World’s Oldest Near-Complete Hebrew Bible Returns to Israel to Be on Permanent Display

Shiryn Ghermezian

The Codex Sassoon. Photo: Sotheby’s

The Codex Sassoon, the world’s oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible, arrived in Israel on Thursday, after being sold at auction for $38.1 million in May, and will become part of a permanent collection at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

“The codex, which originated in this area over a thousand years ago, is finally coming home,” Irina Nevzlin, chair of ANU’s board of directors, told The Algemeiner. “Giving a permanent home to the earliest, most complete Hebrew Bible and making it available to millions of people meshes perfectly with our mission to offer visitors a fundamental connection to their roots — something that makes everyone stronger and more resilient.”

The Codex Sassoon, which is over 1,100 years old and dates back to circa 900 CE, consists of all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, handwritten on 792 pages that are made from sheepskins weighing about 26 pounds. It is only missing roughly eight pages. The 24 books are divided into three sections: Torah (Pentateuch), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).

Unlike traditional Torah scrolls, the Codex Sassoon includes vocalization, punctuation, and cantillation marks. In the margins and between the columns are also notes about how the text should be written and pronounced. Based on examination, it was produced in the region of Israel and Syria, according to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People.

The bible is named after its previous owner, the late Judaica collector David Solomon Sassoon, who died in 1942. 

Sassoon’s descendants sold items from his Judaica collection during the 1970s, and the British Rail Pension Fund bought the Codex Sassoon in 1978. The bible was then deposited with the British Library in London in late 1982 to be included in an exhibition of Hebrew manuscripts from the Sassoon Collection, but it was displayed publicly only once. In 1989, the codex was once again sold and purchased by Syrian businessman and investor Jacob (Jacqui) Safra of Geneva.

It is “the earliest surviving example of a single codex containing all the books of the Hebrew Bible with their punctuation, vowels, and accents,” according to Sotheby’s, which auctioned the prized item earlier this year in New York. The Codex Sassoon was purchased for $38.1 million by former US Ambassador to Romania Alfred H. Moses, who is also chairman of the ANU Museum of the Jewish People’s International Board of Honor. He donated it to the museum and the sale broke the record as the most expensive ancient book ever sold at an auction. The Codex Sasson was on display in New York for a short-term exhibit before the auction.

“It was my mission, realizing the historic significance of Codex Sassoon, to see that it resides in a place with global access to all people. In my heart and mind that place was the land of Israel, the cradle of Judaism, where the Hebrew Bible was originated,” Moses said at the time. “In Israel at ANU, it will be preserved for generations to come as the centerpiece and gem of the entire and extensive display and presence of the Jewish story.”

The Codex Sassoon will go on display at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People starting on Oct. 11.