A Biblical Treasure in Egypt Reopens | God's World News

A Biblical Treasure in Egypt Reopens

02/22/2018
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    Saint Catherine monastery in South Sinai, Egypt, houses a unique ancient library. (AP)
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    Egyptian leaders attend the reopening of Saint Catherine after three years of restoration.
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    The library has the world’s second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts. (AP)
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    The ancient Codex Sinaiticus manuscript is a star attraction of the St. Catherine monastery library. (AP)
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    Modern halls contrast with the historic walls of the ancient library in South Sinai, Egypt. (AP)
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After three years of restoration work, Egypt reopened an ancient library. St. Catherine Monastery houses the second-largest library of ancient religious and historical manuscripts and codices in the world. (Codices is the plural of codex—a handwritten book made of pages of papyrus.) The only larger one belongs to the Vatican.

The monastery was built in the sixth century. The surrounding area is regarded as a “holy site” by followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It sits at the foot of the mountain believed to be Mount Sinai, where Moses met with God and received the Ten Commandments. Like the holy site of Jerusalem, St. Catherine is a tourist destination. Travelers interested in biblical history will now be able to see some of the earliest Bible manuscripts with their own eyes. The library holds about 3,300 documents. It opened to the public in mid-December.

Most of the texts are Christian writings recorded in Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, and Slavonic languages. There are thousands of books and scrolls dating back to the fourth century.

The reopening ceremony also highlighted a magnificent mosaic built into the building. The Mosaic of the Transfiguration is situated in the eastern apse (a semicircular recess, covered with a half dome) of the monastery’s basilica. A mosaic is a colorful arrangement of glass, stone, gold, and silver tiles called tesserae. This one shows Jesus between the prophets Elijah and Moses. The sixth century mosaic was requested by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, who also had the monastery built. The library held ancient paintings too. Those are currently on display in the monastery’s museum.

During the library’s renovation, archaeologists found some surprise recipes among the documents. They belonged to the ancient Greek physician who is considered the “father of western medicine”: Hippocrates.

But as great a find as those were, “the most valuable manuscript in the library is the Codex Sinaiticus,” says the Reverend Justin. He is an American monk working as the monastery’s librarian. “This is the most precious manuscript in the world,” he says.

The Codex Sinaiticus is a handwritten copy of the Bible in Greek. It dates back to the mid-fourth century. It is the oldest known complete copy of the New Testament. The Codex has numerous ancient notes handwritten on it. These notes are considered essential for translating the Bible today. They address corrections to the Greek to keep the original intention of the language in which God gave His word for the Christian Bible.