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When Were our Gospels Written? edition by Constantin von Tischendorf Religion Spirituality eBooks

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Constantin von Tischendorf
Lobegott Friedrich Konstantin Von Tischendorf (1815-1874),German New Testament textual critic

Born in Lengenfeld, Tischendorf studied at Leipzig (1834-1838) under J. G. B. Winer, a noted Greek grammarian whose grammar of New Testament Greek (1822) had become a standard for many generations. For many years thereafter Tischendorf also taught in the theology department at Leipzig. Influenced by Winer, He developed an intense desire to utilize the most ancient manuscripts and thereby recover the purest and earliest form of the Greek New Testament. To that end he devoted a lifetime of labor to discovering manuscripts and producing accurate editions of the Greek New Testament. In fulfillment of his desire, he discovered Codexi Sinaiticus, deciphered the palimpsest Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, collated countless manuscripts, and produced several editions of the Greek New Testament.

Of all Tischendorf's accomplishments, the best known is his discovery of Codex Sinaiticus at St. Catherine's Monastery (located near Mount Sinai). The manuscript, dated around AD. 360 to 375, is one of the two oldest vellum (treated animal hide) manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. The first time he visited the monastery (1844), he retrieved several leaves of an ancient Septuagint from a wastebasket. Many other leaves, he was told, had already been used to stoke fires! On another visit (1859) he was shown a copy of the Greek Scriptures (containing books of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament) by the steward of the monastery Recognizing it as the oldest extant copy of the Greek Scriptures, Tischendorf attempted to purchase the manuscript but was refused. After making a transcription of the text, he did some political maneuvering wherein the czar of Russia was given the manuscript in exchange for favors conferred upon the authorities of the monastery. Tischendorf greatly used the textual evidence of Codex Sinaiticus in preparing his critical editions of the Greek New Testament.

When Were our Gospels Written? edition by Constantin von Tischendorf Religion Spirituality eBooks

Although a professor of Greek and New Testament theology, Tischendorf did not restrict himself to the office or the classroom. Instead, he traveled across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East as an archaeologist, searching for any traces of ancient manuscripts. In 1844, Tischendorf made one of his greatest discoveries in the shadow of Mount Sinai— the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest New Testament manuscripts, dated around AD. 360-375. In When Were our Gospels Written? Tischendorf recounts his search and discovery of the manuscript. Based on the new information yielded by that discovery, the scholar estimates dates for the composition of the Gospels. The Codex Sinaiticus remains a celebrated historical treasure, preserved in museums and prestigious libraries for future generations.

Product details File Size 177 KB Print Length 122 pages Publication Date April 20, 2010 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B003ICXJLE

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When Were our Gospels Written? edition by Constantin von Tischendorf Religion Spirituality eBooks Reviews

Lobegott Friedrich Constantin (von) Tischendorf (1815-1874) was a German biblical scholar who discovered the Codex Sinaiticus, after the St. Catherine's Monastery at Mt. Sinai. He also wrote The Testimony Of The Evangelists Examined By The Rules Of Evidence Administered In Courts Of Justice and The New Testament, the Authorized English version. [NOTE page numbers below refer to a 132-page edition.]

The Translator’s Preface to this 1865 book states, “The original pamphlet of Dr. Tischendorf… attracted great attention on its publication… but as it was written in the technical style in which German professors are accustomed to address their students and the learned classes generally, it was felt that a revision of this pamphlet, in a more popular form and adapted to general readers, would meet a want of the age. Dr. Tischendorf accordingly complied with this request, and prepared a popular version, in which the same arguments for the genuineness and authenticity of our gospels were reproduced, but in a style more attractive to general readers, and with explanations which clear up what would otherwise be unintelligible. Of this revised and popular version of the proof of the genuineness of our Gospels the following is an accurate translation.”

In his essay, ‘The Discovery of the Sinaitic Manuscript,’ Tischendorf explains, “This popular tract[‘s] … chief aim is to show that our inspired gospels most certainly take their rise from apostolic times, and so to enable the reader to take a short but clear view of one of the most instructive and important epochs of the Christian church. In sitting down to write a popular version of my pamphlet, the Zwickau Society also expressed a wish that I should preface it with a short account of my researches, and especially of the discovery of the Sinaitic Codex, which naturally takes an important place in my list of documentary proofs.” (Pg. 15)

He recalls, “As several literary and historical essays, written by me when a very young man, and in particular two theological prize essays, were favorably received by the public, I resolved, in 1839, to devote myself to the textual study of the New Testament, and attempted, by making use of all the acquisitions of the last three centuries, to reconstruct, if possible, the exact text as it same from the pen of the sacred writers.” (Pg. 16)

He states, “Learned men have again and again attempted to clear the sacred text from these extraneous elements. But we have at last hit upon a better plan even than this, which is to set aside this ‘textus receptus’ altogether, and to construct a fresh text, derived immediately from the most ancient and authoritative sources. This is undoubtedly the right course to take, for in this way only can we secure a text approximating as closely as possible to that which came from the Apostles.” (Pg. 21-22)

He recounts the story of his manuscript discovery “It was at the foot of Mount Sinai, in the convent of St. Catherine, that I discovered the pearl of all my researches. In visiting the library of the monastery, in the month of May, 1844, I perceived in the middle of the great hall a large and wide basket full of old parchments; and the librarian… told me that two heaps of papers like this… had already been committed to the flames. What was my surprise to find amid this heap of papers a considerable number of sheets of a copy of the Old Testament in Greek, which seemed to me to be one of the most ancient that I had ever seen. The authorities of the convent allowed me to possess myself of a third of these parchments… all the more readily as they were destined for the fire. But I could not get them to yield up possession of the remainder. The too lively satisfaction which I had displayed, had aroused their suspicions as to the value of this manuscript.” (Pg. 28)

Later, “I made use of an influential friend… to carry on negotiations for procuring the rest of the manuscript. But his attempts were, unfortunately, not successful. ‘The monks of the convent,’ he wrote me to say, ‘have, since your departure, learned the value of these sheets of parchment, and will not part with them at any price.’ I resolved, therefore, to return to the East to copy this priceless manuscript.” (Pg. 30) He continues, “By the end of the month of January I had reached the convent of Mount Sinai… The prior… expressed a wish that I might succeed in discovering fresh supports for the truth… After having devoted a few days in turning over the manuscripts of the convent… an absolutely unexpected circumstance carried me at once to the goal of all my desires…” (Pg. 33-34)

He goes on, “I was taking a walk with the steward of the convent in the neighborhood, and as we returned…resuming our former subject of conversation, he said, ‘And I too have read a Septuagint…,’ and so saying, he took down from the corner of the room a bulky kind of volume wrapped up in a red cloth, and laid it before me. I … discovered, to my great surprise, not only those very fragments which, fifteen years before, I had taken out of the basket, but also other parts of the Old Testament, the New Testament complete, and in addition, the Epistle of Barnabas and a part of the Pastor of Hermas. Full of joy, which this time I had the self-command to conceal from the steward… I asked, in a careless way, for permission to take the manuscript into my sleeping-chamber….

“I knew that I held in my hand the most previous Biblical treasure in existence---a document whose age and importance exceeded that of all the manuscripts which I had ever examined during twenty years’ study of the subject… I called upon the steward, and asked permission to take the manuscript with me to Cairo… but the prior had set out only two days before… and one of the monks would not give his consent to my request… [I left, having] hopes of reaching Cairo in time to get the prior’s consent… the prior… at once gave his consent to my request… I received from them, under the form of a loan, the Sinaitic Bible…” (Pg. 34-40)

Later, he affirms that “Providence has given to our age, in which attacks on Christianity are so common, the Sinaitic Bible, to be to us a full and clear light as to what is the word written by God, and to assist us in defending the truth by establishing its authentic form.” (Pg. 42)

He says of the gospels, “no one of these gospels could have been elevated by itself to a place of authority in the canon of Scripture. The church only ventured to place them in the canon when they had been already received as the four gospels, and as such had been long prized as genuine apostolical writings. When we further ask ourselves when this took place, we are forced to the conclusion that it must have occurred about the end of the first century… The separation between the church and the synagogue was now complete. Since the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple service, A.D. 70, the church had been thrown more entirely on her own resources, and stood now independent. It was a marked proof of her independence when she ventured to rank her sacred writings on a level with those of the Old Testament, which the Christian church herself prized so highly.” (Pg. 105-106)

He says of Textual Criticism, “The name denotes that branch of learning which is concerned with the originals of the sacred text… If the New Testament is the most sacred and previous book in the world, we should surely desire to possess the original text of each of its books in the state in which it left its author’s hands, without either addition or blank, or change of any kind.” (Pg. 125-126)

He continues, “If you ask me, then, whether any popular version, such as Luther’s, does or does not contain the original text, my answer is Yes and No… I also say not, for this reason, that Luther made his translation from a text which needed correction in many places… this text differs in many places from the oldest authorities of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, and therefore must be replaced by a text which is really drawn from the oldest sources discoverable. The difficulty of finding such a text lies in this, that there is a great diversity among these texts; we have, therefore, to compare them closely together, and decide on certain points of superiority on which to prefer one text to another…

“We have in this then a fixed point of the greatest importance on which we can safely take our stand that the Latin text…was already in use as early as the second century… If we had any Greek text of the second century to compare with this old Italic version, we should then be able to arrive at the original Greek text at that time in use. We should thus be able to approach very nearly to the original text which came from the apostles’ hands, since it is certain that the text of the second century must resemble more closely that of the first than any later text can be expected to do. Such a manuscript is before us in the Sinaitic copy, which more than any other is in closest agreement with the old Italic version.” (Pg. 126-128)

He concludes, “May my writing serve this end, to make you mistrust those novel theories upon, or rather against, the gospels, which would persuade you that the glorious details which the gospels give us of our gracious Saviour are founded on ignorance or deceit. The gospels… will endure as long as human nature itself, while the discoveries of this pretended wisdom must sooner or later disappear as soap bubbles… Do not, then, let yourself be disturbed by their clamor, but rather hold firmly what you have, the more others assail it… All that concerns our duty is, to bear testimony to the truth, to the best of our ability, and that not for victory, but for conscience’ sake.” (Pg. 131-132)

This is a fascinating account of the discovery of the manuscripts; those critics (on the ultra-conservative side) who think negatively of Tischendorf might do well to read his book; they may be surprised at the conservative nature of his own opinions.
Although a professor of Greek and New Testament theology, Tischendorf did not restrict himself to the office or the classroom. Instead, he traveled across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East as an archaeologist, searching for any traces of ancient manuscripts. In 1844, Tischendorf made one of his greatest discoveries in the shadow of Mount Sinai— the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest New Testament manuscripts, dated around AD. 360-375. In When Were our Gospels Written? Tischendorf recounts his search and discovery of the manuscript. Based on the new information yielded by that discovery, the scholar estimates dates for the composition of the Gospels. The Codex Sinaiticus remains a celebrated historical treasure, preserved in museums and prestigious libraries for future generations.