Constantin von Tischendorf - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lobegott Friedrich Constantin (von) Tischendorf (January 18, 1815 – December 7, 1874) was a noted German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

Biblical scholar. He deciphered the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus is an early 5th century Greek manuscript of the Bible, the last in the group of the four great uncial manuscripts...

, a 5th century Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

manuscript

Biblical manuscript

A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblia ; manuscript comes from Latin manu and scriptum...

of the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

, in the 1840s, and rediscovered the Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. It is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of...

, a 4th century New Testament manuscript, in 1859.

Tischendorf exemplified the buccaneer

Buccaneer

The buccaneers were privateers who attacked Spanish shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...

image of 19th century archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

in his pursuit of unknown manuscripts. Alongside his industry in collecting and collating manuscripts, Tischendorf pursued a constant course of editorial labours, mainly on the New Testament, until he was broken down by overwork in 1873.

Life

Tischendorf was born in Lengenfeld

Lengenfeld

Lengenfeld is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. During World War II, a subcamp of Flossenburg concentration camp was located here. The town is situated 19 km southwest of Zwickau, and 18 km northeast of Plauen....

, Saxony

Kingdom of Saxony

The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...

, near Plauen

Plauen

Plauen is a town in the Free State of Saxony, east-central Germany.It is the capital of the Vogtlandkreis. The town is situated near the border of Bavaria and the Czech Republic.Plauen's slogan is Plauen - echt Spitze.-History:...

, the son of a physician. Beginning in 1834, he spent his scholarly career at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

where he was mainly influenced by JGB Winer

Georg Benedikt Winer

Georg Benedikt Winer , German Protestant theologian, was born at Leipzig.He studied theology at Leipzig, where eventually he became professor ordinarius. From 1824 to 1830 he edited with J. G. V...

, and he began to take special interest in New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

criticism

Textual criticism

Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...

. Winer's influence gave him the desire to use the oldest manuscripts in order to compile the text of the New Testament as close to the original as possible. In 1838 he took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

, then became master at a school near Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

.

After a journey through southern Germany and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, and a visit to Strassburg, he returned to Leipzig, and set to work upon a critical study of the New Testament text. In 1840 he qualified as university lecturer in theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

with a dissertation on the recension

Recension

Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author...

s 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 critical apparatus included variant readings from earlier scholars — Elsevier

Elsevier

Elsevier is a publishing company which publishes medical and scientific literature. It is a part of the Reed Elsevier group. Based in Amsterdam, the company has operations in the United Kingdom, USA and elsewhere....

, Knapp, Scholz, and as recent as Lachmann

Karl Lachmann

Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann was a German philologist and critic.-Biography:He was born in Brunswick, in what is now Lower Saxony....

— whereby his researches were emboldened to depart from the received text as used in churches.

These early textual studies convinced him of the absolute necessity of new and more exact collation

Collation

Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...

s of manuscripts. From October 1840 until January 1843 he was in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, busy with the treasures of the Bibliothèque Nationale

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

, eking out his scanty means by making collations for other scholars, and producing for the publisher, Firmin Didot

Firmin Didot

Firmin Didot was a French printer, engraver, and type founder. He invented the word "stereotype", which in printing refers to the metal printing plate created for the actual printing of pages , and used the process extensively, revolutionizing the book trade by his cheap editions...

, several editions of the Greek New Testament — one of them exhibiting the form of the text corresponding most closely to the Vulgate

Vulgate

The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...

. 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.

From Paris, he had paid short visits to the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

(1841) and England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

(1842). In 1843 he visited Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and after a stay of thirteen months, went on to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Sinai

Sinai Peninsula

The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...

, and the Levant

Levant

The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

, returning by Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

and Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. In 1844, he paid his first visit to the convent of Saint Catherine's Monastery

Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai

Saint Catherine's Monastery lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in the city of Saint Catherine in Egypt's South Sinai Governorate. The monastery is Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...

, on Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa , Jabal Musa meaning "Moses' Mountain", is a mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. A mountain called Mount Sinai is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah and the Bible as well as the Quran...

, where he found, in a trash basket, forty-four pages of what was the then oldest known copy of the Septuagint. The monks were using the trash to start fires, Tischendorf horrified, asked if he could have them. He deposited them at the University of Leipzig

Leipzig University Library

Leipzig University Library , known also as Bibliotheca Albertina, is the central library of the University of Leipzig. It is one of the oldest German university libraries.- History :...

, under the title of the Codex Friderico-Augustanus
Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. It is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of...

, a name given in honour of his patron, Frederick Augustus II of Saxony

Frederick Augustus II of Saxony

Frederick Augustus II |Tyrol]], 9 August 1854) was King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin.He was the eldest son of Maximilian, Prince of Saxony --younger son of the Elector Frederick Christian of Saxony—by his...

, king of Saxony. The fragments were published in 1846 although he kept the place of discovery a secret.

A great triumph of these laborious months was the decipherment of the palimpsest

Palimpsest

A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος originally compounded from πάλιν and ψάω literally meaning “scraped...

Codex Ephraemi Syri Rescriptus
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus is an early 5th century Greek manuscript of the Bible, the last in the group of the four great uncial manuscripts...

, of which the New Testament part was printed before he left Paris, and the Old Testament

Old Testament

The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

in 1845. His success in dealing with a manuscript that, having been rewritten with other works of Ephrem the Syrian

Ephrem the Syrian

Ephrem the Syrian was a Syriac and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the 4th century. He is venerated by Christians throughout the world, and especially in the Syriac Orthodox Church, as a saint.Ephrem wrote a wide variety of hymns, poems, and sermons in verse, as well as...

, had been mostly illegible to earlier collators, made him more well known, and gained support for more extended critical expeditions. He now became professor extraordinarius at Leipzig, and married (1845). He also began to publish an account of his travels in the East (2 vols., 1845–46).

In the winter of 1849 appeared the great work now titled Novum Testamentum Graece. Ad antiquos testes recensuit, Apparatum Criticum multis modis 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."

"A reading altogether peculiar to one or another ancient document is suspicious; as also is any, even if supported by a class of documents, which seems to evince that it has originated in the revision of a learned man."

"Readings, however well supported by evidence, are to be rejected, when it is manifest (or very probable) that they have proceeded from the errors of copyists."

"In parallel passages, whether of the New or Old Testament, especially in the Synoptic Gospels
Synoptic Gospels
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...

, which ancient copyists continually brought into increased accordance, those testimonies are preferable, in which precise accordance of such parallel passages is not found; unless, indeed, there are important reasons to the contrary."

"In discrepant readings, that should be preferred which may have given occasion to the rest, or which appears to comprise the elements of the others."

"Those readings must be maintained which accord with New Testament Greek
Koine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....

, or with the particular style of each individual writer."

These were partly the result of the tireless travels he had begun in 1839 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 1850 appeared his edition of the Codex Amiatinus
Codex Amiatinus
The Codex Amiatinus, designated by siglum A, is the earliest surviving manuscript of the nearly complete Bible in the Latin Vulgate version, and is considered to be the most accurate copy of St. Jerome's text. It is missing the Book of Baruch. It was produced in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of...

(in 1854 corrected) and of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament (7th ed., 1887); in 1852, amongst other works, his edition of the Codex Claromontanus
Codex Claromontanus
Codex Claromontanus, symbolized by Dp or 06 , δ 1026 , is a Greek-Latin diglot uncial manuscript of the New Testament, written in an uncial hand on vellum. The Greek and Latin text on facing pages...

.

In 1853, he made a second trip to the Syrian monastery but made no new discoveries. He returned a third time in January 1859 under the patronage of Czar Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...

to find more of the Codex Frederico-Augustanus or similar ancient Biblical texts. On February 4, the last day of his visit, he was shown a text which he recognized as significant — the Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. It is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of...

— a Greek manuscript of the complete New Testament and parts of the Old Testament dating to the 4th century.

In 1859 he made a third voyage to the East. There, with the active aid of the Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n government, he at length got access to the remainder of the precious Sinaitic codex, and persuaded the monks to present it to Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...

, at whose cost it was published in 1862 (in four folio volumes). By those ignorant of the details of his discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus, Tischendorf was accused of buying manuscripts from ignorant monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

librarians at low prices. Indeed he was never rich, but he staunchly defended the rights of the monks at St. Catherine's Monastery when he persuaded them eventually to send the manuscript to the Tsar. Even so, the monks of Mt. Sinai still display a letter from Tischendorf promising to return the manuscript to them. In 1869 the tsar awarded him the style of "von" Tischendorf as a Russian noble. Thus the Codex found its way to the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg. In 1933, the Soviet Government sold the Codex Sinaiticus for 100,000 pounds to the British Museum in London, England.

Meanwhile, also in 1859, he had been made 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 1862. 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

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

, with whom he corresponded, and Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

, who dedicated a song to him. His text critical colleague Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

Samuel Prideaux Tregelles was an English biblical scholar, textual critic, and theologian.- Life :Tregelles was born at Wodehouse Place, Falmouth, of Quaker parents, but he himself for many years was in communion with the Plymouth Brethren and then later in life became a Presbyterian...

wrote warmly of their mutual interest in textual scholarship. His personal library, purchased after his death, eventually came to the University of Glasgow

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

, where a commemorative exhibition of books from his library was held in 1974.

He died in Leipzig

Leipzig

Works

His magnum opus was the "Critical Edition of the New Testament."

The great edition, of which the text and apparatus appeared in 1869 and 1872, was called by himself editio viii; but this number is raised to twenty or twenty-one, if mere reprints from stereotype

Stereotype

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...

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 1841, 1849, 1859 (ed. vii), and 1869–72 (ed. viii). The edition of 1849 may be regarded as historically the most important, from the mass of new critical material it used; that of 1859 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. The readings of the Vatican

Vatican City

Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

manuscript were given with more exactness and certainty than had been possible in the earlier editions, and the editor had also the advantage of using the published labours of his colleague and friend Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

.

Of relatively lesser importance was Tischendorf's work on the Greek Old Testament. His edition of the Roman text, with the variants of the Alexandrian manuscript, the Codex Ephraemi, and the Friderico-Augustanus, was of service when it appeared in 1850, but, being stereotyped, was not greatly improved in subsequent issues. Its imperfections, even within the limited field it covers, may be judged by the aid of Eberhard Nestle

Eberhard Nestle

Eberhard Nestle was a German biblical scholar, textual critic, Orientalist, editor of Novum Testamentum Graece, and the father of Erwin Nestle.- Life :...

's appendix to the 6th issue (1880).

Besides this may be mentioned editions of the New Testament apocrypha

Apocrypha

The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", ancient Chinese "revealed texts and objects" and "Christian texts that are not canonical"....

, De Evangeliorum apocryphorum origine et usu (1851); Acta Apostolorum apocrypha (1851); Evangelia apocrypha (1853; 2nd ed., 1876); Apocalypses apocryphae (1866), and various minor writings, partly of an apologetic character, such as Wann wurden unsere Evangelien verfasst? (When Were Our Gospels Written?; 1865; 4th ed., 1866, digitized by Google and available for e-readers), Haben wir den echten Schrifttext der Evangelisten und Apostel? (1873), and Synopsis evangelica (7th ed., 1898).

Facsimile of manuscripts

Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus, sive Fragmenta Novi Testamenti, Lipsiae 1843
Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus, sive Fragmenta Veteris Testamenti, Lipsiae 1845
Notitia editionis codicis Bibliorum Sinaitici (Leipzig 1860)
Anecdota sacra et profana (Leipzig 1861)

Editions of Novum Testamentum Graece

Editio Octava

Gospels: Novum Testamentum Graece: ad antiquissimos testes denuo recensuit, apparatum criticum omni studio perfectum, vol. I (1869)
Acts–Revelation: Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. II (1872)
Prolegomena I–VI: Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. III, Part 1 (1884)
Prolegomena VII–VIII: Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. III, Part 2 (1890)
Prolegomena IX–XIII: Novum Testamentum Graece. Editio Octava Critica Maior, vol. III, Part 3 (1894)
Novum Testamentum graece: recensionis Tischendorfianae ultimae textum. Lipsiae 1881

LXX

Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LXX interpretes: Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LXX

External links

Sortable articles

Klaus Zehnder-Tischendorf, "Constantine von Tischendorf" 2002
Works by Von Tischendorf in English at CCEL
Tischendorf's eighth Greek New Testament with morphological tags and lemmas
Comparison of Tischendorf's 8th GNT text with other manuscript editions on the Manuscript Comparator
http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_sine-data__AA_VV__Evangelia_Apocrypha_%5BTischendorf_Von._Constantin%5D__LT_GR.pdf.html An digital edition of the Evangelia Apocrypha [document written in Latin and Greek], in pdf format.
Novum Testamentum graece (1859)

Complete Apparatus, 8th Version in pdf - http://www.biblestudyaids.net/nt/tiscapp/main.htm

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Life

Works

See also

External links