Bible Synapse
Leningrad Codex
Manuscript · c. AD 1008 · Bible manuscripts · also called Firkovich B 19 A
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. AD 1008 (the copying, as dated in its colophon)
- Found
- Collection of Abraham Firkovich (how he obtained it is not recorded), 1863. Copied in Fustat (Old Cairo). It later belonged to the Karaite collector Abraham Firkovich, who took it to Odessa in 1838; it passed to the Imperial Public Library in St Petersburg, where it has been since 1863.
- Now
- National Library of Russia, St Petersburg (Firkovich B 19 A)
- Passages
- Exodus 15:14–21, Deuteronomy 32:1–43
What it is
The oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, a parchment codex with vowels, accents and Masoretic notes. Its colophon dates it to about 1008 and names the scribe, Samuel ben Jacob, who wrote, pointed and annotated it in Fustat (Old Cairo), following manuscripts of Aaron ben Asher. Its decoration includes sixteen full pages of geometric ‘carpet’ designs.
How it connects to the Bible
Because it is complete and carefully made, its text is printed as the base of the standard scholarly editions of the Hebrew Bible, Biblia Hebraica (1937), Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977) and Biblia Hebraica Quinta, which are widely used by Old Testament translators. Its layout of the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32) matches the Aleppo Codex and the scribal tradition that Maimonides recorded. In the Writings it puts Chronicles first, before Psalms.