A Precious Bible at Auction

                                                                     Codex Sassoon 

 And now for something completely different...

Sometimes I just like to nerd out on stories of artifacts and archeological discoveries related to the different religious traditions, including one about a Hebrew bible which has been in a private collection and will soon be up for auction.

 There are not many biblical manuscripts which actually date to an era close to the original written texts, which is why the Dead Sea Scrolls were so significant when they were discovered. Even older texts are copies of copies of copies and the portions are often fragments or sections of biblical books. To have a bible which is nearly intact from a thousand years ago is unique. 

Here is a description from the Washington Post:

The Codex Sassoon — named after its former owner, British collector David Solomon Sassoon — is thought to date from the late 9th or early 10th century.

It is one of only two surviving codices from that period of history that comprise “almost the entire Hebrew Bible,” Sotheby’s says. The other, known as the Aleppo Codex, dates from 930 but is missing roughly 40 percent of its pages. Carbon dating arranged by the current owner confirmed the Codex Sassoon is of a similar age, but “significantly more complete,” Sotheby’s said. The auction house believes that the Codex Sassoon is almost a century older than the earliest complete Hebrew Bible, the Leningrad Codex.

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.

There is a possibility that this bible will realized more money at auction than any other manuscript ever sold, which is cause for pause in itself. 

Now, if we could just get people to read their bibles, which are readily at hand, and take what they discover to heart. That would be priceless.