SINAITIC CODEX,, a very valuable biblical manuscript, discovered in 1859 by Tisehendorf in the convent on mount Sinai, and presented by the monks to the Russian emperor Alexander II. A part of it had been consumed in lighting fires, but there still remained 380 leuyes, containing it large part of the Septuagint. version of the Old Testa ment with the Apocrypha, :lief the whole of the Greek New Testament. with the epistle of Barnabas and a part of the Shepherd of Hernias. The leaves arc vellum of exquisite fineness ;mil largest size; the writing is in beautiful and simply formed uncial letters, arranged in 4 columns on each page. There are several decisive marks of great antic'. hity: 1. The little punctuation which it contains is in the oldest manner. 2. Its peculiarities of spelling and etymology belong to I lie 4th century, 3. It closely resembles the papyrus mannseripts. 4. The order it) Which it arranges the books of Scripture is known to have been used at the end of the 3rd century. 5. The division of "larger chap ters," universal in manuscripts from the 5th c downward, is wanting in theiVatican and Sinaitic only. The presence of the " A mmonian sections" and " Euselmin canons" is against an earlier date than the first half 'of the 41h c. ; but as these are written on the margin, and in red ink, they may have been added by a later hand. 6. Its readings correspond with those defended by Origen and with some approvect by Efisebins. These criteria and the beauty of the manuscript suggest the possibility that it is one of the 50 copies of the Scriptures which Eusebins, by Constantine's command, had prepared on the choicest skins by skillful writers for churches built to commemorate the emperor's conversion. Whether this be true or not, the manuscript certainly belongs to the 4th c.,
and probably to the first half of it. Tischeedorf pronounces it to be of the same age with the Vatican manuscript. Notwithstanding the beautiful writing of the copyist. he did not always copy correctly. his work also has.been subjected to many alterations by various revisers, some contemporaneous with himself, some belonging to the 6th or 7th c., and a few to the 12th. In many places even Tischendorf's skill could scarcely trace the original writing under the alteration. As to disputed readings, it omits the last 12 verses of Nark's gospel; John vii, 53-viii. 11; at Ephesus. in Eph. i. 1; and the doxology in Matthew's record of the Lord's prayer: has the reading "church of God," Acts xx. 28; " who was manifest." not " Gad was manifest." 1 Tim. iii. 10; and God instead of son, John i. 18. The emperor of Russia celebrated the 1000th anniversary of lifitempire by publishing a splendid edition of this manuscript. of which only 300 copies were printed, 200 being given away, and the others sold by Tisehendorf. Several colleges and public libraries in the United States have obtained copies.