The Sinai brotherhood, wishing to offer even the smallest tribute of honour to the great Saint of the Sinai desert, the righteous John, made in 2017 the bold decision to undertake a critical edition of the text of the Ladder. In order to accomplish this goal, there was constituted, with the blessing of the Archbishop of Sinai, Pharan, and Raithou, kyr Damianos, a scholarly committee of Sinai Fathers and friends of Mount Sinai, who are working selflessly under the leadership of the Professor and at the same time an old friend of the Monastery, Panagiotes Nikolopoulos.

The Sinai brotherhood is aware of both the enormity and the extent of the demands, as well as the overwhelming costs, of the task that has been undertaken, which surpasses its strength, humanly speaking. But the longing of those (our own Myrrhbearers) who are employed with this task we trust will attract the blessing and the collaboration of our Righteous Father John the author of the Ladder, who is able to cover all of our inabilities. And this is already happening.

Recently, the Sinaitic Fathers came into contact and agreed to collaborate with the young researcher Maxim Venetskov, who has completed doctoral dissertations on the Scale at the University of Paris-Sorbonne with Professor Bernard Flusin and at the University of Leuven with Professor Peter Van Deun. This collaboration will enable the team to examine all – if possible – of the existing Greek manuscripts, approximately 500 in number.

October 2019

The Scholarly Committee for the Ladder
of the Sacred Monastery of Mount Sinai