Pages from the world's oldest Bible go online

Pages from the earliest surviving Christian bible have been put online.

The bible originally consisted of 1,400 pages; of which 600 have been lost because the manuscript has been moved around so often since it was written. However, the remaining 800 pages of the 1,600 year-old Codex Sinaiticus manuscript can now be viewed at www.codexsinaiticus.org.

The manuscript, which was written in Greek on parchment, has been pieced together in a joint effort between institutions in the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia.

Professor David Parker from Birmingham's University’s Department of Theology, which made the electronic transcription of the manuscript, said: "The process of deciphering and transcribing the fragile pages of an ancient text containing over 650,000 words is a huge challenge, which has taken nearly four years.

"The transcription includes pages of the Codex, some of which were in poor condition, found in 1975 in a blocked-off room at the Monastery of St Catherine in Sinai in Egypt. This is the first time that they have been published online.”

To mark the online launch, the British Library is holding an exhibition which runs from 12 July until 7 September.

The project has been supported by The Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and The Leventis Foundation.