328 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



been turned for centuries, they discovered a palimpsest, of 

 which the upper writing contained the biographies of 

 women saints, while that beneath proved to be one of the 

 earliest copies of the Syriac Gospels, if not the very earliest 

 in existence. 



No find since the celebrated discovery by Tischendorf 

 of the Sinaitic Codex, in the same convent nearly fifty 

 years before, ever excited such interest among Scriptural 

 scholars or was hailed with greater rejoicings. It was by 

 all Biblical students regarded as an invaluable contribution 

 to Scriptural literature, and as a find which "has doubled 

 our sources of knowledge of the darkest corner of New 

 Testament criticism." To distinguish it from the Codex 

 Sinaiticus, the precious manuscript brought to light by 

 Mrs. Lewis has been very appropriately named after the 

 fortunate discoverer, and will hereafter be known as the 

 Codex Ludovicus. 1 



Another find of rare importance made by the gifted twin 

 sisters was a Palestinian Syriac lectionary similar to the 

 hitherto unique copy in the Library of the Vatican. A 

 1 One passage in this codex bears so strongly on a leading argu- 

 ment of this work that I cannot resist the temptation to give it with 

 Mrs. Lewis ' own comment: 



"The piece of my work," she writes, In the Shadow of Sinai, 

 p. 98 et seq., "which has given me the greatest satisfaction, consists 

 in the decipherment of two words in John IV, 27. They were well 

 worth all our visits to Sinai, for they illustrate an action of our 

 Lord which seems to be recorded nowhere else, and which has some 

 degree of inherent probability from what we know of His character. 

 The passage is 'His disciples came and wondered that with the 

 women he was standing and talking' .... 



"Why was our Lord standing? He had been sitting on the 

 wall when the disciples left Him; and, we know that He was tired. 

 Moreover, sitting is the proper attitude for an Easterner when en- 

 gaged in teaching. And an ordinary Oriental would never rise of his 

 own natural free will out of politeness to a woman. It may be that 

 He rose in His enthusiasm for the great truths He was uttering; 

 but, I like to think that His great heart, which embraced the lowest 

 of humanity, lifted Him above the restrictions of His race and age, 



