Oldest Existing Complete Bible -

[JRKH]

I am curious because of my conversations here with Protestants.

What and where is the Oldest Known Existing Complete Christian Bible in the World.
I am not concerned here with “Accuracy of Translation” just with the age of the Volume and Which Books it contains.

I know that the Vulgate was early - Do the originals still exist?
How about an original Guttenberg?

Any help is appreciated.

Peace
James

 

[AmbroseSJ]

The Guttenburg Bible was the first printed Latin bible. It dates from approx. 1450. The Wycliffe Bible which was a manuscript English Bible, dates from about 1390. There are much earlier Bibles if you include Syriac, Coptic and Greek Bibles in Manuscript.

 

[buffalo]

Codex Sinaiticus is generally dated to the fourth century, and sometimes more precisely to the middle of that century. This is based on study of the handwriting, known as palaeographical analysis. Only one other nearly complete manuscript of the Christian Bible – Codex Vaticanus (kept in the Vatican Library in Rome) – is of a similarly early date. The only manuscripts of Christian scripture that are definitely of an earlier date than Codex Sinaiticus contain small portions of the text of the Bible.

 

[fancyfrancie]

One of the Guttenbergs is on display in the Guttenburg museum in Frankfrut, Germany but it’s in very old German, so it’s hard to make sense of even for germans.

 

[AmbroseSJ]

One of the Guttenbergs is on display in the Guttenburg museum in Frankfrut, Germany but it’s in very old German, so it’s hard to make sense of even for germans.

The only Germans that could read the Guttenburg Bible are the ones that can read Latin.

 

[JRKH]

One of the Guttenbergs is on display in the Guttenburg museum in Frankfrut, Germany but it’s in very old German, so it’s hard to make sense of even for germans.

So does this Bible contain 66 books or 72?

Peace
James

 

[tobinatorstark]

So does this Bible contain 66 books or 72?

Peace
James

Neither it contains 73 books and 3 apocryphal books

 

[patrick457]

What and where is the Oldest Known Existing Complete Christian Bible in the World.

The oldest complete (that is, ‘containing many of the same books that we have now’) Biblical manuscripts all come from the 4th and 5th centuries: Codex Vaticanus (Vatican Library), Codex Sinaiticus (Russian National Library, British Library, St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai, and Leipzig University), and Codex Alexandrinus (British Library).

I know that the Vulgate was early - Do the originals still exist?

If by ‘original’ you mean ‘St. Jerome’s autograph’, then no. The earliest surviving copy of the Vulgate we have is Codex Amiatinus, made in the 8th century, about three centuries after Jerome. Codex Fuldensis (around 545) contains most of the New Testament, but the Gospels appear in a harmonized form.

How about an original Guttenberg?

As of now, there are 48 copies known to exist, 21 of which are complete. And that’s only the 42-line edition!