is great interest in Alexandria and Cairo concerning the discovery, and in German and English circles etc. it is much talked about. People come to him to see it.

p. 308
The copying is advancing. Yesterday he collected the last 125 folia from themonastery. His doctor and pharmacist (named Voss, from Leipzig, who calls the bookseller in Leipzig his uncle) write about fifty folia per week. But he tells his wife that he still has hope of taking away the precious MS as a gift for their imperial Majesties. Just yesterday both of the monastery superiors fully confirmed him in this hope. But the matter must be presented to the others —the subordinates, soTischendorf understands, of the superior in Cairo, Agathangelos– who are coming (probably next week) from Constantinople and Wallachia for the election of a new archbishop. In hope of this, Tischendorf has stopped with the revision, since he could revise the remaining folia on the return trip. He is not sure how to proceed after receiving the treasure. The best way seems to be to complete the trip as quickly aspossible, as he has promised the imperial minister. It is probable that he will be charged by Petersberg with bringing the emperor’s gift in recompense to the monastery, so that he will have to come back to Cairo, if not to Sinai ; but this latter only of other MSS can also be acquired together with the gift. As a minimum he would ask for 25.000 franks=6.000 thalers ; but 10.000 or 20.000 thalers would be an‘imperial’ sum. With what great joy will he receive the MS ! In this case he will telegraph Prince Volkonskij immediately.
 

Steven Avery

Administrator
Townsend on the Tischendorf copy

The Sinai Bible Or Bibliorum Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus: Read Before the Albany Institute, December 15, 1863
Howard Townsend
https://books.google.com/books?id=e09OAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA5

... Cairo. Immediately Dr. Tischendorf commenced the work of transcribing it, which with the assistance of two of his countrymen he accomplished in the course of two months, and to insure accuracy he compared the copy as it was made, with the original, letter by letter,

CARM
https://forums.carm.org/threads/cod...tantine-simonides-timeline.13239/post-1431123

Facebook - NT Textual Criticism
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NTT...7449047641848838/?comment_id=7458914330862169

Ask Christfried Bottrich
 
Last edited:
Top