The Codex Cairensis (also: ''Codex Prophetarum Cairensis'', ''Cairo Codex of the Prophets'') is a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

manuscript 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 ...

containing the complete text of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Nevi'im The (; ) is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the () and (). The Nevi'im are divided into two groups. The Former Prophets ( ) consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings ...

(Prophets). It has traditionally been described as "the oldest dated Hebrew Codex of the Bible which has come down to us", but modern research seems to indicate an 11th-century date rather than the 895 CE date written into its colophon. It contains the books of the Former Prophets (

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

, Judges,

Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

, and Kings) and Latter Prophets (

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "Yahweh is salvation"; also known as Isaias or Esaias from ) was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet" ...

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...

and the book of the

Twelve Minor Prophets The Twelve Minor Prophets (, ''Shneim Asar''; , ''Trei Asar'', "Twelve"; , "the Twelve Prophets"; , "the Twelve Prophets"), or the Book of the Twelve, is a collection of twelve prophetic works traditionally attributed to individual prophets, like ...

). It comprises 575 pages including 13

carpet page A carpet page is a full page in an illuminated manuscript containing intricate, non-figurative, patterned designs.Moss, 57 They are a characteristic feature of Insular manuscripts, and typically placed at the beginning of a Gospel Book. Carpet ...

History

According to its colophon, it was written complete with

niqqud In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Ea ...

by Moses ben Asher 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 ...

"at the end of the year 827 after the

destruction of the second temple The siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), a major rebellion against Roman rule in the province of Judaea. Led by Titus, Roman forces besieged the Jewish capital, which had become ...

" (this corresponds to the year 895 CE, during the reign of the

Abbasid caliph The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The family came ...

al-Mu'tadid Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥa ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn (), 853/4 or 860/1 – 5 April 902, better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaḍid bi-llāh (), was the caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from 892 until his death ...

). It was given as a present to the Karaite community in

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 ...

and later looted by the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

in 1099. It was redeemed and came into the possession of the Karaite community 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 ...

. When the Karaite Jews left Egypt, they deposited the codex in 1983 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. ...

, where it is kept in a secure room on the floor below the Hebrew Manuscript collection.column by Jerusalem Post columnist and editor J. Zel Luri

/ref> The Codex was brought back to Jerusalem by a committee of six persons.

Scientific evaluation

Although according to its colophon the codex was written by a member of the Ben Asher family, Lazar Lipschütz and others observed that, within the masoretic tradition, Codex Cairensis seems to be closer to

ben Naphtali Ben Naphtali () was a rabbi and Masoretes, Masorete who flourished around 890-940 CE, probably in Tiberias. Of his life little is known. His first name is in dispute. Some medieval authorities called him "Jacob"; two Chufut-Kale manuscripts have " ...

than to

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 ...

. While some scholars consider this to be an argument against its authenticity,

Moshe Goshen-Gottstein Moshe Goshen-Gottstein (; 6 September 1925 – 14 September 1991) was a German-born professor of Semitic linguistics and biblical philology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and director of the lexicographical institute and Biblical rese ...

assumed that ben Naphtali stuck more faithfully to the system of Moses ben Asher than the latter's own son, Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, who corrected the

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. ...

and added its punctuation. More recently, further doubts on its authenticity have been cast 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 ...

and other scientific techniques. It was stated, after scientific investigation, that the

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

must have been a different person from the vocaliser, and the manuscript must be dated to the 11th century, not the 9th.The Hebrew University Bible Project: Ezekiel, p.xli, note 116: "It was recently proven that the scribe and the ''naqdan'' (vocaliser) of the Cairo Prophets codex cannot be identified as Moshe Ben-Asher, and cannot be dated to 895 but rather to the 11th century CE. Cf. M. Beit-Arié et al., ''Codices Hebraicis litteris exarati quo tempore scripti fuerint exhibentes'' (Monumenta palaeographica medii aevi. Series Hebraica; Paris/Jerusalem: Brepols, 1997) 25-29; D. Lyons, ''The Cumulative Masora: Text, Form and Transmission'' (Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Press, 1999 7 (Hebrew).

Umberto Cassuto Umberto Cassuto, also known as Moshe David Cassuto (16 September 1883 – 19 December 1951), was an Italian historian, a rabbi, and a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and Ugaritic literature, in the University of Florence, then at the University ...

relied heavily on this codex when producing his edition of 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 ...

, which means that in the Prophets his edition is closer to the ben Naphtali tradition than in the Torah or Writings. Between 1979 and 1992 an ''

editio princeps In Textual scholarship, textual and classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts. These had to be copied by han ...

'' of the codex (text and masorahs) was published by a team of Spanish scholars. See F. Pérez Castro et alia, ''El Códice de Profetas de El Cairo, Textos y Estudios "Cardenal Cisneros"'', CSIC, 8 vols., Madrid 1979-92.

Notes

Sources

* Ernst Würthwein, Der Text des Alten Testaments, Stuttgart 1974 (4th edition), * The Hebrew University Bible Project: Ezekiel, ed. Shemaryahu Talmon; pub. The Hebrew University Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 2004; * Israel Yeivin, trans. E. J. Revell: Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah 1980, * ASIN: B0024YG33S

External links

*{{usurped,
Facsimile edition
}, Jerusalem 1971 9th-century biblical manuscripts Hebrew Bible manuscripts Jewish Egyptian history Karaite Judaism in the Middle East

History

Scientific evaluation

See also

Notes

Sources

External links