The following text is an excerpt taken from "Is the 'World's Oldest Bible' a Fake?", pages 45-48.

Chapter 1

Would God have withheld the truth for 1800 years, only to have it show up in an Orthodox monastery in the desert? And then would God arrange for it to be stolen, first 43 leaves of it in 1844, then the rest of it, with Russian help, in 1859? And then would He have it only "released" to the public in 1862 —but not directly, only as an altered, printed copy?

Would He have His people see only a typeset text that covers up thousands of erasures, write-overs, marginal notes and optional readings? Would it be missing over 1/3 of the Old Testament? And after that, would it be mixed with fairytales like Tobit and Judith, Bel and the Dragon, Susanna, and 4th Maccabees, the non-historical, fanciful writings of men?

If the apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas, and the Christ's deity-demoting Shepherd of Hermas were supposed to have been scripture, would God have held them back from His people? And to top it off, would He have then secretly added them to the real New Testament?

That's not my God. The Bible says this about my God:

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)

And:

"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19)

The trustworthiness of God is at stake. God said, recorded in three places:

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33)

So when God promised that His word would never pass away, He either lied, and His words crumbled up and passed away, for over 1800 years, —or there's something wrong with this famous "oldest and best text" of the Bible.

The following has been the famous narrative about the discovery of Sinaiticus, from the 1860s until today. It has been taught in universities, seminaries and even churches.

Supposedly, a world renowned text collector and Greek expert, Constantin von Tischendorf, discovered, in a waste bin, destined for the fire, a number of Greek parchment sheets, older than any he had ever seen. He then dramatically rescued them from the flames in 1844 and took 21 1/2 sheets back to Germany and called them the Codex Friderico-Augustanus (CFA). In 1853 Tischendorf returned, but claimed he couldn't find any more sheets.

He returned in 1859 with a Russian Orthodox delegation, and gave a monk there one of Tischendorf's own printed Septuagints, and in return Tischendorf received the monk's prized possession, wrapped in a red cloth. This was the Codex Sinaiticus.

Tischendorf claimed he had the codex sent to him in Cairo. Then he transcribed the entire text, with the help of two unnamed Germans who "happened" to be in Cairo, and one of whom just "happened" to read Greek, all completed in the near miraculous space of just two months.

Then Tischendorf, with the help of printing experts in his adopted town of Leipzig, Germany, made typeface replicas of the letters, both large and small. He decided which words should be in the text, and which should be in footnotes, and prepared and published all but the CFA, for grand exhibition in 1862.

As a result, Tischendorf received numerous accolades, commendations and honoring compliments, including by the pope himself. After that, the pope, with his Jesuit Cardinal Mai, invited Tischendorf to see the grand prize of the Vatican, Codex Vaticanus, which Tischendorf transcribed and printed in 1867.

These texts, the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, became the basis for a new Greek text, picked by Westcott and Hort, as their basis to create new English Bible versions, such as the Revised Version of 1881, the American Standard of 1901, and hundreds of changed Bible versions ever since.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Well, it is too good to be true.

In this book we will find the clues that show us that the Sinaiticus, which changed Protestant and Baptist faith forever (though it didn't change Catholic or Orthodox faith), is not what it is claimed to be.

It is a fake.

And whether it was made for all the right reasons, for all the wrong reasons, or for reasons we do not yet know, the Codex Sinaiticus, which suddenly appeared in its tattered form in 1844, is not the oldest, it is certainly not the best, and it is not an ancient manuscript at all.

And, to top it all off, no one has even been allowed to do scientific tests to date the ink or the parchment.

My journey started with a simple question.

I woke up one morning and went into prayer, as I usually do. Then I heard these words: "What if they're fakes?" And I saw a mental image of Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus.

I had thought they were counterfeits, but ancient ones, from Alexandria, Egypt. I never considered seriously that they were actually modern fakes.

A few days later, I was praying about the next video I would make for our YouTube channel, youtube.com/c/chicktracts. My mind was filled with one thought: Codex Sinaiticus.

I thought, "Okay, that may be good for one or two videos." I was about to be surprised by a number of hints and facts, which then became a number of videos!

A few weeks later, during devotions, the thought came to my heart: "Simple answers to even simpler questions."

And then one more event really got me started. I prayed and asked God, "What question should I ask?"

And I heard, "What color is it?"

And that was the beginning of all that you are about to read. Please, check the facts all you want. Dogged research is how I got to be where I am now, and why I wrote this book. I want you to see it and answer the question for yourself.

"Is the ‘Oldest and Best Bible' a fake?"

God bless you as you read.

Is The "World's Oldest Bible" a Fake?

Here is proof that the Sinaiticus, a supposedly ancient Bible text on which modern Bibles are based, is actually a 19th-century fake.

Modern Bibles have changed many verses because of the discovery of an "ancient" manuscript in a monastery on the Sinai Peninsula. The manuscript, called Sinaiticus, is claimed to be the earliest complete copy of the New Testament. Its discoverer, who was a world leading Bible scholar in his time, told the world Sinaiticus was from the 4th-century and that it was the "oldest and best" Bible available.

Researcher David W. Daniels proves with easy-to-understand evidence that the Sinaiticus is not the oldest manuscript and certainly not the best, either.