it cannot have any authority when much of it is clearly fiction.
In this thread I am only concentrating on the oldest known written witnesses for the bible text in which appears the passage Acts 15,20
where (like in 15,29 and 21,25) "contain yourself of pollution from idols, porneia, blood and strangled animals" appears, I dont want to get off this point here.
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Investigating the oldest text in the inaccesible world of oldest manuscripts I have come accross the wanted passage in the next Code the
Codex Sinaiticus (340-350 A.D).
I cut out for you the passage and the corresponding translation. As you see we have here again a "Eastern text type", the older witness, so SINAITICUS includes "what is strangled"
The greek word is
meaning "pnikto" = "suffocated = strangled"
Passage Acts 15,20
Guide where to find the words in the folio above:
"pniktos" (suffocated) is the first word in the 7th line,
beneath you find "aimatos" Blood, the first word in the 8th line
As you see the text alone doesnt explain which meaning the words had for the jewish christians then and today, thats a different story.Note that you now are in the possition to read the passage in the original manuscript from the year 350 A.D.
Source: Leads you direct to the prompt folio of the original
http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=51&chapter=15&lid=en&side=r&verse=20&zoomSlider=0
The earliest type of manuscript in the form of a modern book (i.e., a collection of written pages stitched together along one side), the codex replaced the earlier rolls of papyrus and wax tablets. The codex had several advantages over the roll, or scroll. It could be opened at once to any point in the text, it enabled one to write on both sides of the leaf, and it could contain long texts. The difference can be illustrated with copies of the Bible. While the Gospel According to Matthew nearly reached the practical limit of a roll, a common codex included the four Gospels and the Book of Acts bound together, and complete Bibles were not uncommon.
What do we know about the Sinaiticus manuscript?
A: Sinaiticus (340-350 A.D.) is the second oldest existing member of the Alexandrian family of manuscripts. It often is abbreviated as "Aleph" or is called uncial 01.
What has been preserved: It has preserved half of the Septuagint Old Testament. Specifically, it has Genesis 23:19-24:46 (with gaps); Numbers 5:26-7:20 (with gaps), 1 Chronicles 9:27-19:17, Ezra-Nehemiah as one book from Ezra 9:6 on, Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentation to 2:22, Joel through Malachi, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Job.
The Apocrypha is in Sinaiticus: specifically Tobit, Judith, 1 and 4 Maccabees, Wisdom, and Sirach.
The New Testament is all preserved, except the scribes did not include John 7:53-8:11, and a blank space reserved for Mark 16:9-20. Sinaiticus contains all of Romans (minus 16:24) in the same order as Bibles today.
Two other books are in Sinaiticus: the Epistle of Barnabas and part of the Shepherd of Hermas.
Physical Appearance: It originally had at least 730 leaves. Today we have 390 leaves plus fragments of 3 more leaves. (a leaf is two pages.) There are four columns per page and 48 lines per column. It is written on expensive vellum. There were no spaces between words and almost no punctuation. Old Testament quotes are shown as quotes. Today it is in London, UK. For more info and a photograph, see Manuscripts of the Greek Bible, p.76-79.
Scribes and correctors: Three scribes copied Siniaticus. Scribe A, who copied most of the historical and poetic books of the Old Testament, almost all the New Testament, and the Epistle of Barnabas, was a better speller than B, but not nearly as good as D. B copied the prophets and the Shepherd of Hermas, and was a bad speller. D had nearly perfect spelling. He copied Tobit and Judith, the first half of 4 Maccabees, and the first 2/3 of Psalms. He apparently copied 6 pages of the New Testament.
Distinctives of Sinaiticus: According to Herman Hoskier, there are the following number of places with differences between Sinaiticus and the textus receptus in the gospels: Matthew 656+, Mark 567+, Luke 791+, John 1022+, for a total of 3036+ places of differences in the gospels. Like Vaticanus is has a blank space for the longer ending of Mark's gospel. Thus they were aware of a longer ending, but chose not to copy it. According to D.A. Waite, 8972 words were affected in the Gospel versus the Textus Receptus. 3,455 words were omitted, 839 were added, 1114 were substituted, 2299 were transposed, and 1265 were modified. It has more changes than Vaticanus. Of course, Waite cannot prove any words were added or omitted, only that they were included or absent.
Lk 11:23 "scatters me" is in the original Sinaiticus Bohairic Coptic, and Ephraemi Rescriptus. All the other major manuscripts have "scatters"
Jn 1:34 The "chosen" is in p5 (200-240 A.D.), original Sinaiticus, Sahidic Coptic and few other manuscripts. The "son" is in corrected Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, Cantabrigiensis, the Byzantine Lectionary, Bohairic Coptic, Armenian, Origen, Chrysostom. See A General Introduction to the Bible p.392-394 for more info.