A critical review of Dr W.R. Cooper’s thesis in his book ‘The Forging of Codex Sinaiticus’
The review demonstrates that Dr Cooper’s thesis that Codex Sinaiticus was produced in the nineteenth century is a classic conspiracy theory, and without foundation. It also demonstrates that the man who claimed to have written the Codex in 1840, Constantine Simonides, was a notorious persecutor of the Protestant Church, who told ‘the most outrageous lies that human or diabolical ingenuity ever invented’.
The review also establishes how the Russian scholar Porphyrius Uspensky was the first to discover the New Testament (in 1845), and to publish details of it including colour plates, years before Konstantin Tischendorf had ever seen it. Uspensky warned the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Tsar, and eventually the world about its heterodox provenance before Tischendorf’s facsimile edition was published in 1862.
Click on the document cover image at left to download as a PDF (129 pages)
Supporting documentation.
An analysis of the attempts of conspiracy theorists visually to demonstrate that the leaves of Codex Sinaiticus have been darkened. It is shown that their demonstration relies on images from Leipzig processed away from true colour compared to images close to true colour from London, and looks closely at the ‘evidence’ of David W. Daniels from his book Is the “World’s Oldest Bible” a Fake?, and repeated in online videos.
Photographs of the original leaves in Leipzig are shown in working environments, which indicates that they are similar in coloration to those held in the British Library.
Click on the document cover image at left to download as a PDF (36 pages)