Abstract
AN appeal to the public for the amount necessary to acquire the “Codex Sinaiticus” for the British Museum could not fail to meet with a generous response, especially when backed by the offer of the Government to provide an amount equal to that raised by public subscription Up to a limit of £50,000. The unique place of the Bible in English life and literature renders it peculiarly appropriate that of the two oldest and most valuable sources of the Greek text, the “Sinaiticus” and the “Vaticanus”, one should find an abiding resting place beside the later “Alexandrinus” in the British Museum, while the other lies in Rome. The price to be paid to Russia is undoubtedly large, even though the method of payment will lighten the burden; but it cannot be held too high for the enhanced prestige which it will confer on Britain's greatest national museum and the increased opportunities it will afford British scholarship in biblical studies, which already stands high. The crowds which thronged the British Museum in the days following the Christmas holidays, for a brief glimpse of the manuscript—by the end of the week there had been 20,000 visitors—and the readiness with which small subscriptions poured in, were an eloquent testimony of the extent to which the imagination of the public outside scholastic and learned circles had been touched by the interest of this document of almost unique importance in the history of civilisation.
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“Codex Sinaiticus”. Nature 133, 19 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133019b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133019b0
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