The Sisters of Sinai: how two lady adventurers discovered the hidden gospels
by Janet Soskice, 2009
Review (c) by Garnette Arledge February 26, 2016
Twin sisters born in 1843 in strict Presbyterian Scotland, during Victoria’s reign, travelled by ship, donkey, carriage and on foot against all sage advice by Cambridge male biblical scholars, to discover lost gospels.
They authenticated the earliest known written Christian gospel manuscripts to 90 ce and turned up staid scholarship of their time.
Sounds like fiction and it would be except they were fabulously wealthy, spoke and wrote a dozen pan-Eastern languages and were indomitable. Literally. Blocked from even attending college, much less teaching, they simply (ha!) equipped expeditions with camels, drivers, tea services, full china place settings, linen sheets, grand dresses and went to the Sinai peninsula. Before any other scholars notice, they were welcomed and most importantly, trusted with precious secret and sacred sheepskin documents almost two centuries old. The desert monks, cenobic men living in austerity guarded their hidden treasures with the same zealousy in which the sisters pursued them.
Perhaps that’s why the monks trusted the women. The sisters honored the secret hoardings (manuscripts tossed down into a deep locked room from upper balconies for hundreds of years). In no particular order. And the sisters persisted, had afternoon tea, brought out suddenly willing male scholars to work alongside, deciphering and cataloguing the treasures. Naturally these men tried to claim credit. But monks refused to deal with them. The sisters persisted.
It’s a rollicking good story, as true of any truth is. I see Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. I couldn’t put it down, 300 pages filled with magic, perseverance, derring-do in a Scots Presbyterian manner. Eventually, as they were barred from teaching at Cambridge, they built a Women’s College next door. They wrote books. They were consulted. They married, each in turn briefly but mostly it was just the two of them with paid desert guides who may or may not have been reliable. Sand, horrible odors from both the old documents and the monks, as well as the pack animals.
Inspiring. Thoroughly researched. Well written. Although I did expect Lord Peter Wimsey and his founder Dorothy L. Sayers accompanied by Agatha Christie to come riding over the dawn-lit sands for breakfast - all five courses naturally. The only flaw is that I finished it too quickly.
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