Lobegott Friedrich Constantin (von) Tischendorf (18 January 18157 December 1874) was a German biblical scholar. In 1844, he discovered the world's oldest and most complete Bible dated to around the mid-4th century and called Codex Sinaiticus after Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai.
Tischendorf was made an honorary doctor by the University of Oxford on 16 March 1865, and by the University of Cambridge on 9 March 1865 following his discovery. While a student gaining his academic degree in the 1840s, he earned international recognition when he deciphered the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, a 5th-century Greek manuscript of the New Testament.
Early life and education
Tischendorf was born in Lengenfeld, Saxony, the son of a forensic physician. After attending primary school in Lengenfeld, he went to grammar school in nearby Plauen. From Easter 1834, having achieved excellent marks at school, he studied theology and philosophy at the University of Leipzig.
At Leipzig he was mainly influenced by JGB Winer, and he began to take special interest in New Testament criticism. Winer's influence gave him the desire to use the oldest manuscripts in order to compile the text of the New Testament as close to the original as possible.Panning, Armin J. "Home Tischendorf and the History of the Greek New Testament Text" , Milwaukee: Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, 2008. Despite his father's death in 1835 and his mother's just a year later, he was still able to achieve his doctorate in 1838, before accepting a tutoring job in the home of Reverend Ferdinand Leberecht Zehme in Grossstadeln where he met and fell in love with the clergyman's daughter Angelika. He published a volume of poetry in 1838, Maiknospen (Buds of May) and Der junge Mystiker (The Young Mystic) was published under a pseudonym in 1839. At this time he also began his first critical edition of the New Testament in Greek which was to become his life's work.
After a journey through southern Germany and Switzerland, and a visit to Strassburg, he returned to Leipzig to begin work on a critical study of the New Testament text.
Career In 1840, he qualified as university lecturer in theology with a dissertation on the recensions of the New Testament text, the main part of which reappeared the following year in the prolegomena to his first edition of the Greek New Testament. These early textual studies convinced him of the absolute necessity of new and more exact collations of manuscripts.
From October 1840 until January 1843 he was in Paris, busy with the treasures of the Bibliothèque Nationale, eking out his scanty means by making collations for other scholars, and producing for the publisher, Firmin Didot, several editions of the Greek New Testament, one of them exhibiting the form of the text corresponding most closely to the Vulgate. His second edition retracted the more precarious readings of the first, and included a statement of critical principles that is a landmark for evolving critical studies of Biblical texts."Bible Researcher"
In 1845 before he left paris, decipherment of the palimpsest Codex Ephraemi Syri Rescriptus and the Old Testament were completed. His success in dealing with a manuscript that, having been over-written with other works of Ephrem the Syrian, had been mostly illegible to earlier collators, made him more well known, and gained support for more extended critical expeditions. He now became professor extraordinarius at Leipzig, where he was married in 1845. He also began to publish Reise in den Orient, an account of his travels in the east (in 2 volumes, 1845–46, translated as Travels in the East in 1847). Even though he was an expert in reading the text of a palimpsest (this is a document where the original writing has been removed and new writing added), he was not able to identify the value or meaning of the Archimedes Palimpsest, a torn leaf of which he held and after his death was sold to the Cambridge University Library.Netz, Reviel; Noel, William (2007), Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Secrets of the World's Greatest Palimpsest, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Tischendorf briefly visited the Netherlands in 1841 and England in 1842. In 1843 he visited Italy for thirteen months, before continuing on to Egypt, Sinai, and the Levant, returning via Vienna and Munich.
Discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus Bible manuscripts
In 1844 Tischendorf travelled the first time to Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, where he found a portion of what would later be hailed as the oldest complete known New Testament.Bruce Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Fourth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 62-64
Of the many pages which were contained in an old wicker basket (the kind that the monastery hauled in its visitors as customary in unsafe territories) he was given 43 pages containing a part of the Old Testament as a present. He donated those 43 pages to King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony (reigned 1836–1854), to honour him and to recognise his patronage as the funder of Tischendorf's journey. (Tischendorf held a position as Theological Professor at Leipzig University, also under the patronage of Frederick Augustus II.) Leipzig University put two of the leaves on display in 2011.
Tischendorf reported in his 1865 book Wann Wurden Unsere Evangelen Verfasst, translated to English in 1866 as When Were Our Gospels Written in the section "The Discovery of the Sinaitic Manuscript" that he found, in a trash basket, forty-three sheets of parchment of an ancient copy of the Greek Old Testament, reporting that the monks were using the trash to start fires. And Tischendorf, horrified, asked if he could have them."When were our Gospels written?" by Tischendorf, Constantin 1866 complete book at archive.org. He deposited them at the University of Leipzig, under the title of the Codex Friderico-Augustanus, a name given in honour of his patron, Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, king of Saxony. The fragments were published in 1846, although Tischendorf kept the place of discovery a secret.
Many have expressed skepticism at the historical accuracy of this report of saving a 1500-year-old parchment from the flames. J. Rendel Harris referred to the story as a myth."What a run this myth has had, of a convent stove fed with parchment! unhappily for the statement, the basket is still there, a regular part of the library furniture, and not a suggestion can be found that it was ever used to carry vellum books to the kitchen for burning. But any story will be believed against the Sinaitic monks, even that they made fires with parchment." Dr Gregory and the Canon and Text of the New Testament, Expositor, 1908, pg. 140 The Tischendorf Lesebuch (see References) quotes that the Librarian Kyrillos mentioned to Tischendorf that the contents of the basket had already twice been submitted to the fire. The contents of the baskets were damaged scriptures, the third filling apparently, so cited by Tischendorf himself.[see Tischendorf Lesebuch, Tischendorf's own account]. In 1853 Tischendorf made a second trip to the Syrian monastery but made no new discoveries. He returned a third time in January 1859 under the patronage of Tsar Alexander II of Russia with the active aid of the Russian government to find more of the Codex Frederico-Augustanus or similar ancient Biblical texts. On 4 February, the last day of his visit, he was shown a text which he recognized as significant – the Codex Sinaiticus – a Greek manuscript of the complete New Testament and parts of the Old Testament dating to the 4th century.
Tischendorf persuaded the monks to present the manuscript to Tsar Alexander II of Russia, at the cost of the Tsar it was published in 1862 (in four folio volumes). Those ignorant of the details of his discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus accused Tischendorf of buying manuscripts from ignorant monastery librarians at low prices. Indeed, he was never rich, but he staunchly defended the rights of the monks at Saint Catherine's Monastery when he persuaded them eventually to send the manuscript to the Tsar. This took approximately 10 years because the abbot of St Catherines had to be re-elected and confirmed in office in Cairo and in Jerusalem, and during those 10 years no one in the monastery had the authority to hand over any documents. However the documents were handed over in due course following a signed and sealed letter to the Tsar Alexander II (Schenkungsurkunde). Even so, the monks of Mt. Sinai still display a receipt-letter from Tischendorf promising to return the manuscript to them in the case that the donation can not be done. This token-letter had to be destroyed, following the late issue of a "Schenkungsurkunde". This donation act regulated the Codex exchange with the Tsar, against 9000 Rubels and Rumanian estate protection. The Tsar was seen as the protector of Greek-Orthodox Christians. Thought lost since the Russian revolution, the document (Schenkungsurkunde) has now resurfaced in St Petersburg 2003, and has also been long before commented upon by other scholars like Kurt Aland. The monastery has disputed the existence of the gift certificate (Schenkungsurkunde) since the British Library was named as the new owner of the Codex. Now following the late find of the gift certificate by the National Russian Library the existence cannot be disputed in earnest.
In 1869 the Tsar awarded Tischendorf the style of "von" Tischendorf as a Russian noble. 327 facsimile editions of the Codex were printed in Leipzig for the Tsar (instead of a salary for the three-year work of Tischendorf the Tsar gave him 100 copies for reselling) in order to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the traditional foundation of the Rus' state in 862 with the publication of this most amazing find. Supporting the production of the facsimile, all made with special print characters for each of the 4 scribes of the Codex Sinaiticus, was shift work and contributed to Tischendorf's early demise due to exhausting work for months also during nights. Thus the Codex found its way to the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg.
When the 4-volume luxury edition of the Sinai Bible was completed in 1862, C. Tischendorf presented the original ancient manuscript to Emperor Alexander II. Meanwhile, the question of transferring the manuscript to the full possession of the Russian Sovereign remained unresolved for some years. In 1869, the new Archbishop of Sinai, Callistratus, and the monastic community, signed the official certificate presenting the manuscript to the Tsar. The Russian Government, in turn, bestowed the Monastery with 9000 rubles and decorated the Archbishop and some of the brethren with orders. In 1933 the Soviet Government sold the Codex Sinaiticus for 100,000 pounds to the British Museum in London, England. The official certificate with signatures in Russian/ French/ Greek sections has been refound in St Petersburg.
Novum Testamentum Graece – publication with 21 editions In the winter of 1849 the first edition of his great work now titled Novum Testamentum Graece. Ad antiquos testes recensuit. Apparatum criticum multis modis appeared (translated as Greek New Testament. The ancient witnesses reviewed. Preparations critical in many ways), containing canons of criticism, adding examples of their application that are applicable to students today:
Basic rule: "The text is only to be sought from ancient evidence, and especially from Greek manuscripts, but without neglecting the testimonies of versions and fathers." "A reading altogether peculiar to one or another ancient document is suspicious; as also is any, even if supported by a class of documents, which seems to evince that it has originated in the revision of a learned man." "Readings, however well supported by evidence, are to be rejected, when it is manifest (or very probable) that they have proceeded from the errors of copyists."