The Codex Sassoon, the oldest and most complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible on record, will go on display for the first time at the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv before being auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York for between $30 and 50 million dollars, reported Thursday the Government of Israel.
The codex was written around 900 AD, between what are now the territories of Israel and Syria. A deed shows that the book was sold in AD 1000. and was kept in a synagogue in what is now northeastern Syria until around 1400. The manuscript disappeared for more than 500 years, until it resurfaced in 1929 when it was offered for sale to David Solomon Sassoon, one of the greatest collectors of Hebrew manuscripts.
The ancient text is one of only two known codices containing all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Old Testament. The 24 books are divided into three parts: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Hebrew Bible dates from the 10th century AD. and forms the basis of Judaism, as well as the other Abrahamic religions: Christianity and Islam.
Its importance does not lie only in its antiquity. For the first time, a virtually complete book of the Hebrew Bible appears with all the vowel points, the cantillation, and even the notes at the bottom that told the scribes how to spell the text correctly.
