Julie's Boggle

Last Saturday, we had a very exciting outing to the British Library that fulfilled a long held ambition for me.

One of the great things about Christianity is that it is well supported by the available evidence. In particular, the events described in the New Testament of the Bible are very difficult to explain unless you take Christianity at face value.

Part of the strength of the New Testament is that it is far and away the most reliable set of ancient documents we have. Not only does it consist of multiple eye witness accounts recorded well within living memory of the events, but the vast number of early dated copies allows us to be very sure that nothing significant has been changed in the copying process.

One of the most important early documents is Codex Sinaiticus, which is an almost complete copy of the entire Bible dated around 350AD. This document is owned by the British nation and lives in the British Library. Given its proximity, I have long wanted to go along and see it so I can affirm its existence. But I haven’t quite ever got round to finding out how a nondescript member of the public might get access to such a unique and valuable document.

I was very excited, therefore, to learn that the British Library was having an exhibition of valuable Christian, Jewish and Muslim documents through the ages. Amongst them was Codex Sinaiticus. So along we went. And what a feast, not only did they have Sinaiticus, but also Codex Alexandrinus (the third oldest copy of the entire Bible), a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls and two of the Chester Beatty Papyri (dated around 250AD, they cover most of the New Testament).

There are still many other, older fragments around the world, but this covered about half of the most important manuscripts all in one trip.  So, all in all, a very worthwhile excursion.