LOBEGOTT TISCHENDORF

In 1841, a young scholar sent a fascinating letter to his fiancée. Rather than a note filled with poetic sentiment; it simply read, "I am confronted with a sacred task, the struggle to regain the original form of the New Testament."

Lobegott Tischendorf [tish'undôrf] was born in 1815 and was one of the most prolific publishers of Biblical Greek manuscripts in the 19th century. Between 1841 and 1872, he prepared eight editions of the Greek New Testament and twenty two volumes of Biblical manuscripts - throughout his life he would publish more than 150 books and articles relating to Biblical criticism.

His life long pursuit of the original manuscripts of the Greek New Testament began in 1844 when he traveled extensively throughout the Near East. While visiting the monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai, he happened to see some ancient manuscripts, or 'leaves,' in a waste-paper basket that was being used to light the monasteries oven. As he examined the leaves, he was astonished to find they were copies of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament commissioned in 250 B.C.) Tischendorf recognized this version of the Old Testament as written in an early Greek script dating from the 4th century A.D.. He went on to retrieve 43 such leaves which turned out to be the earliest known copies of the Greek Old Testament ever found up to that point.

After convincing the monks to let him purchase the leaves, which contained portions of 1 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Nehemiah and Esther, he returned to the University at Leipzig. After comparing and translating the ancient texts, Tischendorf found that it matched almost perfectly to the modern translation at the time.

His next find would be even more astounding. He returned to the monastery on Mt. Sinai in 1859 under the patronage of the Czar of Russia. The day before he was scheduled to leave, he presented the steward of the monastery with a copy of the modern Septuagint he had recently published in Leipzig. The steward told him that he already had a copy of the Septuagint and produced, from a closet in his cell, a manuscript wrapped in a red cloth.

Tischendorf could hardly believe his eyes as he unfolded the parchment. Concealing his excitement, he asked if he could stay and look further at the manuscript. The monk agreed and Tischendorf stayed up all night poring over the cherished document. He found it to be beyond his wildest hopes - for not only was there an almost complete version of the Old Testament but he also found there to be an entire Greek New Testament that was completely intact and in excellent condition. What he had spent his life searching for was now before his eyes.

The next morning he tried to buy the manuscript but without success and was forced to leave without his precious treasure. However, the providence of God was at work - upon travelling to Cairo he was introduced to the ruling abbot of the monastery who happened to be in city at the time. Tischendorf convinced him that what the monks held was of incredible significance to the historical validity and reliability of the Bible.

At the Abbots command, swift Bedouin messengers were sent to fetch the manuscript to Cairo where Tischendorf would be allowed to copy it. Working feverishly with some hired help, Tischendorf went about copying what has now become known as Codex Sinaiticus: one of the oldest and most authoritative texts of the Old and New Testament.

Through further negotiations Tischendorf was able to secure the entire manuscript as a gift from the monastery at Mt. Sinai to the Czar of Russia. In 1862, on the one thousandth anniversary of the founding of the Russian Empire, the manuscript was published in lavish style. After the communist revolution, the Soviet Government, in need of money, negotiated with members of the British Museum and sold the codex to the British Government. In 1933, it was carried under guard to the British Museum where it remains to this day..

Matthew 24:35 records these words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ that "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.

For the past 200 years the reliability of the Bible has been under constant assault as to its accuracy and validity. It has undergone more scholastic scrutiny than any other manuscript of antiquity, and yet, it continues to been found incredibly accurate, over hundreds, even thousands of years of translations. Every new archeological find or ancient literary discovery only confirms the remarkable almost word for word similarity between what we read today and the earliest known copies of the original autograph books of the Old and New Testament.

Tischendorf's discoveries could have showed how flawed and corrupted our modern translations have become but they demonstrated the exact opposite. That the Christian can wholeheartedly trust that the text before him is an accurate and reliable translation of the Word of God.

And, as the Chicago Statement of Inerrancy states, as the very Words of God "the Bible is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches. It is to be believed, as God's instruction in all that it affirms, Obeyed as God's command in all that it requires and Embraced as God's pledge in all that it promises."

Aland, The Text of the New Testament, pg. 42-45 & 126
Metzger. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament
Black, New Testament Textual Criticism
The Columbia Encyclopedia