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Manuscript

Codex Sinaiticus

Also known as Sinaiticus · Aleph (א) · 01 (Gregory-Aland)
textual-criticismnew-testamentseptuagintgreat-codices

Summary

A 4th-century Greek manuscript of the Christian Bible, one of the two earliest substantially complete witnesses to the Septuagint and New Testament.

  • Copied c. AD 330-360.
  • Written in greek on parchment.
  • Kept at British Library (largest portion); also Leipzig University Library, Russian National Library, St. Catherine's Monastery.
  • Contains Septuagint (partial), New Testament (complete), Epistle of Barnabas.
  • Named in 12 of the places your Bible carries a footnote.
A parchment page of Codex Sinaiticus in four columns of Greek uncial script, the opening of Matthew's Gospel
Codex Sinaiticus, the opening of Matthew: public domain

Sources (4)

  1. The Codex Sinaiticus Project (digital facsimile) · accessed 2026-04-17Primary digital source; high-resolution images and transcription.
  2. British Library: Codex Sinaiticus · accessed 2026-04-17Institutional catalog record.
  3. Wikipedia: Codex Sinaiticus · accessed 2026-04-17CC-BY-SA.
  4. ISBE (1915): Text and Manuscripts of the New Testament · accessed 2026-04-17Public domain.

What it is

Codex Sinaiticus is a Greek biblical manuscript produced in the mid-4th century CE. It contains the Septuagint (Old Testament in Greek, with some portions missing) and the entire New Testament — the earliest surviving complete copy of the Greek New Testament. It is written on parchment in uncial (majuscule) script in four columns per page. Portions of the codex were removed from the monastery of St.

Catherine on Mount Sinai by Konstantin von Tischendorf in the mid-19th century; surviving leaves are now divided between the British Library, Leipzig University Library, the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg, and the monastery of St. Catherine itself. The manuscript also contains the Epistle of Barnabas and portions of the Shepherd of Hermas, extra-canonical works sometimes included in early Christian Bibles.

A full digital facsimile has been released under CC-BY-NC-ND by the Codex Sinaiticus Project (a partnership of the four holding institutions).

Manuscript details
Date
c. AD 330-360
Language
Greek
Script
Uncial (majuscule)
Material
Parchment
Held at
British Library (largest portion); also Leipzig University Library, Russian National Library, St. Catherine's Monastery
Found at
Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
Contains
Septuagint (partial) · New Testament (complete) · Epistle of Barnabas · Shepherd of Hermas (partial)
Why it matters
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the two most important "Alexandrian text-type" witnesses used in modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament (alongside Codex Vaticanus). Its readings are a primary basis for the Nestle-Aland and UBS Greek New Testament editions. It is also central to the history of Christian textual scholarship: its mid-19th-century rediscovery by Tischendorf helped launch modern New Testament textual criticism. Differences between its readings and the later Byzantine / Majority text underlie many of the footnoted translation variants in modern English Bibles.

Where this witness is read

The words used here: uncial, Septuagint, codex
uncial
a book hand of Greek capital letters, used for the oldest whole Bibles.
Septuagint
the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made by Jewish scholars before Christ.
codex
a book with leaves and a spine, the form that replaced the scroll.

The KJV and the ASV translate the Hebrew Masoretic Text. Where Codex Sinaiticus reads differently, the footnote in your Bible is pointing here.

Where the manuscripts differ, all 15 places →Every handwritten copy, shelved and in date order →