uncial · Greek · OT + NT

Codex Sinaiticus

Also known as: א, Aleph, 01

AD 330 – AD 360 (~AD 350) · dated by paleography

Evidence card

A quick read on the physical object before the interpretive summary.

2 sources

Artifact

uncial · Greek

Date basis

AD 330 – AD 360 (~AD 350) · paleography

Survival

~95% physically present

Contents

ot-lxx Approx. half of the LXX Old Testament surviving; nt Complete New Testament; epistle-of-barnabas; shepherd-of-hermas

Artifact/map cue

Held at British Library (most), Leipzig, St Catherine's Monastery, Russian National Library · Discovery: St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai. Brought to Western attention by Constantin von Tischendorf (1844, 1859).

Date

AD 330 – AD 360 (~AD 350)

Passage represented

ot-lxx Approx. half of the LXX Old Testament surviving; nt Complete New Testament; epistle-of-barnabas; shepherd-of-hermas

Fragmentary or partial witness

How much survives

~95% of the claimed text is physically present

Why it matters

The oldest surviving manuscript of the complete New Testament. Together with Vaticanus, the foundation of all modern critical Greek texts. Includes Barnabas and Hermas as part of the New Testament — direct evidence that the canon was not yet fixed in the mid-4th century.

What it contains

ot-lxx — Approx. half of the LXX Old Testament surviving
nt — Complete New Testament
epistle-of-barnabas
shepherd-of-hermas (partial)

~95% of the claimed text is physically present.

Notable readings

Mark 16:9-20

OMITTED — Mark ends abruptly at 16:8

One of the two oldest complete NT codices to omit the long ending.

John 7:53-8:11 (woman caught in adultery)

OMITTED

1 John 5:7 (Comma Johanneum)

OMITTED

Where & when

Held at: British Library (most), Leipzig, St Catherine's Monastery, Russian National Library
Discovery: St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai. Brought to Western attention by Constantin von Tischendorf (1844, 1859).
Found by: Constantin von Tischendorf

Source trail

Named catalogues, editions, libraries, or scholarship used for this manuscript page.