Book

Soskice, Janet Martin.

The sisters of Sinai : how two lady adventurers discovered the hidden Gospels / Janet Soskice.

1st American ed.

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.

xii, 316 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

In 1892, two sisters, identical twins from Scotland, made one of one of most important scriptural discoveries of modern times. Combing the library of St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai, they found a neglected palimpsest: one of the earliest known copies of the Gospels, a version in ancient Syriac, the language spoken by Jesus. This is the account of how two middle-aged ladies without university degrees uncovered and translated this text, bringing a treasure to world attention. This quintessentially Victorian adventure is partly a physical journey: when Westerners generally feared to tread in the region, the sisters Smith traversed the Middle East. It is also a journey of the mind: in an era when new discoveries in science and archaeology were rewriting the accepted understanding of the Bible's origins as well as those of humankind, a great contribution to knowledge was made by two whose only natural advantage was an astonishing gift for languages--From publisher description.

Lewis, Agnes Smith, 1843-1926.

Gibson, Margaret Dunlop, 1843-1920.

Bible. Gospels. Syriac. Codex palimpsestus Sinaiticus.

New Testament scholars -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Church history -- 20th century.

Sinai, Mount (Egypt) -- Description and travel.

"A Borzoi book"--Title page verso.

"Originally published in Great Britain in slightly different form as Sisters of Sinai : how two lady adventurers found the hidden Gospels by Chatto & Windus ... London"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-303) and index.

Cambridge, 13 April 1893 -- The birth and upbringing of the lady Bible-hunters -- The journey to the Nile -- The boat -- The perfect dragoman -- The search for the perfect mate -- Greece -- The estate of marriage -- The Cambridge antiquarian -- Heresy and mortality -- Sinai and von Tischendorf -- The perils of Bible-hunting -- The story von Tischendorf did not tell -- Setting out for Sinai -- The treasure in the dark closet -- The Cambridge party -- The disjoint expedition -- The final falling-out -- The devilish press and the Highland Regiment -- The Cambridge cold shoulder -- A lightning course in text scholarship -- In the company of orientalists -- Burying the hatchet -- Keepers of manuscripts -- Solomon Schechter and the Cairo Genizah -- In Cairo with Schechter -- Castlebrae -- The college's opening -- To the monasteries of the Nitrian Desert -- The active life -- The darkening to war -- Palimpsest.

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

2009011098

9781400041336

1400041333

9781400041336

1400041333

277201806

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805893

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225.0922