Hebrew Voices #158 – Sassoon Codex Under a Microscope

May 3, 2023

In this episode of Hebrew Voices #158, Sassoon Codex Under a Microscope, Nehemia speaks with Nelson Calvillo of the Institute for Hebrew Bible Manuscript Research about the most important Hebrew Bible manuscript in private hands, about to be sold at … Continue reading →

In this episode of Hebrew Voices #158, Sassoon Codex Under a Microscope, Nehemia speaks with Nelson Calvillo of the Institute for Hebrew Bible Manuscript Research about the most important Hebrew Bible manuscript in private hands, about to be sold at public auction. They analyze the erasure of God’s name using ultraviolet and infrared technology, show how anyone can access high-resolution photos of this priceless codex from home, and speculate about the exciting new frontiers of biblical studies.

I look forward to reading your comments!

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Hebrew Voices #158 – Sassoon Codex Under a Microscope

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Nehemia: This is space age technology; I can't believe this is real! That we're able to do these tests that scholars, not just in previous generations… scholars in this generation couldn't have dreamed of doing this type of test, and now we're doing them. It's absolutely amazing stuff!

Nehemia: Shalom and welcome to Hebrew Voices! I'm here today with Nelson Calvillo of the Institute for Hebrew Bible Manuscript Research, and we are going to be discussing the Sassoon Codex. I'm excited, Nelson!

Nelson: Shalom, Nehemia. I am super excited! Thank you so much for having me on to discuss this amazing manuscript.

Nehemia: So, why don't you start by introducing to the audience what the Sassoon Codex is.

Nelson: Okay. So, the Sassoon Codex is a manuscript that Nehemia has talked about quite a bit in the past. Nehemia, whenever you talk about Masoretic manuscripts you mention what are called “the Big Six”, the most important six manuscripts of the Masoretic tradition and of the Hebrew Bible. And Codex Sassoon, which is also referred to in scholarship as Sassoon 1053, is one of the earliest extant biblical manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and of the Masoretic tradition. It’s within the same realm of the famous Aleppo Codex.

Nehemia: And actually, there's a reference to a manuscript that's called… about a thousand years ago, eight, nine hundred years ago, it's referred to as “The Brother of the Crown” in one of the documents from the Cairo Genizah. And there's a theory that Sassoon 1053, or the Sassoon Codex, is the Brother of the Crown. One of the things that seems to point to that is… at the very least we can say that the scribe that wrote notes in some of the margins of the Sassoon Codex used the Aleppo Codex. The Aleppo Codex in its day was considered the most accurate copy of the Bible. It was completed around the year 925 in Tiberias by the master scribe Aaron Ben Asher, and in the Sassoon Codex… I'm going to pull this up here on the screen…

Actually, before we get to that, I had the opportunity in 2019 to examine the Sassoon Codex myself. I spent four days there with Professor Yosef Ofer of Bar Ilan University and Dr. Neriah Klein of the Hebrew University Bible Project. This is a miracle for me because I had been looking for this codex for years.