Posted on 02/17/2023 7:21:27 AM PST by SJackson
A Hebrew Bible more than 1,000 years old and described as "one of the most important and singular texts in human history" will go on show later this month, before going under the hammer.
The Codex Sassoon, dating to the late 9th to early 10th, is believed to be the earliest and most complete Hebrew Bible.
It will be on show at Sotheby's in London from February 22-28, followed by an exhibition tour to Israel and the US. It will go up for auction in New York in May, where it is expected to fetch between $30 million and $50 million.
Sharon Mintz, Sotheby's senior Judaica specialist, books and manuscripts, told CNN Wednesday that "this is the most important document to come to auction ever."
Mintz said this "astonishing record" is likely to generate huge interest from bidders. "This is the most significant document that I have ever had the pleasure of examining, researching [and] holding," she added.
The Hebrew Bible is the foundation of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Scholars have long been aware of the codex named after renowned Judaica collector David Sassoon (1880-1942), but it has remained largely out of public view, Sotheby's said in a press release Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
My question as well!
That is a very point about the dangers of woke and DIE museums.
I prefer DIE over DEI because DIE is what they are doing to civilization.
There is NO SUCH THING as "most complete." Complete is an absolute, like pregnant or perfect, either it is or it isn't. There are no 'degrees' of "complete."
Doesn't anyone hire editors anymore? Or at least qualified journalists?
The Hebrew of 1500 years ago, is indeed the Hebrew of today. Of course Hebrew in Israeli newspapers has lots of modern vocabulary, it’s still the same language. In fact the Hebrew of today, was a dead language, a lot like Latin, 130 years ago. It was purposely brought back—when Jews started moving back into Palestine—and it spread and became popular—a living language.
Hebrew saw a revision in the early Medieval period—when the form of the modern letters and punctuation were formed. Jews had stopped speaking it daily—and it became a liturgical/religious language (as occurred with Latin). Since Hebrew is a consonantal (no vowels) Jews were forgetting the vowel sounds between the consonants, so a series of dots and dashes below the letters was invented to serve as the reminders of the vowels.
Modern Bibles in Hebrew have these dots and dashes in them—helping non-native Hebrew readers know the vowels. Interestingly though, modern Hebrew in Israel (newspapers and books and such) doesn’t need the dots and dashes—since if you’re used to a language, you really don’t need to see the vowels. (f yr usd t lngg y dnt nd th vwls).
The Hebrew of Jesus’s day had different stylizing of the letters (though readable by modern Hebrew readers) but that of King David’s day (3000 years ago)... had a very different style and is difficult for modern readers to read.
Thanks for all the great info. I knew none of that.
This was especially interesting: “In fact the Hebrew of today, was a dead language, a lot like Latin, 130 years ago. It was purposely brought back—when Jews started moving back into Palestine—and it spread and became popular—a living language.”
It may end up on a special display at the Museum of the Bible in DC. I’d guess the eventual buyer may want to share it.
I thought an Old Testament was pieced together from the remnants that were found in a storage room in an ancient synagogue in Cairo.
RE:Why is she touching the pages of a 1,000 year old book with ungloved hands?
Great post. I thought the same things after working in large university libraries from 1969-2017.
Probably left off “file photo” but even so, whatever that beautiful volume is it deserves respect.
Two library stories from where I worked: The Rare Book Room librarian was bored leading a tour and pointed casually at a glass enclosure and described the book. Someone said “There’s nothing in there.” She closed her eyes and said the little talk again. Then someone made her look. The book had been stolen probably during the last tour.
Another: A man wearing gloves was reading a rare book with the librarian turning the pages and was watched by him. A few days later it was discovered the first edition had been stolen and the identical appearing lesser valued book had been substituted by the man.
Last from an article: A man was going through a public library used book sale and brought a volume to the librarian. “I don’t want the library to get cheated. This book somehow accidentally got put with the other $1 books. This is a genuine first edition, first impression Ernest Hemingway book.”
She replied, bored: “Who is Ernest Hemingway?”
Note: coworker reminded me “Surveys show nearly everyone thinks all the people they see working at a library are librarians.”
True.
Nice anecdotes. Rare books are big biz.
Yes. Very easily.
3 forms of Hebrew writing, am rusty on this but they are all easily readable. This is not a Paleo Hebrew scroll. Weird that it would be addressed as a book.
Am rusty, bring the pain. To my fellow Hebrew scholars. Shalom!
This is not always a welcome subject on FR.
It is a book, made of animal skin pages, and includes vowel markings and extra notations that look to be both printed by the scribes and added later. This was a reference or study Bible, not scrolls used for official public readings.
As an aside, as Jews slowly filtered back to the Land of Israel through the centuries, a kind of ‘pidgin Hebrew’ was used to communicate between different groups that did not share any other language, so Hebrew didn’t really die out completely. Eliezer Ben Yehuda didn’t really start from nothing in innovating modern Hebrew.
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