Rosinus tischendorf biography

Tischendorf was born in Lengenfeld, Saxony, the son of a forensic physician. After attending primary school in Lengenfield, he went to grammar school in nearby Plauen. From Easter , having achieved excellent marks at school, he studied theology and philosophy at the University of Leipzig. Despite his father's death in and his mother's just a year later, he was still able to achieve his doctorate in , before accepting a tutoring job in the home of Reverend Ferdinand Leberecht Zehme in Grossstadeln where he met and fell in love with the clergyman's daughter Angelika.

At this time he also began his first critical edition of the NewTestament in Greek which was to become his life's work. In , he qualified as university lecturer in theology with a dissertation on the recensions of the New Testament text, the main part of which reappeared the following year in the prolegomena to his first edition of the Greek New Testament.

His second edition retracted the more precarious readings of the first, and included a statement of critical principles that is a landmark for evolving critical studies of Biblical texts. A great triumph of these laborious months was the decipherment of the palimpsest Codex Ephraemi Syri Rescriptus , of which the New Testament part was printed before he left Paris, and the Old Testament in He now became professor extraordinarius at Leipzig, where he was married in He also began to publish Reise in den Orient , an account of his travels in the east in 2 vols.

Tischendorf briefly visited the Netherlands in and England in In he visited Italy for thirteen months, before continuing on to Egypt, Sinai, and the Levant, returning via Vienna and Munich. In Tischendorf travelled the first time to Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, where he found a portion of what would later be hailed as the oldest complete known New Testament.

Of the many pages which were contained in an old wicker basket the kind that the monastery hauled in its visitors as customary in unsafe territories he was given 43 pages containing a part of the Old Testament as a present. He donated those 43 pages to King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony reigned — , to honour him and to recognise his patronage as the funder of Tischendorf's journey.

Elliott, J. Thessaloniki: Patriarchal Institute for Patristic Studies. Parker, Codex Sinaiticus. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag. London: Haus Publ. Porter, Stanley E. London: Bloomsbury. Schneller, Ludwig. Thus the Codex found its way to the Imperial Library at St. When the 4-volume luxury edition of the Sinai Bible was completed in , C. Tischendorf presented the original ancient manuscript to Emperor Alexander II.

Meanwhile, the question of transferring the manuscript to the full possession of the Russian Sovereign remained unresolved for some years. In , the new Archbishop of Sinai, Callistratus, and the monastic community, signed the official certificate presenting the manuscript to the Tsar. The Russian Government, in turn, bestowed the Monastery with rubles and decorated the Archbishop and some of the brethren with orders.

In the winter of the first edition of his great work now titled Novum Testamentum Graece. Ad antiquos testes recensuit. Apparatum criticum multis modis appeared translated as Greek New Testament. The ancient witnesses reviewed. Preparations critical in many ways , containing canons of criticism, adding examples of their application that are applicable to students today:.

Basic rule: "The text is only to be sought from ancient evidence, and especially from Greek manuscripts, but without neglecting the testimonies of versions and fathers. These were partly the result of the tireless travels he had begun in in search of unread manuscripts of the New Testament, "to clear up in this way," he wrote, "the history of the sacred text, and to recover if possible the genuine apostolic text which is the foundation of our faith.

In appeared his edition of the Codex Amiatinus in corrected [ 13 ] and of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament 7th ed. In , he was named professor ordinarius of theology and of Biblical paleography , this latter professorship being specially created for him; and another book of travel, Aus dem heiligen Lande , appeared in Tischendorf's Eastern journeys were rich enough in other discoveries to merit the highest praise.

Besides his fame as a scholar, he was a friend of both Robert Schumann , with whom he corresponded, and Felix Mendelssohn , who dedicated a song to him. His colleague Samuel Prideaux Tregelles wrote warmly of their mutual interest in textual scholarship.

Rosinus tischendorf biography

His personal library, purchased after his death, eventually came to the University of Glasgow , [ 14 ] where a commemorative exhibition of books from his library was held in and can be accessed by the public. The Codex Sinaiticus contains a 4th-century manuscript of New Testament texts. Two other Bibles of similar age exist, though they are less complete: Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican Library and Codex Alexandrinus , currently owned by the British Library.

The Codex Sinaiticus is deemed by some [ by whom? The codex can be viewed in the British Library in London, or as a digitized version on the Internet. Throughout his life Tischendorf sought old biblical manuscripts, as he saw it as his task to give theology a Greek New Testament which was based on the oldest possible scriptures. He intended to be as close as possible to the original sources.

Tischendorf's greatest discovery was in the monastery of Saint Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula , which he visited in May , and again in and as Russian envoy. In Tischendorf published the text of the Codex Sinaiticus for the th Anniversary of the Russian Monarchy in both an illustrious four-volume facsimile edition and in a less costly text edition, to enable all scholars to have access to the Codex.

Tischendorf pursued a constant course of editorial labours, mainly on the New Testament, until he was broken down by overwork in Christfried Boettrich Leipzig University, Prof. The great edition, of which the text and apparatus appeared in and , was called by himself editio viii ; but this number is raised to twenty or twenty-one, if mere reprints from stereotype plates and the minor editions of his great critical texts are included; posthumous prints bring the total to forty-one.

Four main recensions of Tischendorf's text may be distinguished, dating respectively from his editions of , , ed. The edition of may be regarded as historically the most important, from the mass of new critical material it used; that of is distinguished from Tischendorf's other editions by coming nearer to the received text; in the eighth edition, the testimony of the Sinaitic manuscript received great probably too great weight.

Legenfeld, Saxony, January 18, ; d. Leipzig, December 7, He studied theology at Leipzig — 38 , where he was especially influenced by J. Winer in joining a careful study of New Testament philology with a great veneration for the Bible. Though nominally belonging to the theological faculty of Leipzig associate professor, ; professor of theology and Biblical paleography, , he was chiefly concerned after with textual criticism, and he spent a large part of his life in the libraries of Europe and the Near East in search of unpublished manuscripts.

He is famous for his dramatic recovery of the Codex Sinaiticus at the Monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai, which he visited three times between and The first folios were published in as the Codex Frederico-Augustinus. After the discovery in of almost the complete manuscript, it was published as Bibliorum Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus Leipzig Other important manuscripts edited by Tischendorf were the Codex Ephraemi rescriptus, which he was the first to decipher — 45 ; the Codex Amiatinus ; and the Codex Claromontanus