According to Reuters, the surviving parts of the world's oldest-known Christian Bible have been reunited online, generating excitement among biblical scholars still striving to unlock its mysteries.

The Codex Sinaiticus was hand written by four scribes in Greek on animal hide, known as vellum, in the mid-fourth century around the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.

Not all of it has withstood the ravages of time, but the pages that have survived include the whole of the New Testament and the earliest surviving copy of the Gospels written at different times after Christ's death by four of the Apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Bible's remaining 800 pages and fragments − it was originally about 1,400 pages long − also contain half of a copy of the Old Testament. The other half has been lost.

"This 1,600-year-old manuscript offers a window into the development of early Christianity and first-hand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation," said Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library.

The texts include numerous revisions, additions and corrections made during its evolution down through the ages.

The ancient parchments, which appear almost translucent, are a collection of sections held by the British Library in London, the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt, the National Library of Russia and Leipzig University Library in Germany.

The four-year joint project, which began in 2005 with the aim of "virtually reunifying" and preserving the Bible, as well as undertaking new research into its history, has shed new light on how it was produced.

Source: The Global Times