Editing Codex Sinaiticus (section)

==== Scribes and correctors ====
Tischendorf believed four separate scribes copied the work (whom he named A, B, C and D), and five correctors amended portions (whom he designated a, b, c, d and e). He posited one of the correctors was contemporaneous with the original scribes, and the others worked during the sixth and seventh centuries. After Milne and Skeat's reinvestigation, it is now agreed Tischendorf was incorrect, as scribe C never existed.{{r|scribes-corr|p=22–50}} According to Tischendorf, scribe C wrote the poetic books of the Old Testament. These are written in a different format from the rest of the manuscript – they appear in two columns (the rest of books is in four columns), written stichometrically. Tischendorf probably interpreted the different formatting as indicating the existence of another scribe.{{r|Jongkind|p=22–50, 12–13}} The three remaining scribes are still identified by the letters Tischendorf gave them: A, B, and D.{{r|Jongkind|pp=22–50, 12–13}} There were in fact more correctors, with at least seven (a, b, c, ca, cb, cc, e).{{r|Aland}}

Modern analysis identifies three scribes:

* Scribe A wrote most of the historical and poetical books of the Old Testament; almost the whole of the New Testament; and the Epistle of Barnabas
* Scribe B was responsible for the Prophets and for the Shepherd of Hermas
* Scribe D wrote the whole of Tobit and Judith; the first half of 4 Maccabees; the first two-thirds of the Psalms; and the first five verses of Revelation

Scribe B was a poor speller, and scribe A was not much better; the best scribe was D.{{r|Jongkind|p=90}} Metzger states: "scribe A had made some unusually serious mistakes".{{r|Metzger-Palaeo}} Scribes A and B used ''nomina sacra'' in contracted forms most often (ΠΝΕΥΜΑ contracted in all occurrences, ΚΥΡΙΟΣ contracted except in two occurrences), whereas scribe D mostly used the uncontracted forms.{{r|Jongkind|pp=77–78}} Scribe D distinguished between sacral and nonsacral uses of ΚΥΡΙΟΣ.{{r|Jongkind|pp=80–81}} His spelling errors are the substitution of ΕΙ for Ι, and Ι for ΕΙ in medial positions, both equally common. Otherwise substitution of Ι for initial ΕΙ is unknown, and final ΕΙ is only replaced in the word ΙΣΧΥΕΙ. The confusion of Ε and ΑΙ is very rare.{{r|Jongkind|p=90}} In the Book of Psalms, this scribe has ΔΑΥΕΙΔ instead of ΔΑΥΙΔ 35 times, while scribe A normally uses an abbreviated form {{overline|ΔΑΔ}}.{{r|scribes-corr|p=94}} Scribe A made the most phonetic errors: confusion of Ε and ΑΙ occurs in all contexts.{{r|Jongkind|p=90}} Milne and Skeat characterised scribe B as "careless and illiterate".{{r|scribes-corr|pp=53–55}}
[[File:Caesarea Maritima BW 2010-09-23 09-26-26 stitch.jpg|thumb|In the sixth or seventh century, the codex may have been housed at Caesarea]]

A [[Palaeography|paleographical]] study at the [[British Museum]] in 1938 found the text had undergone several corrections. The first corrections were done by several scribes before the manuscript left the scriptorium.{{r|metz-ehrman|pp=65–68}} Readings which they introduced are designated by the siglum {{larger|{{script|Hebr|א}}}}<sup>a</sup>.{{r|metz-ehrman|pp=66–67}} Milne and Skeat have observed the superscription to 1 Maccabees was made by scribe D, while the text was written by scribe A.{{r|scribes-corr|p=33}} Scribe D corrects his own work and that of scribe A, but scribe A limits himself to correcting his own work.{{r|Jongkind|p=44}} In the sixth or seventh century, many alterations were made ({{larger|{{script|Hebr|א}}}}<sup>b</sup>) – according to a [[colophon (book)|colophon]] at the end of the book of [[Esdras]] and [[Book of Esther|Esther]], the source of these alterations was "a very ancient manuscript that had been corrected by the hand of the holy martyr [[Pamphilus of Caesarea|Pamphylus]]" ([[martyr]]ed in 309). If this is so, material beginning with [[1 Samuel]] to the end of Esther is Origen's copy of the [[Hexapla]]. From this colophon, the corrections are concluded to have been made in [[Caesarea Maritima]] in the sixth or seventh centuries.{{r|metz-ehrman|pp=66–67}} The pervasive [[iotacism]], especially of the {{lang|grc|ει}} diphthong, remains uncorrected.<ref name="Gregory">{{Cite book | last=Gregory | first=Caspar René | author-link=Caspar René Gregory | title=Textkritik des Neuen Testaments | volume=1 | publisher=J.C. Hinrichs | year=1900 | location=Leipzig | url=https://archive.org/stream/textkritikdesne00greggoog#page/n31/mode/2up|access-date=18 March 2010  |language=de }}</ref>{{rp|19}}