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Hebrew Bible (Iraq) | MS 1630

HEBREW BIBLE (NEAR EAST)

MS 1630
MS Short Title HEBREW BIBLE
Text
  1. BIBLE: AMOS 5:7 - 9:8
  2. BIBLE: ZECHARIAH 13:7 - 14:21
  3. BIBLE: MALACHI 1:1 - 2:10
Description MS in Hebrew on vellum, Near East, ca. 1000, 4 ff., 40x35 cm, 3 columns, (27x25 cm), 22 lines in a large formal oriental square Hebrew book script with nikud (vowel points), Masora Magna in upper and lower margins, and Masora parva in outer margins.
Binding Barking, Essex, 1996, red cloth gilt folding case by Aquarius.
Context The most similar dated MS is the Codex Ben-Asher (MS Cairo, Karaite Synagogue), dated Tiberias 895, now proved to be wrong, the MS probably is 10th c. or ca. 1000.
Provenance 1. Quaritch, London.
Commentary

These leaves are contemporary with the Leningrad Codex, dated 1009, which is the main MS used for the text of the Old Testament of our Bible today. It is the oldest complete Old Testament MS extant, and, like the present 4 ff., textually of the highest class, following the Masoretic tradition closely.

Very unusually the present MS spells in one case the Holy Name with 4 dots surmounted with 4 yods, i.e. it is not to be pronounced. The use of 4 dots without Yods is attested in a few Dead Sea Scrolls, such as IQS, col. 8, line 14. In the remaining cases it actually vocalizes the Holy Name.
Exhibited  XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Library of Law Faculty, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.
Place of origin Near East
Dates ca 1000 AD