A sacred text, known as Tanakh, it comprises24 booksincluding the five books of Moses.
Jewish, Christian, andMuslim sacred textsare either derived from or influenced by this ancient text.
The binding is modern and carries Sassoon’s crest on the interior plate.
The Codex Sassoon. (Photo:Sotheby’s)
Bound within are 792 pages weighing a whopping 26 pounds.
Only 12 leaves of the text are missing.
Some portions of pages have been lost to time and new pieces stitched in, the text carefully recopied.
The Ten Commandments, as written 1,100 years ago. (Photo: screenshot viaANU – Museum of the Jewish People)
Most fascinating is the marginalia, known asMasorahnotes.
Both types ofMasorahnotes were aids to scholars and scribes replicating the Tanakh by hand.
The Sassoon Codex fills an important niche in Jewish, and human, history.
The Dead Sea Scrolls date at their latest to the first century CE.
TheAleppo Codexwhich is mentioned by the Sassoon textwas created around 930.
The book eventually came to the synagogue of Makisin in what is now Syria.
The town was destroyed sometime in the 13th or 14th century.
The Bible survived, with a note commanding it to the hands of Salama ibn Abi al-Fakhr.
He was asked to return the book after the house of worship was rebuilt.
From there, the manuscript passed on through the centuries.
The Ten Commandments, as written 1,100 years ago.
