LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- The world 's oldest known Christian Bible goes online Monday -- but the 1,600-year-old text does n't match the one you 'll find in churches today . The British government bought most of the pages of the ancient manuscript in 1933 . Discovered in a monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago , the handwritten Codex Sinaiticus includes two books that are not part of the official New Testament and at least seven books that are not in the Old Testament . The New Testament books are in a different order , and include numerous handwritten corrections -- some made as much as 800 years after the texts were written , according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bible online . The changes range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences . And some familiar -- very important -- passages are missing , including verses dealing with the resurrection of Jesus , they said . Juan Garces , the British Library project curator , said it should be no surprise that the ancient text is not quite the same as the modern one , since the Bible has developed and changed over the years . `` The Bible as an inspirational text has a history , '' he told CNN . `` There are certainly theological questions linked to this , '' he said . `` Everybody should be encouraged to investigate for themselves . '' That is part of the reason for putting the Bible online , said Garces , who is both a Biblical scholar and a computer scientist . `` Scholars will want to look very closely at it , and some of the Web site functionality is specifically for them -- the ability to search the text , the ability to highlight a word , the degree of detail is particularly interesting for scholars interested in the text , '' he said . But , he added , `` It 's for everyone , really a wide audience , because of curiosity , because they appreciate the value of it . '' By the middle of the fourth century , when the Codex Sinaiticus was written , there was wide but not complete agreement on which books should be considered authoritative for Christian communities , according to the Web site where the Codex is posted . The Bible comes from the Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai desert , where a scholar named Constantine Tischendorf recognized its significance in 1844 -- and promptly took part of it , Garces explained . `` Constantine Tischendorf was in search for ancient manuscripts , so he appreciated the age and value of it , '' Garces said . He took a handful of pages to Germany to publish them , then returned in 1853 and in 1859 for more . On that last trip , he took 694 pages , which ended up in St. Petersburg , Russia . The Soviet government decided to sell them in 1933 -- to raise money to buy tractors and other agricultural equipment . The British government bought the pages for £100,000 , raising half the money from the public . Garces called that event one of the first fundraising campaigns in British history . Film footage from the time shows crowds of people turning out to see the manuscript , which was considered a national treasure , he said . Though the Bible has been reassembled online , in the real world it remains scattered . Most of it is in London . Eighty-six pages are held at the University Library in Leipzig , Germany , parts of 12 pages are held at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg , and 24 pages and 40 fragments remain at St. Catherine 's Monastery , recovered by the monks from the northern wall of the structure in June 1975 . The manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek , including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament . ( A copy held at the Vatican dates from about the same period . ) Older copies of individual portions of the Christian Bible exist , but not as part of a complete text . The Codex also includes much of the Old Testament that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians . That portion includes books not found in the Hebrew Bible and regarded in the Protestant tradition as apocryphal , such as 2 Esdras , Tobit , Judith , 1 & 4 Maccabees , Wisdom and Sirach . The New Testament portion includes the Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas . As it survives today , Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of parchment -- prepared animal skin -- each of which measures 15 inches by 13.6 inches ( 380 mm by 345 mm ) .
Handwritten Codex Sinaiticus is more than 1,600 years old . contains two books not part of official New Testament . Discovered in a cave in Sinai desert in Egypt more than 1000 years ago . Scholar named Friedrich Tischendorf recognized its authenticity in 1844 .