Church History · About AD 325 to 360

Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus Are Copied

Sometime in the mid 300s, scribes copied two huge Greek Bibles by hand: Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. They are the oldest nearly complete Bibles in the world, and they still shape modern translations, including the Berean Standard Bible behind The Owner's Manual.

Read it in the Bible: Isaiah 40:8 Matthew 24:35 Mark 16:8 John 7:53-8:11

Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are the two oldest nearly complete Bibles in the world. Both were copied by hand in Greek, on animal skin, around AD 325 to 360, right after Christianity became legal. Each one held the whole Old Testament in Greek and the whole New Testament, and Sinaiticus still has every book of the New Testament. Scholars use them every day to check the wording of the Bible, and they are a big reason we can be confident the text we read is the text the apostles wrote.

What Is a Codex?

A codex is a book with pages, as opposed to a scroll. Christians were early fans of the codex. It was cheaper, easier to carry and much easier to flip through when you wanted to compare Isaiah with Matthew. By the 300s, the codex had become the normal form for Christian Scripture. The Codex page on this site tells that story.

Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are written on parchment or vellum, which is prepared animal skin. Sinaiticus alone may have needed the hides of several hundred animals. These were very expensive books, the kind a church could only make once persecution ended and money and freedom were available.

What Is Codex Vaticanus?

Codex Vaticanus is named for the Vatican Library in Rome, where it has been kept since at least the 1400s. It shows up in the library's catalog from 1481 and probably in one from 1475. Its shelf number is Vat. gr. 1209. Most scholars date it to about 300 to 350, making it possibly a little older than Sinaiticus.

It has 759 surviving leaves, with about 70 lost. Some pages are missing, including most of Genesis, part of the Psalms, and the New Testament from Hebrews 9:14 to the end. That means it lacks 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Revelation. Later hands filled some of those gaps. The text is written in three columns per page in neat capital letters, with no spaces between words. Reading it is like reading a text message from someone who hates the space bar.

What Is Codex Sinaiticus?

Codex Sinaiticus is named for St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, where it was kept for centuries. It was copied about AD 330 to 360 by at least three scribes, and later readers made thousands of corrections in its margins. It is written in four columns per page, so an open book looks like a row of eight narrow windows.

About 400 leaves survive. Most are in the British Library in London. Others are at Leipzig University in Germany, at St. Catherine's and in St. Petersburg, Russia. It contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament anywhere. It also includes two early Christian writings that are not in our New Testament: the Letter of Barnabas and part of the Shepherd of Hermas. That shows some churches still read those books alongside Scripture at the time.

The scholar Constantin von Tischendorf brought it to the world's attention in 1844 and 1859, a story told on the Discovery of Codex Sinaiticus page on this site. Today you can view every page online at codexsinaiticus.org.

Did Constantine Order These Bibles?

Maybe. Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, records that around 331 Constantine asked him to prepare 50 fine copies of the Scriptures for the churches of his new capital, Constantinople. Some scholars have suggested that Vaticanus or Sinaiticus could be one of those 50 Bibles, or made in the same workshop. It's an attractive idea, but it is a theory, not a proven fact. We don't know exactly where either book was made. Egypt and Caesarea are the most common guesses.

Why Are These Manuscripts So Important?

Before 1450, every Bible was copied by hand. Copyists made small slips, such as skipping a line or spelling a word differently. Scholars compare thousands of manuscripts to sort out the original wording. Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are two of the oldest and best witnesses, so they carry a lot of weight.

Here are a few things they show:

Both end the Gospel of Mark at 16:8. The longer ending, Mark 16:9 to 20, is not in them.
Neither contains the story of the woman caught in adultery, John 7:53 to 8:11.
Their text agrees with older papyrus fragments from around AD 200, which shows careful copying over the previous 150 years.
The differences between them and later manuscripts are mostly small and affect no core belief.

This is why modern Bibles, like the BSB, ESV and NIV, put footnotes or brackets around those passages. The King James Version, made in 1611, was based on later Greek manuscripts that did include them. Some Christians, especially those who prefer the King James or the Textus Receptus, believe those later manuscripts better preserve the original. Most textual scholars give more weight to the older copies. Both sides agree that God's word has been passed down faithfully, and that no doctrine hangs on these differences.

The New Testament Introduction on this site explains how the New Testament was written and copied, and how The Owner's Manual handles passages like these.

Why These Old Bibles Matter for You Today

Just a few decades before these Bibles were made, Diocletian was burning Scriptures. Then the church came out of hiding and made the most beautiful Bibles the world had seen. Some of them are still here more than 1,600 years later.

When you open your Bible, you are reading words that were guarded, copied and checked by believers across the centuries. God promised His word would last, and these books are part of the proof.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

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Questions People Ask

What is the oldest complete Bible in the world?

The oldest nearly complete Bibles are Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, both copied in Greek around AD 325 to 360. Sinaiticus has the oldest complete New Testament. Older fragments and partial copies exist, but none this complete.

Where is Codex Sinaiticus today?

Most of it is in the British Library in London. Other leaves are at Leipzig University Library in Germany, St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt, and the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. All of it can be viewed online at codexsinaiticus.org.

What is missing from Codex Vaticanus?

Codex Vaticanus is missing most of Genesis, part of the Psalms, and the New Testament from Hebrews 9:14 onward. That means 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Revelation are not in the original hand. Later scribes filled some gaps.

Do Sinaiticus and Vaticanus include the long ending of Mark?

No. Both end Mark at 16:8. That is why most modern Bibles mark Mark 16:9 to 20 with a note. Many Christians still read the longer ending, which is found in most later manuscripts.

Were Sinaiticus and Vaticanus among Constantine's 50 Bibles?

Some scholars have suggested it, since Constantine ordered 50 Bibles from Eusebius around 331. It is possible but not proven. Where the two codices were made is still debated.

Sources

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