Michael Paul Hemenway - Bible as Interface - CSP translation failings

Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
The translation portion of the website
seems to have garnered the least investment. There is not a single entry on translation in
the collection of essays derived from the conference generated by the Codex Sinaiticus
Project and the page of the project site devoted to translation,
http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/project/translation.aspx, accessed on October 11,
2017, minimizes the role of translation in the project, saying,

“The Codex Sinaiticus Project was primarily a conservation, digitisation, transcription and publication project. It did not aim to undertake a new English translation of the writings preserved in the manuscript.”

Though the translation block offers the user an ability to select one of four
languages for the translation, representing the four languages of the institutions involved
in the project, there are no modern Greek or Russian translation available, and only
Esther is available in German translation. This translation area of the interface has
received such little attention that selecting the Greek translation option offers a message
within the block in English that says “No english translation available.” English
translations are available for the entire New Testament, Esther, and the first thirty five
Psalms.


199 David C. Parker, Codex Sinaiticus: The Story of the World’s Oldest Bible (London:
The British Library, 2010) and Amy Myshrall et al., eds., Codex Sinaiticus: New
 
Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
There may be other interesting stuff.

p. 79-80

Collaborative Annotations

As stated by the curators of the Codex Sinaiticus project, one of the most
interesting aspects of this ancient manuscript is the rich annotative life it betrays. Klaus
Wachtel counts 23,000 places where the manuscript has been adjusted, amounting to an
average of 30 annotations per page.160

160 Klaus Wachtel, “The Corrected New Testament Text of Codex Sinaiticus,” in Amy
Myshrall et al., eds., Codex Sinaiticus: New Perspectives on the Ancient Biblical
Manuscript (London: The British Library Publishing Division, 2015), 97. Wachtel
provides a detailed analysis and bibliography for exploring the corrective strands in
Sinaiticus. The outer page margins are massive, which may have contributed to the rich
annotative life of the manuscript
 
Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
p. 109

For an example
of the process and value of recording the physical characteristics of Codex Sinaiticus, see
Gavin Moorhead, Sara Mazzarino, Flavio Marzo, and Barry Night, “A Physical
Perspective of Codex Sinaiticus: An Overview from British Library Folios,” in Amy
Myshrall et al., ed., Codex Sinaiticus, 221-238.
 
Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
p. 111
For details of the physical preservation techniques at one of the locations of Codex
Sinaiticus, see Hieromonk Justin of Sinai and Nikolas Sarris, “The Conservation and
Photography of Codex Sinaiticus at Saint Catherine’s Monastery: Not Quite Finished,” in
Codex Sinaiticus, Amy Myshrall et al., Codex Sinaiticus, 239-251.
 
Steven Avery

Steven Avery

Administrator
Myshrall, Amy, David C Parker, Scot McKendrick, and Cillian O’Hogan, eds. Codex
Sinaiticus: New Perspectives on the Ancient Biblical Manuscript. London: The
British Library Publishing Division, 2015
 
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