From Mt. Sinai to Dallas
I found this info worth noting and passing on:
The Center for New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) recently hosted Father Justin, librarian at St. Catherine's Monastery in Mt. Sinai, Egypt.
| Born in El Paso into a Baptist home, Father Justin discovered the world of Greek Orthodoxy in college at the University of Texas. After serving twenty years at a monastery in Brookline, Massachusetts, he became the first non-Greek to live in St. Catherine’s Monastery. Now, many years later, he has been appointed to the position of librarian there. Father Justin’s duties include photographing the 1,200 manuscripts discovered in 1975 in a hidden compartment at the monastery. This number increased St. Catherine’s holdings to 3,300, making its collection of ancient manuscripts the second largest in the world, second only to the Vatican. According to CSNTM, "Among the 3,300 manuscripts housed at St. Catherine’s Monastery, the most important and well known is Codex Sinaiticus—the oldest complete New Testament in existence. The history of this manuscript is wrought with mystery, politics, and perhaps even some deception as the bulk of it was taken from the monastery in the mid-1800s. With this codex, along with the thousands of others, it becomes difficult to overestimate the value of St. Catherine’s Monastery to textual research." As Father Justin's role and CSNTM's goal overlap, CSNTM hopes to continue partnering with Father Justin and St. Catherine’s in the work of digitally preserving the text of the New Testament. |