Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus (or The Petersburg Codex of the Prophets), designated by Vp, is an old
Masoretic
The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...
Babylonian vocalization
The Babylonian vocalization, also known as Babylonian supralinear punctuation, or Babylonian pointing or Babylonian niqqud Hebrew: ) is a system of diacritics (niqqud) and vowel symbols assigned above the text and devised by the Masoretes of Ba ...
. This
codex
The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
contains the books of
Isaiah
Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...
,
Jeremiah
Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning "Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewis ...
,
Ezekiel
Ezekiel (; he, יְחֶזְקֵאל ''Yəḥezqēʾl'' ; in the Septuagint written in grc-koi, Ἰεζεκιήλ ) is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible.
In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ezekiel is ac ...
The codex consists of 225 folios, with each folio divided lengthwise into two columns with 21 lines in each column, except in folio 1a and folio 224a-b, which exhibit epigraphs. Two lines of Masorah Magna are placed in the lower margin of each page, whereas the Masorah Parva appear in the center space between the columns. The vowel-points are superlinear following the so-called Babylonian system.
The characters are square, written with a reed using 'thick and shiny' ink.Margoliouth, G "The Oldest MS. of the Hebrew Bible" ''The Academy''. April 2, 1892, No. 1039, pp. 328-329. The left side of a column is irregular, as the scribe didn't use elongated letters. The scribe provides the verse divisions using two perpendicular dots.
It was discovered in 1839 by Abraham Firkowitsch, who claimed to find it in the synagogue of Chufut-Kale in the
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...
. It is currently housed at the
National Library of Russia
The National Library of Russia (NLR, russian: Российская национальная библиотека}), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked amo ...
in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
.
The date of the manuscript (A.D. 916) appears in the colophon. This manuscript is valuable not only due to its age (as one of the oldest Hebrew Bible manuscripts), but also because it is an important witness to the Babylonian pointing system, which was unknown to scholars for centuries until its discovery. Comparative studies with contemporary manuscripts showed that the codex uses the Eastern signs yet actually "follows the Western tradition in its consonantal text and its pointing." It is first published by H. L. Strack in 1876 (in a facsimile edition) and annotated for print editions, among others, in 1971 (hardcover).Strack, Hermann L. (Editor). "The Hebrew Bible — Latter Prophets: The Babylonian Codex of Petrograd". Edited with Preface and Critical Annotations. Prolegomenon by P. Wernberg-Møller. ''Ktav Publishing House'', 1971. . In Hebrew.
See also
*
Aleppo Codex
The Aleppo Codex ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the ...
Leningrad Codex
The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its coloph ...