World's Oldest Bible goes online Monday

In a move that is sure to excite Bible scholars, the world's oldest Bible is being put online as soon as Monday. The Codex Sinaticus (link will fail until Monday) will present scans of the entire original Greek manuscripts for scholars to examine and research.

The manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. (A copy held at the Vatican dates from about the same period.) Older copies of individual portions of the Christian Bible exist, but not as part of a complete text.

The Codex also includes much of the Old Testament that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians.

That portion includes books not found in the Hebrew Bible and regarded in the Protestant tradition as apocryphal, such as 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach.

The New Testament portion includes the Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas.

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of parchment -- prepared animal skin -- each of which measures 15 inches by 13.6 inches (380 mm by 345 mm).

Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend, to allow the Bible to be studied by anyone worldwide who is seeking truth and God.