August 30, 2015
The oldest surviving copy of the Bible is set to be displayed at the British Museum this October.
The manuscript, known as Codex Sinaiticus, dates back to the fourth century AD, according to Christian Today. It will be displayed in the Museum as part of an exhibit that will showcase how the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths influenced Egypt after the reign of the Pharaohs.
The Bible will be displayed alongside two other ancient texts which are important foundations of the Jewish and Muslim faiths, respectively.
Codex Sinaiticus has been kept in the British Library after it came there in 1933 when Josef Stalin’s government sold it to Britain to raise money for the second five-year-plan. Its loan to the British Museum marks only the second time it has been outside the British Library since 1933.
“It is quite phenomenal they they are able to lend it to us," said Elisabeth O'Connell, assistant keeper in the British Museum's department of ancient Egypt and Sudan. "We are absolutely thrilled."
Scot McKendrick, head of western manuscripts at the British Library also remarked on the importance of the valuable artifact:
“Since it arrived in the 1930s it has always been one of the greatest treasures in the collection.”
The only other time the ancient Bible has been moved from the British Library was when it was moved to a specially built cave in Aberystwyth for safekeeping during World War II.
