MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti) - The world's oldest Bible, Codex Sinaiticus, went online on Monday, opening up new opportunities for scholars around the world to study the ancient manuscript.

The project involved joint efforts of institutions in Russia, Britain, Germany and Egypt, the four countries that each held parts of the vellum-written document since 1844, prior to which it was kept in a Sinai monastery.

The project's website, www.codexsinaiticus.org, said the Codex was hand-written in the middle of the fourth century A.D. by four scribes in Greek and contains "the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament."

"The New Testament appears in the original vernacular language (koine) and the Old Testament in the version, known as the Septuagint, that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians," the website said.

"In the Codex, the text of both the Septuagint and the New Testament has been heavily annotated by a series of early correctors," it added.

The publication of Codex Sinaiticus is of major significance for scholars working to reconstruct the original text of the Bible.