The Sisters of Sinai

June 1, 2009
Jesus College fellow Soskice (The Kindness of God: Metaphor, Gender, and Religious Language, 2008, etc.) examines the life and work of the little-known sister"bible-hunters" who unearthed many significant ancient manuscripts.

The book is as much about academic controversies surrounding biblical scholarship during the Victorian era as it is about the two proto-feminist twins, Agnes and Margaret Smith. Born to a prosperous father in Irvine, Scotland, the Smith sisters were rigorously educated in the Presbyterian faith, physically robust and eager to travel, making their first adventurous trek to Egypt upon the death of their father in 1866. They taught themselves Arabic and Greek. Agnes began to study Syriac—a dialect of Middle Aramaic—in preparation for travels to Sinai to dig for early texts of Christianity that might have been overlooked by adventurer-scholars such as Constantin von Tischendorf. The possibility that there might be texts still hidden in St. Catherine's monastery, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, was first introduced to the sisters by J. Rendel Harris, an oriental-studies scholar at Cambridge, where the sisters had relocated after the deaths of their respective husbands. Encouraged, the twins set off in 1892 for St. Catherine's, which housed a wondrous library. There Agnes discovered that underneath a manuscript about the lives of saints existed another, much older text, a palimpsest that would prove to be the earliest known copy of the Gospels in Syriac. Subsequent trips to Sinai in the company of Cambridge scholars led to more marvelous discoveries, as well as attempts to reassign credit among them all. Though the sisters were originally viewed as merely eccentric women, Soskice effectively demonstrates their important contributions to biblical scholarship in the 19th century.

A recondite subject rendered fresh and accessible.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 15, 2009
This book actually tells not one but several stories: the grueling feat of undertaking Victorian-era Middle Eastern travel, especially for well-born ladies; the theological and cultural misgivings between Scots Presbyterian sensibilities and Greek Orthodox monasticism; the serendipity, misogyny, and double dealings that lie behind some of the greatest biblical manuscript finds of the 19th century; bickering between academic and scholarly egos; and what the lives of intelligent, educated Protestant widows looked like in Britain in the late 1800s. The two determined Scottish sisters discussed here strove to break free from those limited cultural constraints. Soskice (philosophical theology, Univ. of Cambridge; "The Kindness of God") knits all these strains together, offering a fascinating look at the lives of twins Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Smith Gibson, who are credited with uncovering the earliest known copies of the Gospels in Syriac, the language of Jesus, at the monastery of St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai. VERDICT Rich in detail, this is really the story of the twins' lives set against the momentous manuscript work that was their Christian witness and calling. Recommended for a wide readership, not just those interested in religion.Sandra Collins, Byzantine Catholic Seminary, Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2009
In this delightful, true-life adventure tale, an intrepid pair of middle-aged twins challenge gender limitations imposed by genteel Victorian society by successfully undertaking a hands-on quest to uncover lost biblical manuscripts. Instead of observing a lengthy period of mourning, recently widowed Scottish twins Agnes and Margaret Smith channeled their joint grief into action, setting out on the journey of a lifetime. Fueled by their strict Presbyterian faith, a passion for the Near East that extended to a self-taught mastery of Greek, Arabic, and Syriac, and armed with an intriguing rumor passed on by a sympathetic scholar, they sallied forth in 1892 to St. Catherines monastery, located on a remote and inhospitable corner of the Sinai Peninsula. Overcoming the harsh and unforgivingterrain, and the reservations of the resident monks, Agnes and Margaret eventually unearthed the earliest known versions of the gospels. Soskices pitch-perfect chronicle not only captures the spirit, the faith, and the determination of the remarkable Smith sisters but also exposes a significant scriptural controversy that continues to ignite scholarly debate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)