Sermon Tone Analysis

!! THE BOOKS - OF THE INTERTESTMENT

Esdras is the Greek from of Ezra.

This book is a compilation of passages from Ezra, II chronicles, & Nehemiah, with added legends about Zerubbabel.

Its object was to picture the liberality of Cyrus and Darius toward the Jews as a pattern for the Ptolemy’s.

!! CODEX SINAITICUS

We owe much of our knowledge of the Scriptures to a brilliant nineteenth century German Scholar, who spent his life piecing together the original New Testament.

At the age of nineteen, young Count Konstantin von Tischendorf amazed his professors with his fluent knowledge of the classical languages and dialects of antiquity.

Seven years later, he was appointed lecturer at the University of Leipzig.

The following year, he published a new edition of the Greek New Testament.

In the Spring of 1844, Tischendorf took a trip to the near East.

In the course of his travels, he journeyed to the Sinaitic Peninsula in search of an old monastery that had been hewn from the rock on the side of Mount Sinai.

Since there were no hotels or motels in those days, travelers often spent the night in monasteries.

When Tischendorf arrived at the Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine's, he was welcomed warmly by the Russian monks.

After a plant meal and a visit with the Prior, Tischedorf presented his letter of introduction.

He was then given a grand tour of the grounds and buildings and taken to the library.

Tischendorf was disappointed by what he saw, but he kept on digging through piles of dusty parchments.

Then in a small room near the library he saw a large wastebasket filled to the rim with what looked like ancient vellun.

The contents of the wastebasket had been consigned to the fireplace -some of which would contribute to the warmth of his room for that night.

Tischedorf was aghast at the thought!

Here, if his eyes did not deceive him, was something of real value!

Quickly he started going through the papers.

Was there more of this kind of material around?

If so, would they bring it to him that he might examine it?

This is how Tischendorf discovered the 129 pages of what is today known as the *CODEX SINAITICUS*, or the Codes Aleph.

Unhappily, Tischenforf did not "play poker" well.

His face lit up in such a way that the monks knew he had found something priceless in those wastebaskets.

So he had to tell them of his discovery of a manuscript that possibly dated back to the second century.

Would they let him have it?

Immediately the attitude of the monks changed; the answer was NO! Tischenforf could not take the papers with him, but he would be permitted to stay on and take some notes.

Tichendorf did more than that; he copied the manuscript.

In the end, after prolonged bargaining, he was allowed to take 43 of the 129 pages he had found.

Almost fourteen years would pass before all the negotiations for the transfer of this and other priceless ancient documents-among them *THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS*- were concluded.

England's interest in the manuscripts was made known.

The monks were shocked.

What, sell their precious papers to English heretics?

They would rather give them to Russia- on loan, of course!

Triumphantly, and with the full backing of Russia, Tichendorf carried off his prize for further study.

He published his findings in 1862.

*CONDEX SINAITICUS* is still one of the finest and most accurate texts available to us today, and it became the basis of many revisions and corrections of earlier editions of the Bible.

Years passed.

Then in 1933, the Russian Communists decided they had no need for Bibles, old or new, so they sold CODEX Sinaticus to Great Britain for 100,000 pounds sterling.

The crumpled pages were restored and bound in two volumes and placed in the British Museum.

Later they were photostatically reproduced and the copies sent to libraries throughout the world.

!!! CODEX VATICANUS

With Tischendorf's findings made available to the scholars of the world, a new interest in ancient manuscripts was kindled.

Someone remembered his history and wondered what had become of the old manuscripts, which Napoleon's scholars had discovered in the Vatican library when the Pope had been captured.

Actually, CODEX VATICANUS, also know as Codex B, was know to be some fifteen years older than Codex Sinaiticus (Codex Aleph).

Vatican’s dated back to 325 or 350 A.D. and had probably been brought from the East by Pope Nicolas in 1448.

Until the Napoleonic Wars, the manuscript had been hidden from the outside world.

In 1809, when Napoleon exiled the Pope to Avignon (later to Savona), it took about fifty wagons to transport the Pope's library.

With the fall of Napoleon in 1815, the papers were returned to the Vatican before anyone had a chance to examine them carefully.

Once more in the Vatican library, they were jealously guarded the Roman Catholics.

Tregelles, another great scholar and friend of Tischendorf's decided to investigate the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican library.

He applied to the Pope for permission to examine the manuscript and was promptly refused.

When he explained that he was a professor of New Testament Literature oat Leipzig University, the Pope gave permission for Tragelles and Tischendorf to study the manuscript for six hours only.

That was in the year 1843.

Two years later, Tregelles was again permitted to examine the manuscript for some days, six hours at a time.

Of course, he had to submit to stringent security measures.

hew as searched on his way in and on his way out.

He could bring no writing materials and cold takes no notes.

The manuscript was laid out on a large table and he could read it for no longer than the time specified.

Furthermore, there would be guards watching him all the time he was reading.

Tregelles agreed to the Pope's ground rules.

He was searched as he went in and out; no scarp of paper or writing tool was ever found on him.

tregelles *MEMORIZED* a portion of the text each day, not only in the Greek but also in the Hebrew and Aramaic!

Since he was a genius in all three languages, this presents no problem.

When he returned home, he would sit down and write out that part of Scripture, which he had memorized.

The next day he would go back to the Vatican to master the next portion of the Word.

This went on for the summer holidays, and in three months Tregelles had memorized the entire text of Codex Vaticanus.

This was one of the greatest memory feasts of all time!

Upon his return to Leipzig, Tregelles published the results of his finding.

So close was his text to the original, that Pope Pius IX ordered the manuscript photographed in 1859.

In that way it became public property for the world at large.

Codex Vaticanus is still one of our most valuable manuscripts of the Word of God.

 

!! CODEX ALEXANDRINUS

A third very interesting manuscript, which very few people knew about, is the CODEX ALEXANDRINUS.

This Greek language manuscript had been written about 450 A.D. in Alexandria, Egypt.

Apparently no one paid any attention to it in the years that followed.

In 1621, when Cyril Lucar became the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, he transferred the manuscript to Constantinople.

He had succumbed to the influence of Calvinistic teaching, and was corresponding with leading churchmen in the Western world.

That's how he learned of England's keen interest in ancient biblical manuscripts.

So, when the British ambassador, Thomas Roe, was scheduled to return home Lucar sent with him the manuscript as a gift to King Charles I.  The beautiful document, CODEX Alexandrinus, was presented at court in 1627; just fifteen years after the King James Version of the Bible had been completed.

What a pity that it had come so late, because this very ancient manuscript would have helped immensely in the correct rendition of the English Text.

!! EPHRAEMI RESCRIPTUS

It is fascinating to learn what happened to some of the great libraries of the past and to trace their disposition throughout history.

For example, we know that Cleopatra was very found of reading and that Marc Antony was extraordinarily found of Cleopatra.

When he heard of her love for books, marc Antony took his army to one of the great libraries of Asia Minor.

There he "liberated" 400,000 volumes of literature and took them down to Egypt as a gift for Cleopatra.

An act like this would be tantamount to the Library of Congress being stolen and moved to another country!

Many of the great libraries of the ancient world have disappeared, and we know of their existence only because history has recorded it for us.

It is equally interesting to discover that some ancient manuscripts, through to be lost, were eventually recovered.

One of these is known to us as the EPHRAEMI RESCRIPTUS, OR CODEX C.

This recovery in the sixteenth century involved Catherine de Medici, who was as ambitious as she was clever.

Catherine was a member of the colorful Italian family that had risen from obscurity to immense wealth and fame.

Over a period of nearly three hundred years, the Medicis had made a name for themselves, which ran the gamut from popes to prisoners, to patrons of the arts.

They had affiliated themselves with the great houses of Europe through marriage, and Catherine had become the wife of King Henry II, of France.

She bore him four sons who eventually, through her constant manipulations, became kings.

Catherine de Medici was an avid, if somewhat superficial reader, who treasured her books and took them wherever she went.

Among her favorites were the sermons of a Syrian theologian, Father Ephraim.

When Catherine died, her books went to the French National Library in Paris.