While there should be a lot of new material to add to the coincidences, I am removing Barnabas from my post. There are arguments on both sides of this one, it is possible that Simonides did a rather sophisticated yet awkward back-creation in 1864. (Yes, Simonides could pull stunts!) I enjoy being honest and transparent with evidence questions!"Coincidences" abound, everywheree.g.
Barnabas just happens to coincidentally have been published in Greek by Simonides in 1843, before the 1859 Sinaiticus publication by Tischendorf. There are solid links between the 1843 Simonides text and the 1859 text, the discovery of the supposed first Greek Barnabas by Tischendorf.
e.g.If it is a late creation, then I think it can help us learn to distinguish when Simonides is giving real history, as e.g. his history of Benedict, Athos, etc. the fact of the Hermas ms. before Sinaiticus, the Kallinikos friendship confirmed by the Athos library book in 1900, and when he is trying to do some manipulation.
Always watch for elements that are "to good to be true". Here that applies on both sides, e.g. how Sinaiticus supposedly weathered 1500 years of heavy use and yet not one word from the New Testament was lost! hmmmm ... The Barnabas text has some elements on the Simonides side that can be questioned.
The question arises as to whether the Sinaiticus production was a deliberate deception. Note that I think Simonides may have sold Constantius (his connection with Constantius is confirmed historically outside of Sinaiticus at exactly the right time 1841!, this was shown in a book on Simonides by Nikolos Farmakidis) a bill of goods about the manuscript when he turned it over to him and received 25,000 piasters (most of the $ likely for Sinaiticus.) The Simonides story is that the ms. was always designed as a replica, and even if that were true during creation, by the time Benedict passed and he got it to Constantius there would certainly be a temptation to say this was an old manuscript.
Note that Tischendorf went directly to Constantius after he stole the 43 leaves in 1844, likely he had been told that the manuscript had gotten to Sinai from Constantinople. A trip there could help his efforts to get the full manuscript.
Statistics: Posted by Steven Avery — Mon Jan 08, 2024 11:01 am