A Hebrew Bible manuscript is a handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

(some of the biblical text and notations may be in

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

). The oldest manuscripts were written in a form of scroll, the medieval manuscripts usually were written in a form of

codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

. The late manuscripts written after the 9th century use the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

. The important manuscripts are associated with Aaron ben Asher (especially Leningrad/Petrograd Codex). The earliest sources (whether oral or written) of the Hebrew Bible disappeared over time because of the fragility of media, wars (especially the destruction of the First and

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

) and other intentional destructions. As a result, the lapse of time between the original manuscripts and their surviving copies is much longer than in the case of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...

. The first list of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

manuscripts in Hebrew, made by Benjamin Kennicott (1718–1783) and published by Oxford in two volumes in 1776 and 1780, listed 615 manuscripts from libraries in England and on the continent. Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi (1742–1831) published a list of 731 manuscripts. The main manuscript discoveries in modern times are those of the

Cairo Geniza The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled the Cairo Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Judaism, Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the ''genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra ...

(c. 1890) and the Dead Sea/Qumran Caves Scrolls (1947). 260,000 Hebrew manuscripts were discovered in an old synagogue in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, 10,000 of which are biblical manuscripts. There are more than 200 biblical manuscripts among the Dead Sea/Qumran Caves Scrolls, some of them were written in the

Paleo-Hebrew alphabet The Paleo-Hebrew script (), also Palaeo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew, from southern Canaan, also known as the biblical kingdoms ...

. They were written before 70 CE. 14 scroll manuscripts were discovered in

Masada Masada ( ', 'fortress'; ) is a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert, overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea in southeastern Israel. The fort, built in the first century BCE, was constructed atop a natural plateau rising ov ...

in 1963–1965. The largest organized collection of Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts in the world is housed in the

Russian National Library The National Library of Russia (NLR, , ''РНБ''), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked among the world's major libraries. It has the second biggest libr ...

( "Second Firkovitch Collection") in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The Leningrad/Petrograd Codex (c. 1008-1010) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew. The Leningrad/Petrograd codex is the manuscript upon which the Old Testament of most modern English translations of the Bible are based. Manuscripts earlier than the 13th century are very rare. The majority of the manuscripts have survived in a fragmentary condition. The oldest complete

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

scroll still in use has been carbon-dated to around 1250 and is owned by the Jewish community of the northern Italian town of

Biella Biella (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the northern Italy, Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the Province of Biella, province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of ...

Masorah manuscripts

Proto-Masoretic from Second Temple period (1st century)

* Severus Scroll (named for the Roman Emperor who restored this scroll, reportedly seized from the Temple in Jerusalem, to the Jewish community in 220), a lost manuscript of early 1st century CE, only a few sentences are preserved by

Rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...

Proto-Masoretic from "Silent Period" (2nd–10th century)

* Codex Hilleli, a lost manuscript of circa 600 CE, destroyed in 1197 in Spain, only a few sentences are preserved by Rabbinic literature * Codex Muggeh (or Muga; ="corrected"), lost, cited as a source in Masoretic notations.

Masoretic (8th–10th century)

* Ben Asher Manuscripts, including several of those listed here-below (see Kahle) * The London Manuscript and the Ashkar-Gilson Manuscript, the latter also known as the "Ashkar-Gilson Hebrew Manuscript #2", both from the same scroll, dated to the 7th or 8th century. The extant fragments cover Exodus 9:18–13:2 and 13:19–16:1. * Codex Orientales 4445, also known as "London Codex" in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, London, containing Genesis-Deuteronomy 1:33 (less Numbers 7:47–73 and Numbers 9:12–10:18).Manuscript written by two different scribes, the older square script believed to be from the 10th century, whereas the newer Yemenite square script was written in the 16th century. See the British Library
Or. 4445
. and dated by colophon to 920-950 CE. *

Codex Cairensis The Codex Cairensis (also: ''Codex Prophetarum Cairensis'', ''Cairo Codex of the Prophets'') is a Hebrew manuscript containing the complete text of the Hebrew Bible's Nevi'im (Prophets). It has traditionally been described as "the oldest dated He ...

(Prophets), pointed by Moses Ben Asher, dated by a colophon 895 CE, contradicted by

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...

, which indicated an 11th-century date. It is the oldest manuscript bearing the date of its writing; written in

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

, subsequently was in

, now deposited at

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. * Codex Sassoon 1053, 9th or 10th century, from the collection of David Solomon Sassoon, now in the ANU - Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. (missing first 10 pages of Genesis) *

Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus (or The Petersburg Codex of the Prophets), designated by Vp, is an old Masoretic manuscript of Hebrew Bible, especially the Latter Prophets, using Babylonian vocalization. This codex contains the books of Isaiah ...

(Latter Prophets), dated 916 CE,

* Pentateuch of 929 (Torah) dated 929 CE,

. *

Aleppo Codex The Aleppo Codex () 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 rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. ...

, 930 CE, written in

, now deposited at

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

(exhibited in the Shrine of the Book, the Codex was complete, supposedly pointed by

Aaron ben Moses ben Asher Aaron ben Moses ben Asher (; 10th century, died c. 960) was a sofer (Jewish scribe) who lived in Tiberias. He perfected the Tiberian system of writing vowel sounds in Hebrew. The system is still in use today, serving as the basis for grammatic ...

, partially missing since 1958); this manuscript is the basis of the ''

Jerusalem Crown The Jerusalem Crown ( Keter Yerushalayim) is a printed edition of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) printed in Jerusalem in 2001, and based on a manuscript commonly known as the Aleppo Crown). The printed text consists of 874 pages of the Hebrew Bi ...

'' bible. * Leningrad/Petrograd Codex (complete), copied from a Ben Asher manuscript, dated 1008 CE, written in

, now deposited at

; this manuscript is the basis of the ''

Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, abbreviated as BHS or rarely BH4, is an edition of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible as preserved in the Leningrad Codex, and supplemented by masoretic and text-critical notes. It is the fourth edition in ...

'' and other editions and is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew. * Michigan Codex (Torah), 10th century * Damascus Pentateuch, 10th century * First Gaster Bible in the

, 10th century

Later (11th–17th century)

* Codex Yerushalmi, lost, reportedly used in Spain (circa 1010) by

Jonah ibn Janah Jonah ibn Janah () or Abū al-Walīd Marwān ibn Janāḥ (), (), was a Jewish rabbi, physician and Hebrew grammarian active in al-Andalus (Muslim-ruled Spain). Born in Córdoba, ibn Janah was mentored there by Isaac ibn Gikatilla and Isaac ibn ...

. * Codex Reuchlinanus (Prophets), dated 1105 CE. * Bologna Torah Scroll/Scroll 2, dated CE 1155–1255, University of Bologna Library * Ms. Eb. 448 of the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

, with

Targum Onkelos Interlinear text of Hebrew Numbers 6.3–10 with British_Library.html" ;"title="Aramaic Targum Onkelos from the British Library">Aramaic Targum Onkelos from the British Library. Targum Onkelos (or Onqelos; , ''Targūm ’Unqəlōs'') is t ...

, dated 11–12 century * Second Gaster Bible in the

, 11th–12th centuries * Braginsky Collection Codex Hilleli copy, 1241 Toledo, Spain (housed at Jewish Theological Seminary, New York) * Damascus Crown, written in Spain in 1260. * Madrid Manuscript BH Mss1, called also Madrid Codex M^M1 (Masoretic Madrid Codex 1) or simply M1 (Madrid 1). A manuscript of the entire Hebrew Bible from around 1280 A.D. bought in Toledo (Spain). It is also known to be the manuscript used for the Complutensian Polyglot Bible. * Cloisters Hebrew Bible; 1300–1350 CE, before 1366; earliest owner named David ha-Kohen Coutinh on

Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah (, , ) is the New Year in Judaism. The Hebrew Bible, biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , ). It is the first of the High Holy Days (, , 'Days of Awe"), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25, that occur in the late summe ...

in 1366; owned by Zaradel Synagogue in Egypt. Acquired by the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in 2018 under

The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights, Manhattan, Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art ...

Collection. * Farhi Bible, written by Elisha Crescas in

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

between 1366 and 1383. Purchased by David Solomon Sassoon in 1913 in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, Syria. * Rashba Bible, completed in 1383 * Erfurt Codices (complete, Berlin), E1 circa 14th century, E2 possibly 13th century, E3 possibly 11th century * Codex Jericho (Pentateuch), lost, cited in the notes to a Massoretic manuscript written circa 1310. * Al-Ousta Codex, 14th century. Now at the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...

in Paris. * Merwas Bible (14th century) * Codex Ezra, lost, C.D. Ginsburg owned a manuscript written in 1474 which purported to have been copied from this. * Kennicott Bible, completed by Moses ibn Zabarah in

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

, Spain in 1476 and now in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

, Oxford, with exact facsimiles held by several libraries. * Lisbon Bible, copied in 1483 in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, Portugal, the most accomplished codex of the Portuguese school of medieval Hebrew illumination and now in the

. * Codex Sinai, mentioned in Massoretic notes and reportedly used by

Elia Levita Elia Levita (13 February 146928 January 1549) (), also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Élie Lévita, Elia Levita Ashkenazi, Eliahu Levita, Eliyahu haBahur ("Elijah the Bachelor"), Elye Bokher, was a Renaissance Hebrew grammarian, schol ...

(circa 1540). * MS. de Rossi 782, copied in Toledo Spain in 1277. * Codex Sanbuki (named for Zambuqi, on the Tigris River), lost, frequently quoted in Massoretic annotations and apparently seen (circa 1600) by Menahem Lonzano. * Codex Great Mahzor, lost, mentioned in Massoretic notes (the title suggests that this codex contained only the Pentateuch and those selections from the Prophets that were read during the liturgical year)

Modern discoveries

Ketef Hinnom scrolls The Ketef Hinnom scrolls, also described as Ketef Hinnom amulets, are the oldest surviving texts currently known from the Hebrew Bible, dated to 600 BCE. The text, written in the Paleo-Hebrew script (not the Babylonian square letters Hebrew alpha ...

, late 7th or early 6th century BCE, placing them in the First Temple period. Found containing material from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, including the Priestly Blessing, alongside other otherwise unknown material on small rolled silver scrolls * Nash Papyrus, dated to the 2nd BCE – 1st CE. A liturgy, potentially a Mezuzah, found with the 10 Commandments followed by the Shema; it is most similar to the LXX * A wine-jar seal held in the Chicago University’s collection quotes Jeremiah 48:11 as a reference to the quality of the wine contained therein. It likely dates to between the Dead Sea/Qumran Caves Scrolls and the major Masoretic texts *

En-Gedi Scroll The En-Gedi Scroll, also called the En-Gedi Leviticus Scroll (EGLev) is an ancient Hebrew parchment found in 1970 at Ein Gedi, Israel. Radiocarbon testing dates the scroll to the third or fourth century CE (88.9% certainty for 210–390 CE), alth ...

, fragment of Hebrew parchment dated to 2nd century CE, discovered in 1970 containing portions of the first two chapters of Leviticus *

fragments contains portions of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew and Aramaic, discovered in Cairo synagogue, which date from about 4th century CE on

Dead Sea Scrolls

Dated Between 250 BCE and 70 CE.Timothy Lim, ''The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford University Press, 2005, ''Dating the Scrolls''

/ref> *

Isaiah scroll The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QIsaa and also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1947 from Qumran List of manuscripts from Qumran Cave 1, Cave 1. The scroll i ...

, 1Qlsa, contains almost the complete text of the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...

* 4Q17 (portions Exodus and Leviticus dated to 250BCE) * 4Q22 (fragments of Genesis and Exodus written in Paleo-Hebrew Script) * 11QpaleoLev (fragments of Leviticus written in Paleo-Hebrew, recovered from the 11th cave) * 4QDeutⁿ, contains the

Decalogue The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten C ...

. * 4Q106 * 4Q107 * 4Q108 * 4Q240 * 6Q6

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

The London Codex (Or. 4445) and other MSS.
from the

holdings
Dea Sea Scrolls Digital Library: Biblical compositions (218)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hebrew Bible manuscripts Hebrew Bible manuscripts, Old Testament-related lists Hebrew manuscripts Textual scholarship Lists of manuscripts

Masorah manuscripts

Proto-Masoretic from Second Temple period (1st century)

Proto-Masoretic from "Silent Period" (2nd–10th century)

Masoretic (8th–10th century)

Later (11th–17th century)

Modern discoveries

Dead Sea Scrolls

Qumran Cave 1

Qumran Cave 2

Qumran Cave 3

Qumran Cave 4

Qumran Cave 5

Qumran Cave 6

Qumran Cave 7

Qumran Cave 8

Qumran Cave 11

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links