I’ve been waiting for this for some time now – I heard about it when it first started – and have remembered and forgotten about it off and on for two years since. But here it is – finally – the web site of the Codex Sinaiticus.

What!? Youd don’t know what it is? Ach Mein Lieber Gott! It’s only the oldest complete manuscript of the NT (fourth century)! Oh and its very pretty too.

So sit back, rev up your browser, and enjoy a piece of Christian history online! Oh, and if you like this – I can point you to some other really nifty papyriology/manuscript sites of similar vein.

I must admit I take perverse pleasure in reading the legal sections of the Old Testament – sometimes you’ve just got to sit, laugh, and wonder, what was going on that made this particular point worthy of recording.

“You must have a latrine outside the camp, and go out to this; you must have a trowel in your equipment and, when you sqat outsde, you must scrape a hole with it, then turn round and cover up your excrement. For Yahweh your God goes about the inside of your campt to guard you and put your enemeis at your mercy.” (Dt. 23.13-15)

This one had me laughing and asking some rather . . . . unfortunate questions.

First, the suggestion here is that Yahweh likes to keep his sandals clean. It’s O.K. to be wading knee deep in the blood of your enemies, (borrowing here from the tales of Anat), its quite another to have to step outside the camp, grab a stick and scrape the bottom of your chrysolite sandal.

Second, one wonders, what other tribes might have done, or even what Israelites did before God made this helpful suggestion – was there perhaps a lack of consitency, visit the area where the Benjaminites camped and you had to avoid the area of the left facing corners of their tents? Hmmmm. . . .

Under the heading: “Modesty in brawls” I found this curiosty -

“If, when two men are fighting, the wife of one intervenes to protect her husband from the other’s blows by reaching out and seizing the other by his private parts, you must cut off her hand and show no pity.”

– Dt. 25.11-12 (NJB)

Typical me – I had to ask – does the LXX text use a euphemism for “private parts”, does it say “private parts” or does it use a more . . . “technical” term like genitals? The greek text in fact uses didumun that is to say if she reaches out and takes in her hands the “twins” of the other . . . I’d say that falls under the category of euphimism.